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Abstract

In the autumn of 1989, did François Mitterrand want to block, brake or accompany German reunification? A German political scientist, Thilo Schabert, has just put out a book which proposes to correct the 'myth' of a French President who was reserved, even hostile, on the subject of German unity. By relying on interviews that were conducted in the Elysée palace in 1995 and on previously inaccessible French archives, he supports the view that François Mitterrand’s overwhelming preoccupation was to link the 'German question' to progress in European integration. The Germans, for their part, published some years ago Chancellery archives that showed, on the contrary, a lukewarm French President on reunification and which painted Chancellor Helmut Kohl as a great European. Comparing these sources and applying a critical examination to French and German documents leads to a more nuanced appreciation of links between the two statesmen and between the two states at a crucial time in their common history. This article follows several leads.

Daniel Vernet is the Director of International Relations of the daily French paper Le Monde.
This text is published in French only (original title: 'François Mitterrand, l'Europe et la réunification allemande'.)