France and the German Question, 19451990

In the immediate aftermath of World War Two, the victors were unable to agree on Germanys fate, and the separation of the countrythe result of the nascent Cold Waremerged as a de facto, if provisional, settlement. Yet East and West Germany would exist apart for half a century, making the "German question" a central foreign policy issueand given the war-torn history between the two countries, this was felt no more keenly than in France. Drawing on the most recent historiography and previously untapped archival sources, this volume shows how Frances approach to the German question was, for the duration of the Cold War, both more constructive and consequential than has been previously acknowledged.