Leaders of France and Germany in poignant show of unity 100 years after WW1

[rooster59]

Leaders of France and Germany in poignant show of unity 100 years after WW1

By Michaela Cabrera

 

French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel stand together in the Clairiere of Rethondes during a commemoration ceremony for Armistice Day, 100 years after the end of the First World War, in Compiegne, France, November 10, 2018. REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer/Pool

 

COMPIEGNE, France (Reuters) - One hundred years after the guns of World War One fell silent, the leaders of France and Germany held hands and rested their heads against one another in a poignant ceremony to mark the signing of the Armistice peace agreement.

 

President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel inspected troops from a joint Franco-German Brigade before unveiling a plaque paying tribute to the reconciliation and renewed friendship between the foes of two world wars.

 

More than 3 million French and German troops were among an estimated 10 million soldiers who died in the Great War of 1914-1918. Much of the heaviest fighting was in trenches in northern France and Belgium.

 

A German delegation signed the Armistice before sunrise on Nov 11, 1918, in a private train belonging to the commander of French forces, Ferdinand Foch, parked on rail track running through the Compiegne Forest. Hours later, at 11.00 a.m., the war ended.

 

"Europe has been at peace for 73 years. It is at peace because we want it to be, because Germany and France want peace," Macron told several youngsters, with Merkel at his side, referring to the peace since the end of World War Two in 1945.

 

"And so the message, if we want to live up to the sacrifice of those soldiers who said 'Never again!', is to never yield to our weakest instincts, nor to efforts to divide us."

 

Merkel said she was moved by the ceremony and described Macron's invitation as a "very symbolic gesture."

 

In a powerful show of unity, Macron and Merkel sat inside the reconstructed teak-lined rail wagon in which the peace charter was signed and looked through a book of remembrance. After each signed the book, they held hands a second time.

 

CLOSER EUROPE

 

The last time French and German delegations had sat in the same place was when Nazi Germany's Adolf Hitler forced the surrender of French authorities after invading in 1940.

 

Since World War Two, France and Germany have driven tighter European cooperation and the European Union has become the world's largest trading bloc.

 

Macron, 40, an ardent defender of a closer Europe, has turned to Merkel to help him forge deeper economic integration within the EU's single currency bloc, as well as more collaboration on matters such as defence and immigration.

 

For years, Merkel, 64, had waited for a French leader with Macron's zest for Europe. But the fragility of her governing coalition and her own weakened leadership, as well as misgivings over aspects of Macron's vision for renewal, have meant she has not moved as quickly as Macron would have liked.

 

This past week, the French leader has toured sites that once lay along the western front, from the battlefields of Verdun in the east to the imposing Thiepval memorial overlooking the Somme valley. There, he and British Prime Minister Theresa May together laid a wreath on Friday.

 

Along the way, he has warned of the rising threat to Europe posed by a resurgence in nationalism.

 

"Nationalism is rising across Europe, the nationalism that demands the closing of frontiers, which preaches rejection of the other," he said in a radio interview on Tuesday. "It is playing on fears, everywhere. Europe is increasingly fractured.”

 

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-11-11

[Odysseus123]

They held a very simple ceremony at our cenotaph this morning.

 

Very touching in its gravitas..

 

A dedication to the men and women in the local area who went away to the wars.

 

The last Post.

1 minutes silence.

Reveille

Flanders Fields

Then the laying of poppies by the public..

For the Fallen.

 

Lest We Forget.

 

Good on Ms Merkel and Mr Macron.

 

[Opl]

 "Opening his newspaper on May 5, 1921, cigar salesman Ben Kaufman was in for a shock. The U.S. government released a list of slackers, or men who had dodged the draft in the First World War. Not Kaufman. The amateur bounty hunters would regret trying to mess with him. And he had some show-and-tell to lug to the military office—his Congressional Medal of Honor, one of the first in the war to have been received by a Jewish soldier. With his medal came a remarkable story of heroism that sounded almost too outlandish to be true."

https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-jewish-boxer-who-helped-the-allies-turn-the-tide-of-world-war-i?ref=home

 

[Opl]

"At the time of the first world war, all western powers upheld a racial hierarchy built around a shared project of territorial expansion. In 1917, the US president, Woodrow Wilson, baldly stated his intention, “to keep the white race strong against the yellow” and to preserve “white civilisation and its domination of the planet. Eugenicist ideas of racial selection were everywhere in the mainstream, and the anxiety expressed in papers like the Daily Mail, which worried about white women coming into contact with “natives who are worse than brutes when their passions are aroused”, was widely shared across the west. ”

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/nov/10/how-colonial-violence-came-home-the-ugly-truth-of-the-first-world-war

 

[Aforek]

27 minutes ago, hansnl said:

Western leaders unity?

Really?

Where was the British representative then?

Or was it to show that France and Germany are now the boss in Europe, now that Britain decided on Brexit?

Now nothing stands in the path of a fourth Reich.

All those fallen in WW1 and WW2, have they fall in in vain?

British are not forgotten

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/11/09/may-macron-pay-tribute-ww1-soldiers/

[Odysseus123]

Why Trump?

 

It is 'Armistice Day' thank you very much.

 

Alistair Horne in his superb book 'The Price of Glory'' adds a postcript where a German Nato general travelling thru' eastern France is suddenly confronted by a whole mass of ancient stahlhelms..and pauses to reflect on the useless waste of it all..

 

And this is a small Australian country town.

 

 

 

 

[Basil B]

Please excuse us Brits for not fully engaging in the events in Europe to mark the centenary of the end of WW1. but our royal family and senior politicians will be doing what they do on the Sunday closest to 11th day of November every year.  

[Odysseus123]

8 minutes ago, vogie said:

This is about as the OP says "Leaders of France and Germany in poignant show of unity 100 years after WW1" I personally don't think that opening this topic up to a bickering fest is appropiate on Armastice day. RIP to all the fallen.

Thank you.

[Odysseus123]

25 minutes ago, Basil B said:

Please excuse us Brits for not fully engaging in the events in Europe to mark the centenary of the end of WW1. but our royal family and senior politicians will be doing what they do on the Sunday closest to 11th day of November every year.  

The Brits are FULLY ENGAGING in the cermonies commemorating  the events of the Great War.

 

To say otherwise is tawdry,mendacious and disrespectful of the dead in pursuit of a present day tacky political aim..but then..tackiness (shoddy) is a hallmark of the present day,is it not?

 

Have some respect.

[Basil B]

36 minutes ago, Odysseus123 said:

The Brits are FULLY ENGAGING in the cermonies commemorating  the events of the Great War.

 

To say otherwise is tawdry,mendacious and disrespectful of the dead in pursuit of a present day tacky political aim..but then..tackiness (shoddy) is a hallmark of the present day,is it not?

 

Have some respect.

Maybe your comments should have been directed at the post #13...

 

My post was satirical, of course our royals have been busy visiting and commemorating centenary events of WW1 for over the  last 4 years.

   

[Odysseus123]

1 minute ago, Basil B said:

Maybe your comments should have been directed at the post #13...

 

My post was satirical, of course our royals have been busy visiting and commemorating centenary events of WW1 for over the  last 4 years.

   

Sure..

 

Not only royals..

 

But here we go.

 

 

[bipper]

 

[Ron19]

Off topic post removed.

[Ron19]

A number of bickering off topic troll posts have been removed.

[AhFarangJa]

54 minutes ago, bipper said:

 

 I hold my hand up and admit that I cried all the way through that video. My Grandfather lost a lung to mustard gas in the trenches, and he also lost a brother. My Mother lost a brother in the Battle of Britain. I lost a Brother to the conflict in Northern Ireland. The lyrics are so poignant, especially when you remember how many young men faked their ages to go and fight. I for one hope Remembrance day never fades, alas it is sad that so many still see war as the only course of action, such a waste.

Many thanks for your post, and may your remembrance day be a peaceful one.

AFJ. 

 

[Basil B]

2 hours ago, Basil B said:

Maybe your comments should have been directed at the post #13...

Post #13 has been removed, not being able to quote word for word, but basically as I read it the poster questioned the absence of the British Royals and senior dignitaries in France this weekend.

 

The reason is like most nations we annually commemorate those who gave their all for their country, in the UK it is Remembrance Sunday where every year we commemorate those who died in all wars and conflicts, last night saw the annual "Remembrance Concert at the Royal Albert Hall", and today we will see the laying of wreaths at the Cenotaph in Whitehall, it is no coincidence this falls on the nearest Sunday to Armistice Day as this originates from King George V call in 1919 for a 2 minute silence at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month to honor those who gave their lives for their country.

 

 

[Odysseus123]

10 minutes ago, Basil B said:

Post #13 has been removed, not being able to quote word for word, but basically as I read it the poster questioned the absence of the British Royals and senior dignitaries in France this weekend.

 

The reason is like most nations we annually commemorate those who gave their all for their country, in the UK it is Remembrance Sunday where every year we commemorate those who died in all wars and conflicts, last night saw the annual "Remembrance Concert at the Royal Albert Hall", and today we will see the laying of wreaths at the Cenotaph in Whitehall, it is no coincidence this falls on the nearest Sunday to Armistice Day as this originates from King George V call in 1919 for a 2 minute silence at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month to honor those who gave their lives for their country.

 

 

Far enough-and a full and frank apology from me-as I did not see post 3 and therefore did not realize that you were replying to someone else.

[Grouse]

https://www.amazon.com/Sleepwalkers-How-Europe-Went-1914/dp/0061146668

 

As I say, don't forget the causes of this totally avoidable war. 

 

The current rise in nationalism makes this centenary particularly apposit

[wabothai]

All those 'so called' leader's gettogether to commerorate 'the war-to-end-all wars' could end the war in Yemen today.

The infamous prince shines in absence, while the orange one keeps selling weaponry.

Tears in my eyes, when I visited the graves in Verdun.

 

[Basil B]

Quote

The Kingdom of Siam, now known as Thailand, is possibly one of the least well-known participants in World War I. Siam fought against the Central Powers by an active contribution, whatever the actual military value, to one of the most gruelling and critical campaigns of the war. It sent an Expeditionary Force dispatched to France, to serve on the Western Front

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siam_in_World_War_I

 

[observer90210]

And meanwhile, Mr Trump cancelled his presence in Paris, for a ceremony at a cemetery for the American War Dead, due to the rain !!

 

https://globalnews.ca/news/4651220/trump-cemetery-visit-cancelled-rain/

 

...perhaps his Missus insisted in wanting to go around shopping in gay Paree !??!!

 

(With respectful memories and rembrance to all the victims of WW1 and WW2)

[Tug]

Let’s try not to let this happen again let us build bridges not walls to see the French and Germans together is a fine example of what we must aspire to do every day we must rid ourselves of nationalism in our modern era it’s just not possible the world is to small to the fallen I would say I’m sorry you had to pay for your leaders shortcomings but my profound thanks just the same

[Grouse]

Macron has just said nationalism is treason in a warning about the current rise of nationalist leaders.

 

This is not off topic

 

How many war desd are required before we learn these lessons?

[Opl]

cf Basil B's post above #20

siamese soldiers (voluntarily enlisted)  in France - August 1918 

 

[Scott]

This thread is not about Trump.   I believe there is another one running that is more appropriate for such posts.  

 

Please stay on topic.