FRANCO-GERMAN BRIGADE 2010 (JgBtl 291) 1st German Battalion in Strasbourg T2 (PE598T2)

A first since 1945: the installation of a German military unit in France

The “Jägerbataillon 291” of the Franco-German Brigade was officially installed on French territory on Friday, December 10, 2010 in Strasbourg, in the presence of the Ministers of Defense of both countries. This is a first since 1945, which marks a new step in Franco-German cooperation.

On December 10, on the sidelines of the Franco-German Summit in Freiburg with Chancellor Merkel and President Sarkozy, the German Minister of Defense, Dr. Karl-Theodor Freiherr zu Guttenberg and his French counterpart Alain Juppé, attended the flag-handing ceremony of the 291st Jägerbataillon, officially sealing the installation of this infantry and reconnaissance unit of the Franco-German Brigade in Illkirch-Graffenstaden, in the suburbs of Strasbourg.

The first German military unit to be stationed in France since the end of the Second World War, and moreover in a peaceful context, the 291st Jägerbataillon was created for this specific purpose last year. Gradually settling in Illkirch since April, in the former premises of the 1st Engineer Regiment, dissolved last June, this German unit shares the Leclerc district with, what a symbol!, the headquarters of the 2nd Armored Brigade, the heir to the famous 2nd DB of General Leclerc who liberated Paris and Strasbourg.

A binational joint military unit, the Franco-German Brigade, with a strength of 5,000 men and with capabilities similar to those of light armored joint arms brigades, was created on October 2, 1989. It remains one of the strong symbols of Franco-German friendship, which has developed since the end of the Second World War. This friendship is all the stronger because it has often brought together politically opposed heads of state in joint initiatives: De Gaulle and the Christian Democrat Konrad Adenauer signing the Élysée Treaty in January 1963, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing and Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, François Mitterrand and Chancellor Helmut Kohl shaking hands at Verdun, and Jacques Chirac and Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. Because, from the end of the immediate post-war period, France and Germany represented the two great powers of the Old Continent, both demographically and geographically, and understood that together they would be able to impose their views on Europe, whose economic and political unity was then being built. Community news shows us that this is sometimes still somewhat the case.