Press

Financial Times

Berlin remains cool to Paris overtures

Angela Merkel will make history on Wednesday when she becomes the first German chancellor to go to France to commemorate armistice day - marking Germany's first world war surrender in 1918.

Her appearance - alongside Nicolas Sarkozy, French president, at the tomb of the unknown soldier at the foot of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris - is intended to signal a new step in Franco-German reconciliation. It alludes to the famous image of Chancellor Helmut Kohl and President François Mitterrand holding hands near Verdun 25 years ago. Click here for more.