Francois Mitterrand and the German Chancellors. The relationship of the French President to Helmut Schmidt and Helmut Kohl during 1981-1984

The partial opening of the Francois-Mitterrand-Archives for the first of Fr ancois Mitterand's seven year terms permits first hand evaluation of the El ysee's attitude toward German Chancellors Helmut Schmidt and his successor Helmut Kohl during a critical phase of developments in domestic and foreign policy in 1981-1984. How French foreign policy was tailored by the Elysee to fit "Deutschlandpolitik", how much importance Paris attributed to German domestic policy and how great the importance was to maintain unbroken bila teral relations between the two countries can be seen in the documents. Aft er a period of mutual distrust, relations between Mitterrand and Schmidt ra pidly improved. Especially in the matter of the Siberian pipeline to Europe , German and French solidarity, independent of the United States, led to mo re openness between Paris and Bonn and was manifested by regular communicat ion. Despite Mitterrand's obsession with national security, he was actively involved in the formulation of the historic speech given on January 20, 19 83 in the German Bundestag. Mitterrand's objective here was to back his all y's foreign policy position, placed in jeopardy by the recently arisen Germ an peace movement. In sum, the early years of Francois Mitterrand's preside ncy were marked more than assumed by the will to maintain continued stabili ty in Germanys' foreign policy.