A vision of Europe: Franco-German relations during the Great Depression, 1929-1932

A history of the sustained effort by France and Germany to resolve outstanding disagreements resulting from the Great War and simultaneously to address the crisis generated by the inter-war Great Depression. The solution was seen to lie in a European Union with a Franco-German axis at its heart. A formal agreement was signed in September 1931, but during 1932 the initiative collapsed. The reasons for this failure are examined; however, the unmistakeable template for the post-1945 process of European integration had been laid down.