Constantin von Hoffmeister explains why Germany and France's growing military partnership might be the first step towards a truly sovereign European empire.
The recent German-French Ministerial Council in Brühl, Germany, marks a notable advance in military collaboration between the two leading continental powers, even as the joint fighter jet initiative met obstacles. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron stood together in the historic halls of Augustusburg Palace, the very site where Charles de Gaulle, the towering French wartime leader and founder of the Fifth Republic, once extended the hand of friendship to Konrad Adenauer, the first Chancellor of the postwar Federal Republic of Germany and architect of its democratic reconstruction, laying the groundwork for what became the Élysée Treaty, the landmark 1963 agreement that formalized close bilateral consultation and cooperation between the two nations on matters of politics, economics, and defense.