From 3 to 5 September, Federal President Joachim Gauck traveled to the French Republic for a state visit. In Paris, he had talks with President François Hollande and Prime Minister Jean Marc Ayrault. On Wednesday, 4 September, the Federal President and President Hollande traveled to Oradour sur Glane, in the Limousin region in the heart of France, where in 1944 an SS Panzer Division committed a massacre and destroyed the whole village. The Federal President is the first German head of state to visit the place. He met with one survivor and gave a speech at the Remembrance Centre.

The final leg of his journey took him to Marseilles. In this year’s European Capital of Culture, the Federal President met young people for discussions and payed tribute to the work of the Franco German Youth Office, which can look back on eight million exchanges in the 50 years since its foundation.

In this 50th anniversary year of the Franco German Treaty of Friendship, the state visit aimed to show the diversity and intensity of the bilateral relations.

Roman Herzog was the last Federal President to go on a state visit to France in 1996, while Jacques Chirac, the French President at the time, made a state visit to Germany in 2000. Presidents Gauck and Hollande have met three times so far – in Paris in July 2012, in Berlin in January 2013 and in Leipzig in May 2013.