Civic activism and the pursuit of cooperation in the Locarno Era

Abstract

The 1925 signing of the Treaty of Locarno seemed to breathe new hope into Franco-German relations. Indeed the "spirit of Locarno" moved not just governments but also individuals to explore new roads to rapprochement. Once the French and German governments explicitly sanctioned a policy of détente, the efforts of concerned activists who had urged Franco-German cooperation found greater purchase and spread beyond the fringes of the political left. But even as civic debate came to reframe the Franco-German "problem" and welcome cooperation, it often remained mired in deep-rooted mistrust.