ABSTRACT
Throughout its history, the German Democratic Republic (GDR) deployed many means in order to be fully accepted on the international stage alongside the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). Cultural diplomacy was very important in East German foreign policy, especially in Western Europe. The Association des Échanges franco-allemands (EFA), created in Paris in 1958, proposed various events in order to showcase the GDR’s economic and social “achievements” in fields such as education. The EFA organized trips to the GDR for French teachers in order to present the East German school system and to compete with the cultural institutions of the FRG in France. From the early 1970s, the EFA also enabled several French universities to sign cooperation agreements with universities and to travel to the “other Germany”. Following France’s diplomatic recognition of the GDR on 9 February 1973, the EFA renamed itself Association France-RDA and continued its activities to normalize the relations between France and the GDR. This chapter shows how this association played a major role in the development of a form of educational internationalism promoted by the GDR in order to gain legitimacy.
