The history of the Franco-German Youth Office (FGYO)

 The Franco-German Youth Office (FGYO) is an organisation which serves to foster Franco-German co-operation. It helps to promote a better understanding of the partner's culture, encourages intercultural learning, supports vocational training, strenghtens joint projects for civic involvement, informs about the special responsability of both countries in Europe and motivates young people to learn the other language. It was founded in 1963 as a result of the Elysée-Treaty. Since then, the FGYO has enabled more than 8 million young people from France and Germany to get to know and to improve their knowledge about the partner's language and culture.

5th July 1963, Bonn Palais Schaumburg 

Foreign Ministers Dr Gerhard Schröder and Maurice Couve de Murville sign the contract founding the FGYO in the presence of Chancellor Dr Konrad Adenauer and President Charles De Gaulle. The FGYO has the task of strenghthening the bonds between the two countries. It serves youth of France and Germany.

An Office will be established to promote the exchange between the two countries, which will be headed by a voluntary board. This Office will be provided by equal contributions from the French and German governments, the purpose of which is to enable the meetings and exchanges between pupils, students, young artisans and young workers from both countries. 

Contract between the government of the Federal Republic of Germany and the government of the French Republic concerning the establishment of a Franco-German Youth Office :

Article 1

An organisation will be established to foster relations between the young people of France and Germany which will be called “Franco-German Youth Office”.

Article 2

The task of the Youth Office is to tighten the bond between the two nations and to strengthen understanding for one another. To this end it will promote the exchange between the young people of both countries and, where necessary, organise these exchanges itself.

Immediately after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the FGYO integrated young people from the former GDR, and therefore from the newly-reunited states (Berlin, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia), into its programmes.

Communicating with one another and learning the partner language - The FGYO awards e.g. grants for language courses to promote mutual understanding and to advance the mobility of the young people in both countries.

Important institutional changes occur in the year 2000. From then on FGYO has its headquarters in Paris (51, rue de l’Amiral-Mouchez in the 13th Arrondissement). Offices open in Berlin in the Schweriner Palace (Molkenmarkt 1).

In Paris more than 40 German and French employees are responsible for vocational exchange programmes for young workers and students, communication and events, human ressources, administration, finances and IT systems; in Berlin about 30 German and French employees are in charge of school and extracurricular exchange, intercultural education, communication as well as administration, finances and IT systems. The general secretariat is settled in Paris as well as in Berlin. 

Signing the new FGYO contract

Foreign Ministers Joschka Fischer and Michel Barnier sign the new contract for the Franco-German Youth Office in Paris on the 28th April 2005, which stipulates a structural reform. The reforms include a general secretariat with two general secretaries of equal rank, one French and one German.