Alfred Grosser – A Life Devoted to Reconciliation
Political scientist and journalist Alfred Grosser personifies Franco-German relations more than any other intellectual.
Who should speak before the German Bundestag (the country’s parliament) on the centenary of the outbreak of World War One? A man who has devoted his life to reconciliation between one-time “arch enemies”. Bundestag President Norbert Lammer (Christian Democratic Union) chose the Franco-German intellectual Alfred Grosser, and the Bundestag Council of Elders approved his decision to invite Grosser to be the guest speaker at the central remembrance ceremony. “I will speak not only about 1914, but about the entire sequence of events after 1914”, emphasized Grosser (89) in an interview: “It was mass murder on all sides.”
An important voice
Grosser was born in Frankfurt am Main on 1 February 1925. His father, Paul Grosser, was the director of a Frankfurt paediatric clinic, a social democrat and a Jew. The family emigrated to France in 1933, where Grosser became a French citizen and was thus able to evade the German occupying forces. He took a degree in political science and German studies in Paris. Two years after the end of World War Two, the young Grosser travelled to the devastated land that was post-war Germany and reported for French newspapers and magazines on the situation in France’s neighbour. Grosser taught at various universities, published in French newspapers and wrote more than 30 books. Ever since the end of World War Two, Grosser has been committed to Franco-German relations, has given lectures in both countries and has taken part in political debates. A European through and through, Grosser has received numerous awards for his outstanding services to reconciliation between Germany and France, including the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade in 1975.
Central hour of remembrance in the German Bundestag on 3 July 2014 to commemorate the outbreak of World War One
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