The Franco-German Youth Office (FGYO; french: Office franco-allemand pour la Jeunesse, OFAJ; german: Deutsch-Französisches Jugendwerk, DFJW) is an organisation to subsidize programs for children, adolescents and young adults. Its main goal is to intensify the Franco-German relationships through cultural exchange on the level of students.

History

The Youth Office was one of the first institutions created on the basis of the

Élysée Treaty The Élysée Treaty was a treaty of friendship between France and West Germany, signed by President Charles de Gaulle and Chancellor Konrad Adenauer on 22 January 1963 at the Élysée Palace in Paris. With the signing of this treaty, Germa ...

that was signed in 1963 in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

. The FGYO was originally headquartered in

Rhöndorf Bad Honnef () is a spa town in Germany near Bonn in the Rhein-Sieg district, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is located on the border of the neighbouring state Rhineland-Palatinate. To the north it lies on the slopes of the Drachenfels (“Dragon's R ...

near

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ru ...

, then the

West German West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

capital. In December 2000, the least employees moved out from there. It is now headquartered in Paris, with its main German office in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

and a branch office, which opened in 2014, in Saarbrücken. Since 1963 the organisation has financed projects for 9.5 million young Germans and French through participation in 382.000 exchange programs. In 2021 it has organised 3310 events with about 68,000 participants. The funding has been increased along with decisions made on the annual

Franco-German Ministerial Council The Franco-German Ministerial Council (french: Conseil des ministres franco-allemands, german: Deutsch-Französischer Ministerrat) is the regular meeting of the ministerial cabinet of both the government of Germany and the government of France. The ...

. It is considered to be a cornerstone in ending the centuries of

French–German enmity French–German (Franco-German) enmity (french: Rivalité franco-allemande, german: Deutsch–französische Erbfeindschaft) was the idea of unavoidably hostile relations and mutual revanchism between Germans (including Austrians) and French peop ...

References

External links

* Website in English: {{Authority control France–Germany relations Youth organizations established in 1963 Youth organizations based in France Youth organisations based in Germany

History

See also

References

External links