The Ravensburg Incident

Charles Andre de Gaulle, who never accepts dinner invitations to foreign embassies, had made an exception. Together with his wife Yvonne, the President of France sat down at a ceremonial banquet in the 18th century Hotel de Beauharnais, the palace in which German ambassadors to France have lived for most of the past 150 years. The banquet had a double purpose: to celebrate the return of the palace, seized by the French at the end of World War II, and to set the mood for this week's visit by Chancellor Kurt Kiesinger and Foreign Minister Willy Brandt. Of such importance was the occasion, in fact, that West German President Heinrich Luebke had flown in from Bonn to act as De Gaulle's host.

Under the great crystal chandeliers of the banquet hall, the waiters kept pouring out the Dom Perignon '62 and the guests kept pouring out Franco-German friendship. At one particularly ebullient moment, De Gaulle rose with a toast to "the friendship that our two peoples have sealed, guided by reason and emotion alike." Then a messenger arrived from the Quai d'Orsay, bearing an urgent news dispatch for Foreign Minister Maurice Couve de Murville. It was datelined Ravensburg, West Germany, and it froze the frail Couve in his mahogany chair. It also launched one of the stormiest--and most ludicrous--weeks to date in the increasingly difficult area of Franco-German relations.

One Too Many? The dispatch reported that Willy Brandt had just told a rally of his Social Democratic Party that De Gaulle, far from being a friend, was a "power-thirsty old man" obsessed by "rigid, un-European ideas." Stunned, Couve said to an aide: "Power-thirsty! Perhaps Herr Brandt had one glass too many." When De Gaulle heard the news, he was furious. Next morning he summoned Couve to the Elysee Palace, and Couve in turn summoned German Ambassador Manfred Klaiber to demand an explanation. The ambassador was in agony. He apologized profusely for the dispatch, which had been filed by a young German news agency reporter, but insisted that it had misquoted Brandt and distorted his words.

Even when a tape recording of the speech proved that Brandt had not insulted De Gaulle, De Gaulle refused to listen, using the episode to embarrass the Germans and crack a whip over their heads. To show the Germans what he thought of them, he summarily canceled luncheon invitations to two visiting Bonn Cabinet ministers, treated President Luebke with frosty politeness and left hanging the threat of a formal French protest. It was not until later in the week, after he had extracted what he could from the situation, that De Gaulle allowed his information minister to announce--and coldly at that--that he considered the matter closed.

Overplayed Hand. De Gaulle obviously exploited the incident to put Kiesinger on the defensive for this week's visit, during which the German Chancellor is expected to put pressure on France to stop vetoing British entry into the Common Market and stop meddling in such West German affairs as relations with East Germany. But De Gaulle overplayed his hand, making the Germans more determined than ever to press him. "I will not travel to Paris in sackcloth and ashes," said Brandt, "and this applies all the more to the Chancellor. It is high time that we put an end to what many in this country regard as sheer mischief."

De Gaulle's mischievous ways also got their comeuppance in the U.S. last week. For the first time in history, a Gallup poll showed that a majority of adult Americans--51%--look upon France as a "negative" and unfriendly country; ten years ago, 68% considered France a friend.

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