2 Euro Proof

The occasion was the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe. With the unconditional surrender of the German Wehrmacht in May 1945, the hostilities on the European theatre of war came to an end. France commemorates 8 May as a national day of remembrance. The end of the war also marked the starting point for a political reordering of the continent.

After two world wars, reconciliation between France and Germany in particular assumed a central role. European integration was intended to contain national rivalries through lasting political and economic cooperation. In the Schuman Declaration of 9 May 1950, the French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman proposed placing French and German coal and steel production under a common authority. As these raw materials were essential to the armaments industry, their joint control was intended to make another war more difficult. This led to the European Coal and Steel Community; further steps towards integration later resulted in the European Communities and the European Union.

The statement that Europe had been peaceful since 1945 is to be understood as a political guiding principle, not as a comprehensive historical description. The Cold War divided the continent into opposing power blocs, and armed conflicts continued to occur in several regions. These included, in particular, the wars accompanying the dissolution of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Nevertheless, there was no further war between the states that gradually joined together to form today’s European Union.

The issue released in 2015 thus combined the French commemoration of the end of the war with the history of the origins of European integration. The traditional imagery refers to peace and reconciliation: the dove became an internationally widespread symbol of peace, particularly in the 20th century, while the olive branch had already been understood since antiquity, and through the biblical story of Noah’s Ark, as a symbol of peace and a new beginning.