Historically, France and Germany have been rivals: in the Thirty Years' War in Europe from 1618 to 1648, it was France that struck down the Holy Roman Empire of Germany under the Habsburgs. France was the continent's leading power from the time of Louis XIV in the 17th century to the Napoleonic era in the 19th century. At that time, France had repeatedly ravaged the German region. However, in the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, the 100,000-strong army led by the French Emperor Napoleon III surrendered at Sedan, reversing the fate of France and Germany. It was after the victory over France that Prussia took advantage of the situation to unify Germany.
On January 18, 1871, King Wilhelm I of Prussia was crowned Emperor of the Second German Empire at the Palace of Versailles in France. It can be said that the united German Empire was built on the ruins of the hegemony of the French continent. After the Franco-Prussian War, France ceded Alsace, Lorraine and other places, and at the same time had to pay Germany a high war reparations of 5 billion francs. The loss of continental hegemony and the humiliation of land reparations sowed the seeds of hatred for Germany in France. In the two world wars of the 20th century, France and Germany faced each other as rivals.
At present, France and Germany are the two leading countries in the European Union, so who is stronger than France and Germany today? The comparison of comprehensive national strength is not limited to one aspect, but needs to be compared in many fields. First of all, from the perspective of political influence, France, as one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, has a stronger influence in international affairs than Germany. After World War II, Germany's economic and technological strength has attracted worldwide attention, but as a defeated country, it has always been limited in the political and military fields. In addition to its active role in the United Nations, France is actively involved in the affairs of many international organizations around the world.
France, through la Francophonie, maintains a special relationship with its former colonies in Africa. France has the largest number of military bases in Africa and far surpasses the United States in the number of troops stationed. Many mining and telecommunications and energy businesses in Africa are controlled by French companies. At present, France's influence in Africa is basically equal to that of China and the United States. France's current military strength is also stronger than Germany's. The total number of active troops in the French army is about 288,000, and there are about 180,000 paramilitaries. France is the fourth country to possess nuclear weapons after the United States, the Soviet Union, and the United Kingdom.
France has a triad of independent nuclear forces consisting of submarine missiles and nuclear missiles carried by aircraft. France is second only to the United States in the number of overseas military bases. As a member of NATO, France enjoys the collective security guarantees brought by NATO on the one hand, and on the other hand, places great emphasis on the independence of its own national defense. France has the most complete R&D system for the defense industry of any country in Europe. At present, the vast majority of France's key weapons have been independently developed and produced. France's Mirage and Rafale can even compete with American-produced equipment in the international arms market.
Germany, on the other hand, ranked 15th in the 2021 Global Firepower Index. Speaking of which, Germany is also a military power, but the position of 15th still does not meet many people's expectations for Germany. Such a ranking means that Germany's military strength is not only far behind the United States, China, Russia, Britain, and France, which are the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, but also does not have an advantage over India, Japan, South Korea, and Israel. In fact, Germany's influence in the world today mainly comes from the economic and technological fields, but the limited military strength is actually a major weakness of Germany.
Today, Germany's Bundeswehr has only 178,000 active troops, with around 30,000 paramilitaries. The German Army currently has only about 800 Leopard 2 tanks of various types, while the German Navy currently has only 33 ships. The size of the German navy is not even comparable to that of Italy and Spain. Nowadays, Germany is actually relatively low in the circle of real military powers. In a sense, Germany's current military strength is basically similar to that of Italy, Spain and other countries. Of course, Germany's weak military strength is caused by limitations, but Germany's superiority in the fields of science and technology and economy can be converted into military potential.
After World War II, Germany could not develop its military strength on the surface, but it was still able to develop some of its own military technology. The Tiger and Leopard series tanks produced by the Germans are still among the top ten most famous tanks in the world. The German Army currently has about 800 Leopard 2 tanks of various types, as well as some old Leopard 1 tanks. In addition PZH2000 number of advanced army combat vehicles, including self-propelled guns, is also significant. The armored forces of the German Army are still worth mentioning in Europe, and its army aviation units are also very advanced.
At the end of the 80s of the 20th century, Germany began to engage in supercavitating torpedo research, and now Germany has come to the forefront of the world in supercavitating torpedo research. With Germany's economic level, scientific and technological innovation capability, and industrial production capacity, it is entirely possible to re-establish itself as another military power comparable to Britain and France once the restrictions on armaments are lifted, but it is not an overnight matter to transform Germany's war potential in the economic and scientific and technological fields into a military strength at the actual level. This transformation takes some time to complete. At this stage, France's military strength is significantly stronger than that of Germany.
Not to mention that France has the advantage of nuclear weapons that Germany does not have, France alone is enough to crush the current Germany in terms of the size of its army and conventional weapons. The French army has 1.6 times as many tanks as Germany, the French Air Force has 1.67 times as many fighters as Germany, and France is the only country other than the United States to have nuclear-powered aircraft carriers in terms of navy. What's more, France's economic level, scientific and technological innovation capabilities, and industrial production capacity are actually not bad. France ranks among the top in the world in automotive machinery manufacturing, aviation, nuclear power, military industry, metallurgy, electrical, food, chemical industry, etc.
In 2023, France ranks sixth in the world in terms of economic aggregate, eighth in terms of industrial output, 11th in the world in the scientific and technological innovation index, eighth in the world in terms of grain production, fourth in the world in gold reserves, 10th in the world in terms of power generation, 16th in the world in steel production, 12th in the world in automobile production, 11th in the world in the number of tanks, 10th in the world in the number of warplanes, and seventh in the world in terms of naval ship tonnage...... Twenty-eight French companies are among the world's top 500 companies. France is second only to the United States in the world in terms of nuclear power equipment capacity, petroleum and petroleum processing technology.
France's aviation and aerospace industry is second only to the United States and Russia. Airbus, which is enough to compete with the American Boeing Company, was founded in France. France's steel industry and textile industry also rank sixth in the world. At the same time, France is the largest agricultural producer in the European Union: 24 of the 100 largest agri-food processing groups in Europe are in France, and 7 of the world's 100 largest agri-food processing groups are in France. France's exports of agricultural and sideline products account for about 11% of the world market. France, which has developed light industry, has world-renowned luxury brands such as Lancôme, Yves Saint Laurent, Givenchy and Boucheron.
In 2023, Germany ranks third in the world in terms of economic aggregate, fourth in terms of industrial output, eighth in the world in the scientific and technological innovation index, second in the world in gold reserves, tenth in foreign exchange reserves, seventh in power generation, eighth in steel production, fourth in automobile production, 18th in the world in the number of tanks, 18th in the world in the number of warplanes, and 11th in the world in terms of naval tonnage...... Germany has world-renowned brands such as Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi, Volkswagen, Porsche, and Siemens.
In the Fortune 500 list, ranked by company turnover, 32 companies are headquartered in Germany. The German government officially launched its "Industry 4.0" strategy at the Hannover Messe in April 2013. The so-called Industry 4.0 refers to the use of the Internet of Things information system to digitize and intelligentize the supply, manufacturing, and sales information in production, and finally achieve fast, effective, and personalized product supply. Industry 4.0 has now become another label in Germany and has sparked a new round of industrial transformation on a global scale. Germany's economic level, scientific and technological innovation capabilities, and industrial production capacity are generally slightly stronger than those of France.
But France is not far behind in this regard, and France's political and military influence is stronger than that of Germany. In addition to the hard power of military, economic, and scientific and technological power, we can also compare the cultural soft power of France and Germany. France is synonymous with fashion and romance in the world, and it is also a country with a rich cultural heritage. There are more than 20 scenic spots in France that have been listed as World Cultural and Natural Heritage Sites by the United Nations: the Seine in Paris, centered on the Louvre and Notre-Dame, the Palace of Versailles, Fontainebleau, Strasbourg, Mont Saint-Michel, Château de Chambord, ......
Of course, the history of France is not as long as that of ancient China, but France is indeed a country with historical and cultural heritage in Europe. As an important birthplace of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, France has contributed to the world Voltaire, Montesquieu, Rousseau, Diderot, Molière, Stendhal, Balzac, Alexandre Dumas, Hugo, Flaubert, Dumas, Zola, Maupassant, Romain Rolland and other Enlightenment thinkers and writers, as well as world-famous literary and artistic works such as "Notre Dame de Paris", "The Red and the Black", "The Old Man", "The Count of Monte Cristo", "Les Miserables" and "Johann Christopher".
In the field of natural sciences, France has also contributed to the world Pasteur, Descartes, Veda, Ampère, Lavoisier, Fermat, Pascal, Galois, Curie...... It was from France that the ideas of the Enlightenment and the mature legal system spread throughout Europe and then to the whole world. Today, the legal systems of countries around the world are broadly divided into common law and civil law systems. Almost all civil law countries were influenced to a greater or lesser extent by the French Civil Code of 1804: the civil codes of Denmark, Greece, Germany, Switzerland, Portugal, Brazil and other countries were modelled on the French Civil Code.
France's achievements in literature, painting, film and television are quite outstanding. France's Cannes Film Festival is one of the most authoritative arts festivals in the world. French is one of the most influential languages in the world and is the official language of the United Nations. Today, French is spoken as the mother tongue by 87 million people worldwide, and 285 million people speak French as a second language. Although French is less spoken than Chinese, Spanish and English, French-speaking countries are very widespread. French is often used in the broadcasts of major international events.
Of course, Germany's cultural influence cannot be underestimated: from Kant, Nietzsche, Hegel to Marx, the cornerstone of Western philosophy. Germany has also produced world-renowned music masters such as Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, and Brahms. The Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and the Dresden State Symphony Orchestra are still internationally renowned orchestras. Germany is currently the largest music market in Europe and the third largest in the world. The Berlin International Film Festival in Germany, along with the Cannes International Film Festival and the Venice International Film Festival, is known as the world's three major international film festivals. The Frankfurt Book Fair in Germany is one of the four major international book fairs in the world.
From the perspective of cultural influence, the romantic and enthusiastic France has relatively more outstanding achievements in literature, painting, film and television, while the rational and rigorous Germany has achieved fruitful results in philosophy, music, science and other fields. In this way, the two sides are basically half a pound to eight taels, but the influence of French is stronger in the international arena than that of German. After all, French is one of the six official languages of the United Nations, and it is quite widely spoken in France's former colonies. On the other hand, Germany's few colonies in history were lost in the World Wars, so there is a clear gap between the international influence of the German language and the French language.
In a comprehensive comparison, Germany's economic level, scientific and technological innovation capabilities, and industrial production capacity are slightly stronger than France's, but France's political influence as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council is incomparable to Germany's, and France's military strength as a nuclear country is not comparable to Germany, which has been restricted since World War II, and France is also slightly better in terms of cultural soft power. On the whole, France's overall strength is slightly stronger than that of Germany. Some people like to take the World War II daily milk method, but our thinking can't always stay in the World War II period. There is always a tendency to say how well Germany would have developed if it had not been restricted as a defeated country.
Unfortunately, there are not so many ifs in this world. We are not talking about what ifs, but what the objective reality looks like. To tell the truth, can you still see the tradition of Germany's martial spirit in today's federal fat house? In the NATO military exercises held in 2019, the German army actually lost to Italy, which has always been looked down upon by everyone. The reason for the loss was that the soldiers in charge of transporting the ammunition refused to work overtime, causing an entire army column to stop in the middle of the line and go unheeded. This is simply a replica of the surrender of the Italian army in World War II because it could not find a crowbar.