Renowned German-French writer Grosser dies

Alfred Grosser, a German-French journalist, sociologist and political scientist renowned for his contributions to rebuilding relations between the two countries following World War II, is dead, reported dpa.

He was 99 years old.

His son, Pierre Grosser, announced on Thursday his father's death the previous day in Paris.

Grosser's numerous books helped explain Germany to French readers, and France to German readers. He received numerous prominent awards for his work, including Germany's Grand Cross of the Order of Merit and France's Grand Officer of the Légion d'Honneur.

He is credited as one of the intellectual fathers of the post-war Élysée Treaty between France and West Germany, which helped put to rest decades of bloody conflict between the two nations.

Grosser was born in Frankfurt on February 1, 1925. In 1933, he emigrated to France with his family, who were of Jewish origin and faced persecution under the Nazi regime, and four years later he took French citizenship. He later converted to Catholicism.

He taught at the renowned Paris Institute of Political Studies, also known as Sciences Po, beginning in 1955, and wrote political columns for numerous prominent newspapers.

He once described himself as being a part of France, while accompanying Germany from the outside. His analysis was clear-eyed and sometimes even cynical.

He once told dpa that the Franco-German relationship was not a love affair, but that the 1963 Élysée Treaty came as then-French president Charles de Gaulle sought to keep West Germany from falling completely under the influence of the United States.

Grosser was a keen observer and a sharp critic, and rarely minced his words.