France's decision to invite German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder to attend June commemorations of the D-Day invasions shows that times have changed in Europe, a government spokesman said on Friday.
It was "with great joy" that Schroeder accepted the invitation to attend the 60th anniversary celebrations on the Normandy beaches, government spokesman Thomas Steg said in Berlin.
Steg stressed the "enormous symbolic meaning" of inviting a German head of state to mark D-Day, signaling the resolution of many post World War II questions that have plagued Europe -- particularly the two former enemies.
"It is a sign that times truly have changed," Steg said.
Schroeder is to be the first German leader to mark an anniversary of the Normandy landings on June 6, 1944.
For the 60th anniversary commemoration, France has invited leaders of World War II's Allied nations, including US President George W. Bush.
Ten years ago, Chancellor Helmut Kohl was not invited to the 50th anniversary ceremony -- a decision that caused sore feelings in Germany and soured relations with France.
French-German ties got a boost in January last year, when the neighbors marked 40 years of reconciliation, pledging to work together at the heart of the EU.
D-Day, while largely credited with launching Europe's liberation from the Nazis, is virtually unknown in Germany. The day is not publicly acknowledged in any way and is little taught in German schools. Only two German veterans were invited, by US veterans groups, to attend the 50th anniversary celebrations in 1994.
"Operation Overlord," the code name for the landings, will be marked with a ceremony at Arromanches, a Normandy town between two of the beaches where soldiers came ashore.
About 21,000 Germans are buried at La Camb in Normandy. A few simple wooden crosses -- erected by German veterans and discreetly apart from the cemetery for the 9,386 fallen US soldiers -- mark the spot above Omaha Beach where the last German forces fell.
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