Les pères fondateurs de l'OFAJ croyaient-ils en leurs mythes?
In : Allemagne d’aujourd’hui, n°189, 2009
During the first decade after its creation, the Franco-German Youth Office carried out a mass youth exchange policy. This article investigates the intellectual underpinnings of such a programme. One assumption appears particularly puzzling. This mass exchange policy implied that the meetings could not last more than a couple of days. One was discussing at that time if nazi propaganda had succeeded, in more than one decade, to shape the mentalities of the “Hitlerjugendgeneration”. Did the founding fathers of the Franco-German Youth Office actually believe that the multiplication of short-term meetings would allow a positive change of attitudes? This article borrows from a “cognitive” approach in policy analysis and answers positively to this question.