Weekend Edition Sunday

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Last week marked the 50th anniversary of the Elysee Treaty, ending more than two centuries of hostility between Germany and France. The song "Goettingen," written by a young Jewish French singer at the time, represented a peaceful bridge between the countries. Host Rachel Martin talks to German political scientist Dieter Dettke, who studied in France in the early '60s and remembers hearing the song.

The Washington Post reported this week that Italy's effort to promote solar and wind power isn't so clean. A recent sting operation by the Italian government of the renewable energy sector resulted in the arrest of a dozen mafia figures.

Host Rachel Martin talks with Gregory Mann, an associate professor of history at Columbia University and an expert on Mali and North-West Africa, about the origins of the fighting in northern Mali.

After two devastating world wars, Germans recoiled from any prospect of military intervention. But today, German troops are posted in Afghanistan and engage in combat. This week, German lawmakers are expected to extend their country's military's mission in Afghanistan for 13 more months.