It was the desire of France, after engaging in devastating wars three times with Germany (1871, 1914-18, and 1940-45), to curtail any further hostilities with Germany; the two countries had once both found themselves in the empire of the Franks, so perhaps this situation could be imitated. A French diplomat, Jean Monnet, and Józef Retinger, a Polish émigré-diplomat and founder of the Bilderberg Group in 1954, a club of very influential active and former politicians, inspired the formation of the European Coal and Steel Community in 1951.