On June 13, 1949, the European Movement Germany (EBD) was founded in Wiesbaden to promote European integration in the Federal Republic of Germany.

Around 250 personalities from all sections of society who were fundamentally in favor of European unification met at the founding meeting in the Staatstheater. Among them were the former SPD member of the Reichstag Hermann Brill, the co-founder of the Basic Law and later Federal Minister Carlo Schmid (SPD) and the former President of the Reichstag Paul Löbe (SPD). The invitation was issued by the then Chairman of the Europa-Union-Deutschland, Eugen Kogon, who was one of the founders of the CDU Hessen in 1947. He had been imprisoned and tortured in Buchenwald concentration camp by the National Socialists together with Kurt Schumacher, the post-war chairman of the SPD, because of his liberal-democratic views.

Paul Löbe was elected as the first president of the EBD. Speakers included the President of the entire EBD, Duncan Sandys, Winston Churchill's son-in-law, and André Philip, President of the French Union of Federalists. He emphasized that the FRG must become an equal member of the new Europe.

Today, the EBD has 239 member organizations. Dr. Rainer Wend (SPD) has been President of the EBD since July 2012. The office is based in Berlin. From its Berlin office, the EM Germany promotes European integration in Germany with a wide range of activities such as information events, analyses, competitions and publications. One of the association's well-known projects is, for example, the European Competition in Schools, in which schoolchildren take a creative look at the EU every year.