Paris - Chancellor Angela Merkel is traveling to Paris Wednesday to commemorate the soldiers who fell in World War I - the first ever German head of government to do so.

On Monday, French President Nicolas Sarkozy had traveled to Berlin to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall with the German chancellor.

Sarkozy and Merkel will together place a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, under the Arc de Triomphe, and each of the leaders is scheduled to deliver a brief address.

"It seemed to me the time had come to get together today with Angela Merkel in Paris to ... honour the memory of the soldiers and celebrate the peace of which they dreamed in their trenches," Sarkozy said in a statement.

"Remembering past conflicts is also to consolidate the present and prepare the future." (dpa)