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Coudenhove Kalergi

Richard Nikolaus von Coudenhove-Kalergi (born 16 November 1894 in Tokyo , Japan and died on 27 July 1972 in Schruns , Austria) is a politician, geo-political Austrian philosopher and Count Coudenhove-Kalergi. This is one of the first to have proposed a modern project of Europe united.

Biography

Son of a diplomat Austro-Hungarian polyglot (he will eventually know 18 languages) and a Japanese , he spent his childhood in the family castle in Bohemia and then enters Thrsanium of Vienna , the college's most famous and most cosmopolitan Empire. Fascinated by philosophy , he continued his studies at the University of Vienna and became a doctor in 1917. In 1915 , he married Ida Roland (1881-1951), popular comedian who opened the social circles of the Austrian capital. He obtained the nationality Czech in 1919 and eventually turned away from philosophy to start publishing articles about the need for a new European order.

He was soon convinced of the need to promote the European spirit more than the convergence of material interests for the peace in Europe. It seeks the support of the Czechoslovak President Tom Masaryk , who escapes on the essentials. Coudenhove-Kalergi therefore undertook to launch the movement itself. Thus, it launches its first call for the unity of the Old World from 1922 , which is little understood. Fascinated by the character despite his nationalism displayed, it turns to Mussolini , believing to see a new Mazzini who can ensure the triumph of European cause. He faces a silence evocative and full of contempt.

In October 1923 , he proposed the first modern project of a united Europe in his book Paneuropa, a prophetic and inspiring book reprinted in French in 1977. For Coudenhove-Kalergi, facing the risk of self-destruction that would trigger a new world war necessarily more destructive to American competition, and especially Russian danger, Europe has no choice but to unite.

To spread his ideas, he founded the pan-European movement, whose first conference brought together over 2,000 participants, held at the Konzerthaus in Vienna from 3 to 6 October 1926. He chose as a symbol of the Red Cross movement of the Crusades , the oldest symbol of a supranational European Union face a common enemy, a golden sun, the sun of Apollo , which is the European spirit whose influence illuminated the world. Are met and the sources of Greek and Christian Europe.

His message is received from the Between the Wars by many intellectuals ( Albert Einstein , Sigmund Freud , Thomas Mann , Jose Ortega y Gasset , Denis de Rougemont ..) as well as a number of political figures as Edouard Herriot , Konrad Adenauer , Robert Schuman , Alcide De Gasperi , Winston Churchill and especially Aristide Briand , whose European Union project and submits it to 1929 before the League of Nations in Geneva owes much to Coudenhove-Kalergi. It also Coudenhove-Kalergi who launched the idea in 1923 to bring the coal German ore and French , a project that will materialize in 1951 as the European Coal and Steel.

In 1938 , because of the Anschluss , he must take refuge in Switzerland , especially as his wife is Jewish and he is hated for Hitler. From there he moved to the United States , where he taught at the University of New York. He heads a research seminar for the creation of a federation of European states that became the center of the Pan European Union in exile. It shall, however nationality French in 1939. The end of the war led him to return to Switzerland, as a first step in Gstaad. After suggesting in 1947 created the first postage stamp Europe, in this city he founded in 1947 the European Parliamentary Union, which will result after the Congress of Europe in The Hague in 1948 on the creation of the Council of Europe , and inspire those of the European Parliament.

During the creation of the ECSC and EEC , and Coudenhove-Kalergi Paneurope fear the birth of a Europe of businessmen rather than a Europe of compatriots. It is similar to General de Gaulle after 13 May 1958 , in order to win more political conception of a united Europe. It will support the Fouchet Plan.

It also Coudenhove-Kalergi who first proposed in 1929 to adopt anthem Europe 's Ode to Joy by Friedrich von Schiller on the music of the Ninth Symphony of Ludwig van Beethoven. It is also the author in 1930 of the first proposal celebrate Europe Day in May.

On 18 May 1950 , he won the International Charlemagne Prize.