ROBERT SCHUMAN

'Robert Schuman' (June 29 1886 – September 4 1963) was a noted Luxembourg-born German-French politician, a Christian Democrat (M.R.P.) who is regarded as one of the founders of the European Union.

Contents

Biography

Miscellaneous

Schuman's First Government, November 24 1947 – July 26 1948

Schuman's Second Government, September 5 1948 – September 11 1948

External links

Biography

Robert Schuman's father, Jean-Pierre Schuman (1837–1900), was born a French citizen in Évrange, Lorraine, just across the border with Luxembourg. His mother tongue was Luxembourgish. After Lorraine became part of Germany in 1871 (Imperial Province of Elsaß-Lothringen), he became a German citizen. Robert's mother, Eugénie Duren (1864–1911), a Luxembourgian lady born in Bettembourg, became a German citizen by marriage in 1884. Although born in the suburb of Clausen, Luxembourg City, Robert Schuman was German by virtue of the principle of ''jus sanguinis''; he took up French nationality only in 1919 after Alsace-Lorraine had been given back to France. His mother tongue was Luxembourgish (at the time considered a German dialect), his second language Standard German. Since he learned French only in school (as every Luxembourger does) he spoke it with a Luxembourg/Lorraine German accent[1].
Schuman's pursued his secondary education at the Athénée de Luxembourg secondary school in Luxembourg, a former Jesuit College. He then decided to study at German universities but as the Luxembourg secondary school diploma was not valid in Germany, he had to pass the entrance exam for this, the ''Abitur'', at the Kaiserliche Gymnasium in Metz. His university education in law, economics, political philosophy, theology and statistics took place in the German education system. He received his law degree, after studying at the University of Bonn, the University of Munich, the Humboldt University in Berlin and in Strasbourg in Alsace (then Germany).
After the death of his mother in a coach accident Schuman may have briefly considered the religious life, but resolved to pursue a lay apostolate. He remained single and celibate throughout his life. He became a lawyer, and was judged medically unfit for military call-up. (He served in a civilian capacity during the First World War and never wore a German uniform.) He was a member of the city council of Metz as well as the German ''Katholikentag''. After the First World War, Alsace-Lorraine was retaken by France and Schuman became active in French politics. In 1919 he was first elected as deputy to parliament on a regional list later serving as the deputy for Thionville until 1958 with an interval during the war years. He had a major contribution to drafting and parliamentary passage of Lex Schuman in French parliament. Schuman investigated and patiently uncovered postwar corruption in Lorraine steel industries.
In 1940, because of his expertise on Germany, Schuman was called to become a member of Paul Reynaud's wartime government. Later that year he was arrested for acts of resistance and protestation at Nazi methods. He was interrogated by the Gestapo. Thanks to an honourable German he was saved from being sent to Dachau.Transferred as a personal prisoner of the vicious Nazi Gauleiter Joseph Buerckel, he escaped in 1942 and joined the French Resistance. Although his life was still at risk he spoke to friends about a Franco-German and European reconciliation that must take place after the end of hostilities, as he had done also in 1939-40.
After the war Schuman rose to great prominence. He was Minister of Finance, then twice Prime Minister from 1947–1948. He was part of the Third Force coalition governments which opposed to both the Communists and Gaullists. He became Foreign Minister in the latter year. Schuman's government proposed the creation of a European Assembly, the first government to do so. This proposal saw life as the Council of Europe and was created within the schedule Schuman had set. At the signing of its Statutes at St James's Palace, London, 5 May 1949, the founding States agreed to defining the frontiers of Europe based on the principles of human rights and fundamental freedoms that Schuman enunciated there. In September 1948 as Foreign Minister, he announced before the United Nations General Assembly, France's aim to create a democratic organisation for Europe which a post-Nazi and democratic Germany could join. In 1949-50, he made a series of speeches in Europe and North America about creating a supranational European Community. This structure, he said, would create lasting peace between States. On May 9 1950,these principles of supranational democracy were announced in a Declaration jointly prepared by Paul Reuter, the legal adviser at the Foreign Ministry, his chef-de Cabinet, Bernard Clappier and Jean Monnet and two of his team.The French Government agreed to the Schuman Declaration which invited the Germans and all other European countries to manage their coal and steel industries jointly and democratically in Europe's first supranational Community with its five foundational institutions. On 18 April 1951 six founder members signed the Treaty of Paris that formed the basis of the European Coal and Steel Community. They declared this date and the corresponding democratic, suprantional principles to be the 'real foundation of Europe'. Three Communities have been created so far. The Treaties of Rome, 1957, created the Economic community and the nuclear non-proliferation Community, Euratom. Together with intergovernmental machinery of later treaties, these eventually evolved into the European Union. The Schuman Declaration, was made on 9 May 1950 and to this day May 9 is designated Europe Day.
As Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Schuman was instrumental in the creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, NATO. Schuman also signed the Treaty of Washington for France.The defensive principles of Nato's Article 5 were also repeated in the European Defence Community Treaty which failed as the French National Assembly declined to vote its ratification. Schuman was a proponent of an Atlantic Community. This was strongly resisted by Communists, ultranationalists and Gaullists.
Schuman later served as Minister of Justice and first President of the European Parliamentary Assembly which bestowed on him by acclamation the title 'Father of Europe'. In 1958 he received the Karlspreis, an Award by the German city of Aachen to people who contributed to the European idea and European peace, commemorating Charlemagne, ruler of what is today France and Germany, who resided and is buried at Aachen. He was also a knight of the Order of Pope Pius IX.
Celibate, modest and un-ostentatious, Schuman was an intensely religious man and Bible scholar. He was strongly influenced by the writings of Pope Pius XII, St. Thomas Aquinas and Jacques Maritain. It was announced on 15 May 2004 that the diocesan investigation of the cause of beatification would soon conclude; this might have as its result that Schuman will be declared ''"Blessed"'' by the Roman Catholic Church.

Miscellaneous

The Schuman District of Brussels (including a metro station, square and railway station) is named in his honour. Around the square ("Rond Point Schuman") can be found various European institutions, including the Berlaymont building which is the headquarters of the European Commission, as well as key European Parliament buildings. A Social Science University named after him lies in Strasbourg, France.
In Luxembourg there are:

★ Rond Point Schuman.

★ Boulevard Robert Schuman

★ Robert Schuman Building, of the European Parliament.
Schuman's
place of birth house
was restored by the European Parliament and can be visited; as can his home in Scy-Chazelle just outside Metz.

Schuman's First Government, November 24 1947 – July 26 1948

★ Robert Schuman - President of the Council

★ Georges Bidault - Minister of Foreign Affairs

★ Pierre-Henri Teitgen - Minister of National Defense

★ Jules Moch - Minister of the Interior

★ René Mayer - Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs

★ Robert Lacoste - Minister of Commerce and Industry

★ Daniel Mayer - Minister of Labour and Social Security

★ André Marie - Minister of Justice

★ Marcel Edmond Naegelen - Minister of National Education

★ François Mitterrand - Minister of Veterans and War Victims

★ Pierre Pflimlin - Minister of Agriculture

★ Paul Coste-Floret - Minister of Overseas France

★ Christian Pineau - Minister of Public Works and Transport

★ Germaine Poinso-Chapuis - Minister of Public Health and Population

★ René Coty - Minister of Reconstruction and Town Planning
'Changes'

★ February 12 1948 - Édouard Depreux succeeds Naegelen as Minister of National Education.

Schuman's Second Government, September 5 1948 – September 11 1948

★ Robert Schuman - President of the Council and Minister of Foreign Affairs

★ René Mayer - Minister of National Defense

★ André Marie - Vice President of the Council

★ Jules Moch - Minister of the Interior

★ Christian Pineau - Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs

★ Robert Lacoste - Minister of Commerce and Industry

★ Daniel Mayer - Minister of Labour and Social Security

★ Robert Lecourt - Minister of Justice

★ Tony Revillon - Minister of National Education

★ Jules Catoire - Minister of Veterans and War Victims

★ Pierre Pflimlin - Minister of Agriculture

★ Paul Coste-Floret - Minister of Overseas France

★ Henri Queuille - Minister of Public Works, Transport, and Tourism

★ Pierre Schneiter - Minister of Public Health and Population

★ René Coty - Minister of Reconstruction and Town Planning

External links

★ Schuman Project, biographical information plus analysis of Schuman's work initiating a supranational European Community, why it is a major political innovation, and its comparison with classical federalism. Site includes some of Schuman's key speeches announcing the innovation in 1949-50.

★ Fondation Robert Schuman

★ The ''Katholische Akademie Trier'' is vested in the Robert Schuman-Haus

★ ''Schuman Declaration (9 May 1950)''

★ Video of the Schuman Declaration of the creation of the ECSC - European NAvigator

★ 1949 letter from the UK Foreign minister Ernest Bevin to Robert Schuman, urging a reconsideration of the industrial dismantling policy in Germany.