Robert Schuman
1886-1963 20th century
Turning an enemy into a partner; politics held as the patient work of reconciliation.
Who was Robert Schuman?
A Lorrainer born in Luxembourg, German by birth then French by treaty, a lawyer in Metz, he lived through three wars and two occupations, and escaped in 1942 from the house arrest imposed by the Gestapo. As foreign minister he proposed, on 9 May 1950, that French and German coal and steel be placed under a common authority, five years after the war's end. Unmarried, he lived in a plain house at Scy-Chazelles with his breviary and his theology books.
In their own words
World peace cannot be safeguarded without the making of creative efforts proportionate to the dangers which threaten it.
Europe will not be made all at once, or according to a single plan: it will be built through concrete achievements which first create a de facto solidarity.