Robert Schuman

The Man

Robert Schuman was born on 29 June 1886 in Luxembourg having his father’s German citizenship. His father was French and became German when his region was annexed by Germany in 1871. Robert Schuman gained his French citizenship in 1919 after the First World War, when Alsace Lorraine returned to France. 

Before the war, Schuman studied German civil law at the Universities of Bonn, Munich, Berlin and Strasbourg. He received a law degree with the highest distinction from Strasbourg University and set up his own law practice after his graduation in 1912 in Metz (France). When two years later the First World War broke out, Robert Schuman was excused from military service on medical grounds. After the war Schuman was elected by the people of the Moselle region (Lorraine) to represent them in the French parliament. 

In March 1940, Schuman was appointed Under-Secretary of State for Refugees. When he was trying to avoid documents to fall into the hands of the Nazis, he was caught by the Gestapo and put into prison in September 1940. Seven months later he was sent under house arrest in Neustadt (Pfalz), but he succeeded to escape to the free zone of France. 

His Accomplishments in Europe

After the Second World War, Schuman returned to French national politics where he held a series of prominent roles. He began in 1946 as Minister of Finance, following in 1947 as Prime Minister, then from 1948 till December 1952 as Minister of Foreign Affairs, and finally, as Minister of Justice from 1955 till 1956.

While being in office as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Schuman, Adenauer, Chancellor of West Germany, and Alcide de Gasperi, Prime Minister of Italy, acknowledged the binding element of the European heritage among European states as the soul for the European integration project. Schuman’s ideas of supranationality so as to make war impossible and to change coal and steel from instruments of war into instruments of peace were elaborated on by Paul Reuter, Bernard Clappier, Jean Monnet, Pierre Uri and Etienne Hirsch. The internationally renowned Schuman Declaration was published on 9 May 1950, the date now regarded as the birth of the European Union. By launching the Schuman Declaration, Robert Schuman started the first peaceful revolution to promote peace and security throughout Europe.

Later on, in 1958, Schuman became the first president of the European Parliament, formerly known as the European Assembly. After he left office, the European Parliament granted him the title of Father of Europe.