Jean-Baptiste Nicolas Robert Schuman was born in 29 June 1886 inClausen, Luxembourg, inheriting his father'sGerman citizenship. His father, Jean-Pierre Schuman (d. 1900), who was a native ofLorraine and was born a French citizen, had become a German citizen when Lorraine was annexed by Germany in 1871, and he left to settle inLuxembourg, not far from his native village ofEvrange.
Schuman mother, Eugénie Suzanne Duren (d. 1911), was aLuxembourger. Though Schuman would later become involved in French politics, he grew up and attended school in Luxembourg City, speakingLuxembourgish as his mother tongue.
Schuman's secondary schooling from 1896 to 1903 was atAthénée de Luxembourg, followed in 1904 by the Kaiserliches Lyceum inMetz. From 1904 to 1910, he studied law, economics, political philosophy, theology and statistics at the Universities ofBerlin,Munich,Bonn andStrasbourg, and received a law degree with the highest distinction from Strasbourg University.[3] In 1904, Schuman joined the Catholic student associationUnitas in Bonn.[4]
In 1912, Schuman set up practice as a lawyer in Metz and joined the L'Union Populaire Catholique.[5] When the war broke out in 1914, he was called up for the auxiliary troops by the German army in Metz but was excused from military service on health grounds. From 1915 to 1918, he served in the administration of theBolchen kreis.[6]
Schuman became active in French politics. In 1919, he was first elected as a member of theChamber of Deputies on a regional list and later served as the deputy forThionville (Moselle) until 1958, with an interval during the war. He made a major contribution to the drafting and the parliamentary passage of the reintroduction of the French Civil and Commercial Codes by the French parliament, when the Alsace-Lorraine region, then under German rule and thus German law, returned to France. The harmonisation of the regional law with the French law was called "Lex Schuman".[8] Schuman also investigated and patiently uncovered postwar corruption in the Lorraine steel industries and in the Alsace and the Lorraine railways, which were bought for a derisory price by the powerful and influentialde Wendel family in what he called in the Parliament "a pillage".[9]
In 1940, because of his expertise on Germany, Schuman was called to become a member ofPaul Reynaud's wartime government to be in charge of the refugees. He kept that position during the firstPétain government. On 10 July, he voted to give full power to MarshalPhilippe Pétain, who supported the armistice with Germany but refused to continue to be in the government. On 14 September, he was arrested in Metz for acts of resistance and protest againstNazi methods.[7] He was interrogated by theGestapo but the intervention of a German lawyer stopped him from being sent toDachau concentration camp. Schuman was placed then under house arrest in Neustadt but was able to escape to the unoccupied zone of France in August 1942.[7] Between 1942 and 1944 he also stayed several times at various monasteries such as theEn-Calcat Abbey whose liturgical hours he followed.[10]
After the war, Schuman rose to great prominence. He initially had difficulties because of his 1940 vote for Petain and for being one of his ministers. In September 1944, GeneralJean de Lattre de Tassigny, the commander of the French First Army, sought him out to become a political advisor in the affairs of Alsace-Lorraine, the minister of war,Andre Diethelm [fr], demanded shortly later that "this product of Vichy be immediately kicked out". Schuman had been a former minister of Pétain and a parliamentarian who had voted to grant him full powers and so, under the ordinance of 26 August 1944, he was considered ineligible for public office, stricken withindignité nationale.[11][12] On 24 July 1945, Schuman wrote toCharles de Gaulle to ask him to intervene. De Gaulle answered favourably, and on 15 September, Schuman regained his full civic rights,[12] becoming able to again play an active role in French politics.
Schuman was Minister of Finance in 1946 andPrime Minister from 1947 to 1948. He assured parliamentary stability during a period of revolutionary strikes and attempted insurrection. In the last days of his first administration, his government proposed plans that later resulted in theCouncil of Europe and theEuropean Communitysingle market.[13] BecomingForeign Minister in 1948, he retained the post in different governments until early 1953. When Schuman's first government proposed the creation of a European Assembly, it made the issue a governmental matter for Europe, not merely an academic discussion or the subject of private conferences, likeThe Hague Congress of the European Movements earlier in 1948. (Schuman's was one of the few governments to send active ministers.) The proposal saw life as the Council of Europe and was created within the tight schedule that Schuman had set. At the signing of its Statutes at St James's Palace, London, on 5 May 1949, the founding states agreed to define the borders of Europe based on the principles of human rights and fundamental freedoms that Schuman enunciated there. He also announced a comingsupranational union for Europe that saw light as theEuropean Coal and Steel Community and other such Communities within a union framework of common law and democracy:
We are carrying out a great experiment, the fulfilment of the same recurrent dream that for ten centuries has revisited the peoples of Europe: creating between them an organization puttingan end to war and guaranteeing aneternal peace. The Roman church of the Middle Ages failed finally in its attempts that were inspired by humane and human preoccupations. Another idea, that of a world empire constituted under the auspices of German emperors was less disinterested; it already relied on the unacceptable pretensions of a 'Führertum' (domination by dictatorship) whose 'charms' we have all experienced.
Audacious minds, such asDante,Erasmus,Abbé de St-Pierre,Rousseau,Kant andProudhon, had created in the abstract the framework for systems that were both ingenious and generous. The title of one of these systems became the synonym of all that is impractical:Utopia, itself a work of genius, written byThomas More, the Chancellor ofHenry VIII, King of England.
The European spirit signifies being conscious of belonging to a cultural family and having a willingness to serve thatcommunity in the spirit of total mutuality, without any hidden motives of hegemony or the selfish exploitation of others. The 19th century saw feudal ideas being opposed and, with the rise of a national spirit, nationalities asserting themselves. Our century, that has witnessed the catastrophes resulting in the unending clash of nationalities and nationalisms, must attempt and succeed in reconciling nations in asupranational association. This would safeguard the diversities and aspirations of each nation while coordinating them in the same manner as the regions are coordinated within the unity of the nation.
— Robert Schuman, speaking in Strasbourg, 16 May 1949[14]
As Foreign Minister, he announced in September 1948 and the next year, before the United Nations General Assembly, France's aim was to create a democratic organisation for Europe, which a post-Nazi and democratic Germany could join.[15] In 1949 and 1950, he made a series of speeches in Europe and North America about creating a supranational European Community.[14] This supranational structure, he said, would create lasting peace between Member States.
Our hope is that Germany will commit itself on a road that will allow it to find again its place in the community of free nations, commencing with thatEuropean Community of which the Council of Europe is a herald.
— Robert Schuman, speaking at the United Nations, 23 September 1949[15]
On 9 May 1950, the principles of supranational democracy were announced in what has become known as theSchuman Declaration.[16] The text was jointly prepared byPaul Reuter, the legal adviser at the Foreign Ministry and his aideBernard Clappier [fr] andJean Monnet and two of his team members,Pierre Uri andÉtienne Hirsch. 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 fundamental institutions. On 18 April 1951, six founder members signed theTreaty of Paris, which formed the basis of theEuropean Coal and Steel Community. They declared that date and the corresponding democratic, supranational principles to be the 'real foundation of Europe'. Three communities have been created so far. TheTreaties of Rome (1957) created the Economic Community and the nuclear non-proliferation Community,Euratom. Together with the intergovernmental machinery of later treaties, they eventually evolved into theEuropean Union. The Schuman Declaration was made on 9 May 1950 and since then, 9 May is designated to beEurope Day.
As Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Schuman was instrumental in the creation of theNorth Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Schuman also signed theNorth Atlantic Treaty for France. The defensive principles of NATO's Article 5 were also repeated in theEuropean Defence Community Treaty, which failed since the French National Assembly declined to vote its ratification. Schuman also supported anAtlantic Community.
On 19 March 1958, the first meeting of the European Parliamentary Assembly was held in Strasbourg under the Presidency of Schuman.
Schuman later served as Minister of Justice before becoming the firstPresident of the European Parliamentary Assembly (the successor to theCommon Assembly), which bestowed on him by acclamation the title 'Father of Europe'. He is considered one of thefounding fathers of the European Union. He presided over theEuropean Movement from 1955 to 1961. In 1958, he received theKarlspreis,[17] an Award by the German city ofAachen to people who contributed to the European idea and European peace, commemoratingCharlemagne, the ruler of what is now both France and Germany, who lived in and is buried at Aachen. Schuman was also made a knight of theOrder of Pius IX.[18]
Schuman demonstrated a monkish asceticism in his daily life and believed that democracy owed its existence to Christianity.[10]
On 9 June 1990, the Bishop of Metz, Pierre Raffin, authorized the opening of thebeatification process. Schuman was proclaimed aServant of God in May 2004, with the conclusion of the diocesan process. The documents were sent to the Vatican, where theCongregation for the Causes of Saints is studying the dossier.[22]
On 19 June 2021, in an audience granted to CardinalMarcello Semeraro,Pope Francis authorized the Congregation for the Causes of Saints to promulgate the decree concerning the heroic virtues of Robert Schuman, who can thus be defined asVenerable.[23] The promulgation of the decree is a first step towards canonization by theRoman Catholic Church.[24]
TheSchuman District ofBrussels (including ametro/railway station and atunnel, as well as asquare) is named in his honour. Around the square ("Schuman roundabout") can be found various European institutions, including theBerlaymont building which is the headquarters of theEuropean Commission and has a monument to Schuman outside, as well as keyEuropean Parliament buildings. In the nearbyCinquantenaire Park, there is a bust of Schuman as a memorial to him. The European Parliament awards the Robert Schuman Scholarship[25] for university graduates to complete a traineeship within the European Parliament and gain experience within the different committees, legislative processes and framework of the European Union.
In 1952 Schuman was awarded with an honorary doctorate in the Netherlands, at the Katholieke Economische Hogeschool Tilburg, at presentTilburg University.
InAix-en-Provence, a town inBouches-du-Rhone, France, there is an Avenue Robert Schuman, which houses the three university buildings of the town and inIreland there is a building in theUniversity of Limerick named the "Robert Schuman" building.
TheRobert Schuman Institute inBudapest,Hungary, a European-level training institution of theEuropean People's Party family is dedicated to promoting the idea of a united Europe, supporting and the process of democratic transformation in Central, Eastern and South Eastern Europe and the development ofChristian Democratic and centre-right political parties also bears the name of Robert Schuman.
In 1965, the Robert Schuman Mittelschule in the St. Mang suburb of the city ofKempten in southernBavaria was named after him.[29]
^abWilton, Gary (2016). "Chapter 1: Christianity at the founding: the legacy of Robert Schuman". In Chaplin, Johnathan; Wilton, Gary (eds.).God and the EU: Faith in the European Project. Routledge. pp. 13–32.ISBN978-1-138-90863-5.
^Fimister, Alan (2008).Robert Schuman: Neo Scholastic Humanism and the Reunification of Europe. P.I.E Peter Lang. p. 198.ISBN978-90-5201-439-5.
Avery, Graham. "Robert Schuman on Hungary and Europe."Hungarian Quarterly 198 (2010): 3–16.
Domingo, Rafael. "Robert Schuman and the process of European integration." inChristianity and Global Law (2020) pp 178–194.
Fimister, Alan.Robert Schuman: Neo-Scholastic Humanism and the Reunification of Europe (2008)
Hitchcock, William I. "France, the Western Alliance, and the origins of the Schuman Plan, 1948–1950."Diplomatic History 21.4 (1997): 603–630.
Kaiser, Wolfram. "From state to society? The historiography of European integration." in Michelle Cini and Angela K. Bourne, eds.Palgrave Advances in European Union Studies (Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2006). pp. 190–208.
Langley, McKendree R. "Robert Schuman and the Politics of Reconciliation."Pro Rege 10.4 (1982): 8–16.online
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.
