Richard
Coudenhove-Kalergi, the son of a Austro-Hungarian count and diplomat, and a
Japanese mother, was born in 1894.
After the
First World War
Coudenhove-Kalergi set out a fight for the unity of Europe. His first book -
in fact a manifesto - titled
Pan-Europa was published in 1923, and each
copy contained a membership form which invited the reader to become a member
of Pan-Europa movement. Thus, Coudenhove-Kalergi is the founder of the first
grassroots movement for the European unity. The movement held its first
Congress in Vienna in 1926. The following year
Aristide
Briand was elected honorary president. Major personalities of European
culture, as Albert Einstein, Thomas Mann, Sigmund Freud, Rilke, Unamuno,
Madariaga, Ortega y Gasset and Adenauer, belonged to Pan- Europa
The French
statesman Edouard Herriot writes in his book "The United States of Europe":
"A large body among the leading spirits of Europe's youth devotes itself
today to the achievement of the lofty teachings of Kant. At the head of this
intellectual group it is only fair to put Count Richard N.
Coudenhove-Kalergi, the man who has certainly done most in recent years for
European federation".
Juan
Carlos Ocaña
