Full article, Richard Coudenhouve-Kalergi

Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi (1894-1972), Austrian philosopher and politician.

© Article written by Gabriel Godeffroy for the Central Europe Foundation

Photo: Trude Fleischmann, “Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi“, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek

After receiving his doctorate in Philosophy at the University of Vienna in 1917, Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi developed his Pan-European idea in several newspaper and journal articles. In his programmatic book Pan-Europa, published in Vienna in 1923, Coudenhove-Kalergi called for the political and economic unification of the European states, except for Turkey, the British Empire and Soviet Russia. In the economic part of his program, he advocated the establishment of a Pan-European economic area by removing all economic, customs and transport barriers between the European states. Coudenhove-Kalergi considered that the economic unification of Europe could only be achieved gradually. In this sense, he envisaged the formation of economic, customs and monetary alliances between several countries, such as the Successor states of Austria-Hungary, which he specifically mentioned in his programmatic book, as a first step towards a Pan-European Economic Union.

To promote his Pan-European idea, Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi founded the Pan-European Union in Vienna which had national and local sections throughout Europe, published numerous articles, negotiated with political leaders and regularly organized Pan-European conferences and congresses. After the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany, Coudenhove-Kalergi went into exile in Paris and later in New York. After the Second World War, he inspired Winston Churchill’s famous “Zurich speech” and participated in the European Movement. For his commitment of over twenty-five years to the political and economic unification of Europe, Coudenhove-Kalergi received the first international Charlemagne Prize of the city of Aachen in 1950.

--Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi, Pan-Europa, Wien: Pan-Europa Verlag, 1923.
--Anita Ziegerhofer, Botschafter Europas: Richard Nikolaus Coudenhove-Kalergi und die Paneuropa-Bewegung in den zwanziger und dreißiger Jahren, Wien: Böhlau, 2004.
--"Rede von Richard Nikolaus Graf Coudenhove-Kalergi" (Der internationale Karlspreis zu Aachen: Für die Einheit Europas)