Born on 16 November in times past(Kingdom of Bohemia) 1894 - Richard Nicholas Coudenhove-Kalergi, an Austrian nobleman with Czechoslovak citizenship, writer and politician († 27 July 1972) Richard Nikolaus Eijiro von Coudenhove-Kalergi (German: Richard Nikolaus Eijiro Graf Coudenhove-Kalergi) November 16, 1894 – July 27, 1972) was an Austrian politician, geopolitician, philosopher and count of Coudenhove-Kalergi, who was a pioneer of European integration. He was the founder and President for 49 years of the Paneuropean Union. His parents were Heinrich von Coudenhove-Kalergi, an Austro-Hungarian diplomat, and Mitsuko Aoyama, the daughter of an oil merchant, antiques-dealer, and huge landowner family in Tokyo. His childhood name of Japan was Aoyama, Eijiro (青山, 栄次郎?). He became a Czechoslovakian citizen in 1919 and then took French nationality from 1939 to his death. His first book, titled Pan-Europa was published in 1923, contained a membership form for the Pan-Europa movement. Coudenhove-Kalergis movement held its first Congress in Vienna in 1926. In 1927 Aristide Briand was elected honorary president. Personalities attending included: Albert Einstein, Thomas Mann and Sigmund Freud. He was the first recipient of the Charlemagne Prize in 1950. The 1972–1973 academic year at the College of Europe was named in his honour. Coudenhove-Kalergi proposed Beethovens Ode to Joy as the music for the European Anthem. He also proposed a Europe Day, European postage stamp and so many goods for his movement (e.g. badges and pennants). Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi was the second son of Heinrich Coudenhove-Kalergi (1859–1906), an Austro-Hungarian count and diplomat of mixed European origin, and Mitsuko Aoyama (1874–1941). His father, who spoke sixteen languages and embraced travel as the only means of prolonging life, had prematurely abandoned a career in the Austrian diplomatic service that took him to Athens, Constantinople, Rio de Janeiro, and Tokyo, to devote himself to study and writing. Coudenhove-Kalergis parents met when the future countess helped the Austro-Hungarian diplomat stationed in Japan after he fell off a horse. In commenting on their union, Whittaker Chambers described the future originator of Pan-Europe as practically a Pan-European organization himself. He elaborated: The Coudenhoves were a wealthy Flemish family that fled to Austria during the French Revolution. The Kalergis were a wealthy Greek family from Crete. The line has been further crossed with Poles, Norwegians, Balts, French and Germans, but since the families were selective as well as cosmopolite, the hybridization has been consistently successful. The Kalergis family roots trace to the Byzantine royalty via Venetian aristocracy, connecting with the Phokas imperial dynasty. In 1300, Coudenhove-Kalergis ancestor Alexios Phokas-Kalergis signed the treaty that made Crete a dominion of Venice. During his childhood, Coudenhove-Kalergis mother had read aloud to him Momotarō and other Japanese fairy tales. Coudenhove-Kalergi passed his adolescence on Bohemian family estates in Ronsperg, known today as Poběžovice. His father personally taught his two sons Russian and Hungarian and toughened them both physically and morally. He took them on long walks in all weathers, made them sleep on straw mattresses and take cold showers, and taught them to shoot and fence so well that no one would ever dare challenge them. He also took them to Mass every Sunday. On every Good Friday, as the liturgy came to the exhortation oremus et pro perfidis Judaeis (Let us also pray for the faithless Jews), the old count allegedly rose and walked out of the church in a protest against this supposed expression of antisemitism. Coudenhove-Kalergi studied at the Ecole épiscopale de Brixen (Brixen) before attending the Theresianische Akademie in Vienna from 1908 until 1913. He obtained his doctorate in philosophy with a thesis on Die Objectivität als Grundprinzip der Moral (The Objectivity as Fundamental Principle of Morals) in 1917 from the University of Vienna. While still in his student years, Coudenhove-Kalergi married the famous Viennese actress Ida Roland in April 1915. His marriage to a divorcée thirteen years his senior and a commoner, caused a temporary split with his family. His mother Mitsuko didint accept Ida, considering her as a beggar living in the riverbank ground, with the Japanese traditional point of view against actors and performers. Richard got banned from Coudenhove-Kalergi family by his mother, the head of the family. But she released the ban when he became the special man by his pan-European idea. On a masonic yearbook he died in a stroke. But his secretary wrote about his suicide. On her memoir, his death was hidden, not to make people dissapointed because he was the great dedicator to European integration. He wanted to die in Austria. He was on the top of the Pan-European Union until his death. The presidency was succeeded by Otto von Habsburg. Coudenhove-Kalergi is buried at Gruben near Gstaad. His family had stayed there once in 1931. His grave wrapped with wild grapes is in a Japanese rock garden in the Swiss Alps. The grave is unpretentious. It has French epitaph Pionnier des États-Unis dEurope (Pioneer of the United States of Europe), instead of all the great titles. He got married three times: firstly Ida Roland, secondly Alexandra Gräfin von Tiele-Winkler, and thirdly Melanie Benatzky-Hoffmann. His known children were Idas daughter Erika and Alexandras son Alexander, both of whom were his children-in-law.
Posted on: Sun, 16 Nov 2014 12:12:50 +0000
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