71 Getting closer to the EU M3 The Founding Fathers of the EU M 4 Winston Churchill’s dream of a united Europe 1.2 The History of the EU The visionary leaders in the picture below inspired the creation of the European Union, in which we live today. Without their energy and motivation we would not be living in the peaceful and stable world that we take for granted. From resistance fighters to lawyers, the founding fathers were a diverse group of people who held the same ideals: a peaceful, united and prosperous Europe. In addiction to the founding fathers listed below, many others have worked tirelessly towards the European project and have inspired it in their own way. This section concerning the founding fathers of the EU is therefore a work in progress. Konrad Adenauer Winston Churchill Alcide De Gasperi Walter Hallstein Jean Monnet Robert Schuman Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill (1874–1965) was a British politician. He was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. Widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the 20 th century, Churchill was also an officer in the British Army, a historian, a writer (under the pen name Winston S. Churchill), and an artist. Churchill addresses The Congress of Europe May 7, 1948, The Hague Since I spoke on this subject at Zurich in 1946, and since our British United Europe Movement was launched in January 1947, events have carried our affairs beyond our expectations. This cause was obviously either vital or merely academic. If it was academic, it would wither by the wayside; but if it were the vital need of Europe and the world in this dark hour, then the spark would start a fire which would glow brighter and stronger in the hearts and the minds of men and women in many lands. This is what has actually happened. Great governments have banded themselves together with all their executive power. The mighty republic of the United States has espoused the Marshall Plan. Sixteen European States are now associated for economic purposes; five have entered into close economic and military relationship. We hope that this nucleus will in due course be joined by the peoples of Scandinavia, and of the Iberian peninsula, as well as by Italy, who should now resume her full place in the comity of nations. […] This is not a movement of parties but a movement of peoples. There is no room for jealousies. If there is rivalry of parties, let it be to see which one will distinguish itself the most for the common cause. No one can suppose that Europe can be united on any party or sectional basis, any more than any one nation can assert an overweening predominance. It must be all for all. Europe can only be united by the heart-felt wish and vehement expression of the great majority of all the peoples in all the parties in all the freedom-loving countries, no matter where they dwell or how they vote. […] 5 10 15 5 20 25 30 35 10 15 71051_1_1_2015_Inhalt_4.indd 7 21.01.15 10:38 Nu r z u Pr üf zw ec ke n Ei g nt um d es C .C .B uc hn er V er la gs