Posted on 10 November 2011
Max Kohnstamm. A European’s Life and Work - by Anjo G. Harryvan and Jan van der Harst
Nomos, 2011
Max Kohnstamm was the first president of the European University Institute in 1974.
Kohnstamm is a pioneer of post-war European unification. As Jean Monnet’s right-hand man he was closely involved in the establishment and design of the European Union (EU) as we know it today. Up to the present day he has devoted himself to a solid European and international community of law, aimed at effectively banning unilateral power aspirations and interstate violence.
As a survivor of Hitler’s ‘Nacht und Nebel’ the young Dutch diplomat and former secretary to Queen Wilhelmina found himself both impressed and greatly inspired by Monnet’s campaign for supranationally organising the states of Europe as an alternative for war. Kohnstamm acted as secretary-general of the ‘first European government’, the High Authority of the European Coal and Steel Community. In 1956 he left office to assist Monnet and the latter’s Action Committee for the United States of Europe. The two men constituted a team that exerted far-reaching influence behind the scenes of European and global diplomacy. After his years at the EUI, he played a remarkable role in Jacques Delors’ policy drive for completing the EU’s Common Market.