Posted on 30 July 2020
On Tuesday July 28, 2020, Prof. Dr. Manfred Hinz from the University of Passau (Philosophische Fakultät Romanistik) visited the European University Institute to donate a historical document to the Historical Archives of the European Union.
The donation consists in an original letter from Alcide De Gasperi, then President of the Council and Minister of Foreign Affairs, written on June 18, 1946, and addressed to the American Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs James Byrnes. The item had been acquired by the father of Prof. Hinz in an auction "Autographes & Documents Historiques” at Maison Charavay in Paris. In the letter, De Gasperi writes as "provisional head of the nascent Italian Republic" and as interpreter of the public opinion in his country on the imminent decision on the democratic post-war organization of Europe: “Il popolo italiano aspira ad essere nella famiglia europea non un peso ma un elemento attivo”.
The document will enrich the private papers of Alcide De Gasperi, which was deposited at the Historical Archives of the European Union by his daughter Maria Romana De Gasperi in 2001, during celebrations of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the European University Institute’s opening in 1976. The De Gasperi fonds is composed of correspondence, writings and speeches, notes and memoranda, often handwritten, produced or received by De Gasperi during his public life or collected by Maria Romana De Gasperi. The papers have been digitized and can be consulted upon request at the HAEU.
Consult the inventory of the Alcide De Gasperi fonds online.