Robert Schuman (29 June 1886 – 4 September 1963) was Prime Minister of France from 24 November 1947 to 26 July 1948 (succeeding Paul Ramadier and preceding Andre Marie) and from 5 to 11 September 1948 (succeeding Marie and preceding Henri Queuille). He was a member of the Popular Republican Movement.
Biography[]
Robert Schuman was born in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg to a wealthy Lorraine family, and he studied law in Strassburg and the German city of Bonn. After World War I he entered French politics as a parliamentary deputy for Metz and was chairman of the parliamentary finance commission for seventeen years. In September 1940 he was arrested and transported to Germany, but escaped in 1942 to join the French Resistance. In 1944, he co-founded the Christian democratic MRP. A member of the Constituent Assemblies of 1945-6, he was a Deputy in the National Assembly from 1946 to 1962. He was Minister of Finance in 1946 and 1947, before becoming Prime Minister in 1947, when he had to govern France in the face of communist unrest. He is best remembered as Foreign Minister from 1948 to 1952, when his visionary policies sparked off reconciliation between France and Germany. Even though his ideas for a European Defense Community were rejected by Pierre Mendes-France, his European Coal and Steel Commission became a foundation of subsequent European integration. He was the first President of the European Parliament, serving from 1958 to 1960. A celibate and devout Catholic, he was beatified by the Vatican in 1995.