Biography of Robert Schuman

Robert Schuman was born on the 29th of June 1886 in Luxembourg. His mother was a Luxembourger and his father was a native of Lorraine, who had escaped the German annexation of Alsace-Lorraine in 1870 by settling in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, a few kilometers from his native village of Evrange.

This explains why the young Robert Schuman went to primary school and secondary school in Luxembourg. Having attended university in Germany and Strasbourg, he set up practice as a lawyer in Metz in June 1912. Two years later, war broke out; Robert Schuman was excused from military service on health grounds.

In November 1918, Alsace-Lorraine celebrated its return to France and Robert Schuman became the Member of Parliament for the department of Moselle. In 1939, war broke out once more and Robert Schuman was nominated Parliamentary Undersecretary of State for Refugees. Upon his return to Lorraine, he was arrested by the Gestapo and secretly imprisoned in Metz. As the President of the Council (1947) and the Foreign Minister (1948-1952), he was one of the key negotiators of all of the major treaties at the end of the Second World War (The Council of Europe, the North Atlantic Treaty, ECSC). From 1958 to 1960, he was the first President of the European Parliament, which awarded him the title of “Father of Europe” at the end of his term of office.

Chronology of the life of Robert Schuman

• 29th of June 1886: Birth in Clausen, a suburb of Luxembourg
• 1900: The death of his father, Jean-Pierre Schuman
• 1896-1903: Secondary school at Athenaeum in Luxembourg
• 1904: Baccalaureate at the Lycée impérial in Metz
• 1904-1910: Law studies at the Universities of Berlin, Munich, Bonn and Strasbourg
• 1911: The death of his mother
• 1912: The opening of his law practice in Metz
• 1914: Called up for the auxiliary troops by the German army in Metz
• 1915-1918: Replacement service in the administration of the Kreis of Boulay
• 1919-1940: MP for the Moselle Department
• 1920: Appointed to the Advisory Assembly of Alsace-Lorraine in Strasbourg
• 1940: Parliamentary Undersecretary of State for Refugees
• 14th of September 1940: Arrested by the Gestapo
• 13th of April 1941: House arrest in Neustadt (Palatinate)
• 1st of August 1942: Escape from Neustadt, entry into hiding
• September 1944: Return to Moselle
• 1945-1962: MP for the Moselle Department
• 1947: Minister of Finance in the Ramadier government
• 24th of November-19th of July 1948: President of the Council
• July 1948-December 1952: Foreign Minister (in the Marie, Queuille, Bidault, Pleven, Faure, and Pinay Governments)
• February-December 1955: Minister of Justice in the E. Faure Government
• 1958-1960: President of the European Parliamentary Assembly in Strasbourg
• 1955-1961: President of the European Movement
• 1962: Retirement from political life
• 4th of September 1963: Death in Scy-Chazelles