Quote from Timothy Fitzpatrick on October 17, 2025, 20:14

THE CZECH REPUBLIC AND SWITZERLAND IN THE FATE OF THE CREATOR OF A UNITED EUROPE

Author Oleg Smirnov
November 23, 2017

Pan-European Central Council. In the center - Richard Koudenhove-Kalergi and Aristid Brian. May 1927. author's archive

The name of Count Richard Nicholas von Kudenhove-Kalerga is rarely mentioned on the pages of textbooks, meanwhile this man deserves to have his portraits decorated the meeting rooms of the European Union - he devoted his whole life to the unification of Europe.

A citizen of Austria-Hungary, a citizen of Czechoslovakia and then France, Richard Nicholas von Kudenhove-Kalergi was born in Tokyo, grew up in Western Bohemia, and spent the last decades of his life in Switzerland. Hitler burned his books in the squares, and Churchill called him his adviser. He held discussions with Aristide Briand, Tomasz Garrig Masaryk, Charles de Gaulle; his closest associate was the son of the last Austrian emperor Otto von Habsburg. And even the very sign of the Pan-European Union founded by him - a circle framed by gold stars - served as a prototype for the symbol of the European Union.

He never tired of repeating that borders and customs barriers within Europe are absurd, countries need a single currency, common citizenship, armed forces - only a strong united Europe "from Portugal to Poland" is able to withstand the challenges of the twentieth century.

The eastern border of the continent was held by Kudenhove-Kalergi along the border of democracy - where freedom ends, Europe ends. "It is quite possible," he wrote, "that one day Russia will reconnect with Europe - then not the Urals, but the Altai Mountains will become the border between Asia and Europe, and Europe will extend to the Chinese and Japanese empires and the Pacific Ocean."

He himself can be considered a living symbol of the history of the Old World, because among his ancestors there are Flemish crusaders, Byzantine aristocrats, and even Russian Chancellor Karl Nesselrode.

 

Western Bohemia is the starting point of a united Europe

The creator of the idea of European unity was born 123 years ago, on November 17, 1894, in a fantastic family for that time. His father, the Austrian Count Heinrich von Kudenhove-Kalergi, a diplomat, envoy to Japan of Emperor Franz Joseph himself, married Mitsuko Aoyama, the daughter of a Tokyo merchant, given to the geisha school, a Buddhist brought up in the traditions of Confucian morality. In the marriage, for which the "white barbarian" had to pay a considerable ransom, and seek blessings from the Pope himself, seven children were born: Hans and Richard, who were born in Japan, and Gerolf, Karl, Elizabeth, Ida and Olga, whose cradle has already become Europe. The most amazing thing about this story is that they all grew up not in Tokyo or even in Vienna, but in Bohemia, in the town of Pobezhovice, which is still difficult to find on the border of the Czech Republic and Germany.

Pobezowice (the Germans call this place Ronsperg), where the estates and the family castle were located, remained in its heart for life. Having got there at the age of two, he did not remember Japan, and West Bohemia became his true homeland.

It was there, when he encountered customs officers during walks, that he, as a teenager, came up with ideas about the absurdity of barriers and borders that separate people who are no different from each other.

"My childhood in Ronsperg was happy and carefree, like a beautiful dream. The wall surrounding the park separated us from the noisy world. The castle was a separate world, an oasis of peace... The border of our world was created by the walls of the castle park, which was our only playground for games. In bad weather, we played in children's rooms, castle galleries and in a huge attic with a whole forest of beams.

In the middle of the castle there was a small courtyard with a small stone fountain. On the right is the entrance to the kitchen and the basement, on the left is the castle chapel. A city priest served mass here every Saturday. Hans and I served. On the second floor there was a castle theater with the scenes, light effects, costumes. We loved this room and staged improvised performances there, the poet and director was, of course, Hans. From the theater, a wide staircase decorated with father's hunting trophies led to the dining room, where portraits of our ancestors hung, and then to the holy of holies of the castle, a large library, which also served as the father's office.

There was a huge globe next to the desk. I liked spinning it and dreaming of distant countries. When my eyes fell on the Japanese islands, I remembered our grandfather and grandmother, Kihachi and Yonna. I saw them sitting in the garden in front of their small house, immersed in memories of their distant daughter and her children. The big green spot that separated Japan from Europe was Russia, the birthplace of my second grandmother, who was ruled for forty-six years by her great-uncle Nesselrode. Austria, the Czech Republic and Hungary were, of course, well known to me, as were Germany, the forest border with which we often crossed during walks. The Kudenkhove family originated from Holland... Our grandfather and grandmother met in Paris, and my ancestor lived in Versailles, who bore the half-French name Coudenhove de la Frettur, the page of the unfortunate Queen Maria Antoinette. Spain reminded me of Jacques de Coudenhov, who came from Rome on horseback to tell Emperor Charles V the terrible news of the capture and plundering of Rome by his rebellious Landsknechts.

Over the Mediterranean Sea, I remembered Kalerga from Crete and Venice, and Constantinople was the city for which Gerolf Kudenhove fought in the fourth crusade. England reminded me of our English great-grandfather Kalergi, a cowardly millionaire, and in Norway I was looking for the city of Bergen, the homeland of his mother. South of the equator, in Africa, I saw my uncle Hans sitting among his blacks with a hand monkey on his lap. And on the opposite side of the Atlantic Ocean, my father showed me the place where he shot two jaguars, whose skulls now decorate the wall above the fireplace in the library.

And the globe seemed to me small and closely intertwined with our branched family. And when I looked at the globe of the starry sky standing at the other end of the desk, the Earth seemed to me like a dead boat, carrying me and my family across the starry sea from the dark, unknown past to the dark, unknown future.

On winter nights, when we, wrapped in fox furs, glided through the snow-covered valley and hills, I looked at the stars into the crystal clear sky and reflected on the insignificance of man and life. Unexpectedly, an understanding came to me, which decisively influenced my childish consciousness: everything is possible - there is nothing predetermined in advance...

Behind the walls of Ronsperg Castle, this oasis of cosmopolitanism, lay the German lands of the Czech Republic, a ping-pong ball in the national strish of the Czechs and the Germans. Ronschperg was between two borders: in the west, ten kilometers from the castle, there was the Austrian border that separated Austria from Germany, and in the south, just five kilometers away, there was a language border that separated the German world from the Slavic one," writes Nicholas Kudenkhove in his memoirs.

 

Russian ancestors

Of course, it is interesting to trace the "Russian trace" among Richard's numerous relatives. The second part of his surname hints at Byzantium - some tend to raise the Kalergis family even to Emperor Phoca, although the family itself has never attributed such kinship to itself. Kalergis are very famous in Crete - they are considered national heroes there, raising uprisings against both Byzantium and Turkey.

Maria Kalergis, Richard's great-grandmother, was not born in Greece, but in St. Petersburg - the ancestor moved to Russia, entered the service of Catherine II, and reached the rank of general. Maria's father Ivan Kalergi (1814-1863), or Kalerzhi, as he began to be called in Russia, made a huge fortune by selling grain and candles. Like his Cretan relatives, he fought for the liberation of Greece from the Turkish yoke. In 1839, he married for the second time to Maria Nesselrod (1822-1874), daughter of the hero of the Battle of Borodino, General Friedrich Karl Nesselrode, and the polka Fekla Nalech-Gurskaya. She was the niece of the all-powerful chancellor. For his 17-year-old wife, the rich man Kalerzhi built a magnificent house on Nevsky Prospekt.

However, money did not save this marriage, shortly after the birth of their only daughter in 1840, it actually broke up. Ivan went to England, Maria chose Paris, where she held a salon with two uninhibited Russian aristocrats who preferred to live separately from their husbands, which was attended by Balzac, Chateaubriand, Musset, Merime, Delacroix, Musset, Gautier. As Karl Nesselrode's niece, she may have carried out his espionage assignments. Richard's great-grandmother went down in history as an outstanding pianist, favorite student of Chopin and Liszt, friend and patron of Richard Wagner. She was Russian and at the same time cosmopolitan, Parisian and Polish, lived in St. Petersburg, Paris, Baden-Baden, Warsaw and was considered one of the most beautiful women of her time. The Great Cypriad Norvid called her a "white siren". When she visited the sick Heine in Paris, he, according to legend, exclaimed: "This is not a woman, but a cathedral of love!"

Her daughter Maria was brought up in one of the monasteries in Paris. In 1857, she married Franz-Karl Kudenhove; the couple combined their surnames and accepted Austrian citizenship. In 1862, Franz left his career as a diplomat and devoted himself to managing his estates in the Czech Republic and Hungary. Their son Heinrich Hans Maria Coudenhove-Kalergi (1859-1906), like his father, chose a diplomatic career: he served in the embassies of Austria-Hungary in Athens, Buenos Aires, Constantinople, Rio de Janeiro, to eventually get to Tokyo and meet his destiny there.

 

Pobezowice Castle and its owners

After having a "Japanese family", Heinrich Kudenhove settled in Pobezhovice, where he tried to maintain the atmosphere of cosmopolitanism: Mitsuko's companion was from Hungary, the children's governesses came from England and France, Henry's secretary was a Bavarian, the manager of the estates was a Czech, the Turkish teacher was an Albanian Muslim, the master's valet was an Armenian. Rabbi of Pilsen often visited here, visited by Hindu Suravorti, a descendant of Caliph Abu Bakr, who would later become the leader of the pan-Islamist movement.

Richard Kudenhove recalled: "My father always spoke to my mother in Japanese, with his valet Babik Kaligan - in Turkish. He taught us Russian and Hungarian himself." Polyglot Henry, who spoke more than twenty languages, continued to conduct intensive intellectual work in the far corner of Bohemia - he left behind projects of state reforms and a number of philosophical works, which are influenced by the philosophy of Leibniz and the ideas of Reformed Catholicism. His thesis on the philosophy of "Anti-Semitism" was specially noted by the University of Prague. Henry actively defended the rights of the Jews and even met with revolutionaries from this environment, including visiting Switzerland, and maintained contacts with the Bolsheviks. He was also pushed to this by the desire to help Japan during the Russian-Japanese war - as you know, the Japanese gave Russian revolutionaries money to organize sabotage on the territory of the Russian Empire. Heinrich Kudenhove never tired of repeating that it was little Japan that would emerge victorious from this struggle.

In 1906, Henry died suddenly, leaving his 32-year-old wife with seven children, the eldest of whom was thirteen, and the youngest was three years old. The grave of the penultimate Ronsperg count in the city cemetery cannot be overlooked - a large dark stone cross rises right on the main alley.

All the worries fell on the shoulders of Mitsuko, who never got used to Europe and didn't even really learn German. However, it was to her until the eldest son Hans came of age, according to her husband's will, that the management of all property was transferred. Some of the estates were lost as a result, but still the family managed to stay afloat.

As the head of the family, Mitsuko changed dramatically: from a meek and patient wife, she turned into a despotic mother, whose firm character suffered primarily for her daughters - in them she sought to bring up Asian self-contrule and female self-denial. After the father's death, home education of the children ended, they all went to Vienna.

Mitsuko's further fate was connected with Europe, she never returned to her beloved Japan, although she missed her for the rest of her life, corresponded intensively with her parents while they were alive, visited the Japanese embassy. During the First World War, she moved with her daughters to her estate Pivon, five kilometers from Pobezowice Castle, where she opened an infirmary in the building of the former monastery. At the end of the war, Mitsuko, according to the family's traditions, transferred the property to her eldest son Hans. After the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918 and the formation of independent Czechoslovakia, she and her youngest daughter Olga, who devoted her whole life to her mother, settled near Vienna, where she died in 1941. On the slope of life, Mitsuko's passion became painting, she painted still lifes and portraits in the Japanese style, bright, as if challenging the muted colors of the Bohemian landscape. Mitsuko dictated memories to Olga, student-to-detailed and childishly naive.

The new owner of Pobezhovice Hans went down in history as an eccentric collector, some of whose acquisitions will later be replenished by the Museum of Asia and Africa named after V. Naprstka in Prague. He amazed his contemporaries by creating a furnace in the form of his own figure - the fire came out of his mouth. Today, fragments of this furnace have been discovered, and experts do not leave hope of recreating it. Hans also carried an Egyptian mummy with him in the car, wrote a strange novel "How I ate a white Chinese man".

He received a doctorate in philosophy at Charles University. In 1915, he married Lilly Steinschneider-Wenkheim, the daughter of a Hungarian manufacturer of Jewish origin. Lilly not only vigorously managed the estates, but also became the first female pilot in Austria-Hungary to set many records. In 1927, their daughter Maria Elekta was born. During World War II, Lilly had to flee to Italy, fleeing from the Nazis, Hans barely got her "Aryan testimony". Maria Electa stayed with her father, and Hans spent all the years of occupation anxious for her life - he even had to join the local Nazi party. However, the family was more protected by the myth of their kinship with the Japanese emperor...

In 1945, Hans Kudenhove was accused of collaborationism and, according to the decrees of E. Benesh, deprived of all property. He got to the filtration camp of Hrastavice, where ethnic Germans living on Czech territory were held. He spent the rest of his days in Germany. Pobezhovitsky Castle was handed over to the border troops - it was a zone of contact of the Czechoslovak SSR with the Western world. After the military left in 1989, the estate was completely ruined. Today, part of the furnishings, furniture, portraits can be seen in the exposition of the nearby Gorshovsky Tyn castle - the Kudenkhove family was once friends with its owners.

 

Convinced pacifist

Richard Kudenhove-Kalergi, like all the boys in the family, graduated from the Vienna Elite Academy "Teresium", then from the Faculty of History and Philosophy of the University of Vienna. In April 1915, he married Ida Roland (1881-1951), an actress who shone on the stage of Germany and Austria. The wife opened the doors to the aristocratic and high-societ circles of Vienna and Berlin for the young philosopher, where she was inher: she was a star who was compared to Sarah Bernard. Mitsuko never accepted this union: marriage with an actress who was much older than her young son and had an adult daughter seemed absolutely unacceptable to her. However, the marriage was happy: Ida became a loyal assistant to her husband in his desire to realize the idea of a united Europe. The portrait of Richard of those years has been preserved: a deep look, an attractive spiritual face, unusually harmoniously combining European and Japanese features...

In November 1918, Kudenhove, inspired by President Wilson's "Fourteen Points", together with other Austro-Hungarian intellectuals, signed the pacifist manifesto of the Berlin writer Kurt Hiller. Richard remained a convinced pacifist all his life.

In his first political article published in October 1920, Kudenhove proposed to "internationalize Vienna and the surrounding area" and move the League of Nations here - at that time it had just left London and moved to Geneva. Since September 1921, he has been writing about his hopes for the unification of Europe into a well-functioning community capable of competing with world powers. In 1922, Richard joined the Vienna Masonic Lodge Humanitas, which, however, he left, while maintaining contacts with the Masons of Central Europe, France, England and the United States.

After the collapse of Austria-Hungary, Richard Kudenhove accepts Czechoslovak citizenship, which he will part with only in 1939, with the termination of Czechoslovakia. By the way, he tried to fascinate T. with the ideas of pan-Europeanism. G. Masarik, whom he came to Prague specifically to meet. However, the first president was too busy building a national state to be seriously interested in a united Europe.

Kudenhove formulates the basis of his concept, based on the ideas of the Austro-Hungarian pacifist Alfred Hermann Fried. The project acquires its final form in the spring of 1923, when 29-year-old Kudenchowe in Würting Castle in Upper Austria will write his manifesto "Pan-Europe" - unification as a recipe for salvation. By the way, he farsightedly did not include Great Britain in the plans of this future pan-European Union, because, in his opinion, its transatlantic ties with the United States were stronger than the European ones.

 

"The whole European question comes down to the Russian problem"

As for Russia, Kudenkhove considered it as a threat, saying that "whether it is white or red, it is always ready to conquer the Old World".

"The whole European question comes down to the Russian problem. The main goal of European policy should be to prevent a Russian invasion. There is only one way to prevent it - the unification of Europe. Therefore, history puts Europe in front of a choice: either to unite, despite all interethnic hostility, in a single union of states, or one day fall victim to the Russian conquest. The third is not given to Europe," he emphasizes on the pages of the manifesto.

However, this did not prevent Kudenkhova from treating Russia quite pragmatically, highlighting economic benefits. "Russia and Europe need each other to be reborn together. Both sides need political issues to give way to economic issues for at least a decade, so that politics is dictated by the economy," such words sound in his manifesto, anticipating the rational "Russian policy" of Europe of the future of the twentieth century.

Kudenkhov will address the topic of Russia, Bolshevism and its leaders throughout his life. In 1931, his brochure Stalin & Co was published, where he compared Soviet Russia to an industrial trust subordinated to the dictates of a single force - a communist party, which the philosopher calls the "new church". In the mobilization of Russian citizens who have become cogs in the locomotive of the Soviet machine, he sees the prerequisites for a future economic breakthrough, with which it will be difficult to compete with a divided Europe. A year later, this work was translated into Russian and published in Riga, in the émigé publishing house "Lamey", under the title "Bolshevism and Europe".

It is known that Joseph Stalin read the works of Kudenkhove-Kalerga. Like Hitler, the "leader of nations" also saw a great danger in pan-Europeanism, all the years of the existence of the Soviet regime the name of the philosopher remained taboo.

 

Pan-Europe documents went to Moscow

And Richard Kudenhove continued to fight for the implementation of his idea of unification of Europe, knowing that there was historical truth behind him. Back in 1922, he created the Pan-European Union, to which he tried to attract all the significant people of his era. Today you can read that Albert Einstein, Thomas Mann, Sigmund Freud were members of the Union. This is not quite true: they were only its honorary members and did not take direct part in the activities. However, the young intellectual was able to interest prominent politicians, primarily the influential French Prime Minister Aristide Briand.

The structure of the Pan-European Union assumed the creation of independent national bureaus in individual countries: following Austria, such "cells" appeared in Czechoslovakia, with two at once - Czech and German. There were branches of the Union in France, Switzerland and other countries. By the way, this oldest organization of European integration still exists today, and among the members of today's Pan-European Union you can find representatives of the governments of European countries and members of the European Parliament.

To popularize his project and related topics, in April 1924, Kudenhove began publishing a monthly magazine "Pan-Europe" in Vienna. The first three congresses of the Pan-European Union (in October 1926 in Vienna, in May 1930 in Berlin and in October 1932 in Basel) were held in attempts to achieve a fundamental reconciliation between the Germans and the French: in their enmity Kudenhove saw those "dragon teeth" from which a new European war would rise.

However, the brown threat was growing. Hitler did not forget the irreconcilable attitude of pan-Europeans to Nazism, and the books of "Métis" were burned in the squares of the Third Reich. Richard Kudenhove leaves Vienna at the last moment before the Anschluss, throwing all the papers in a hurry to the office of the Pan-European Union, located in the Hofburg. He was sure that the Nazis had destroyed the archives, but a different fate awaited them: everything was carefully preserved, and then the Red Army went as a military trophy. Today, pre-war documents of the Pan-European Union are stored in the Military Archives in Moscow.

Interestingly, the name of Richard Kudenhove-Kalerga sounded even from the mouths of modern Russian politicians during the period of warmer relations with the West. Thus, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov recalled him in his speech at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in 2010: "Probably, now it will not be sullerdary to turn to the manifesto "Pan-Europe" by R. N. Kudenkhove-Kalergi 1923. At that time, the father of the European idea, correctly assessing the catastrophic state of the continent, spoke about the importance of federal relations and the need to start building relations, including between the "United States of Europe" and Russia, and start with the economy, not allowing interference in internal affairs". Now, however, other philosophers are more popular among Russian politicians...

However, let's go back to the fate of Kudenkhova. After leaving Austria, he redoubles his efforts to fight Nazism by organizing another pan-European conference. In Bern, and later in Geneva, he publishes the magazine Europäische Briefe, in which he comments on military and political events until 1940. After the defeat of France, Coudenhove decides to leave: in mid-August 1940, after an unsuccessful attempt to get a British visa, he, Ida and her daughter urgently go to Lisbon. There they manage to get on a plane bound for New York.

Then there will be years in the United States and a return to the ruined post-war Europe in 1946. Kudenhove will live the rest of his life in Gruben, Switzerland.

 

Switzerland as a model for a united Europe

The second half of the philosopher's life is connected with Switzerland. Back in 1931, he bought an alpine chalet in a town near Gstadt. In the Palais Wilson in Geneva, where the headquarters of the Secretariat of the League of Nations was located from 1920 to 1935, he rented premises for the office of the Pan-European Union in 1939-40.

Switzerland has become not only a refuge for the philosopher, but also a model of the structure of the European continent, close to ideal. The confederal structure, the equality of peoples and languages - all this confirmed the vitality of the idea of pan-Europeanism and could serve as a model for the future United States of Europe. The draft European Treaty, formulated by Kudenkhove in 1930, was directly based on Swiss federal legislation.

As the head of the Pan-European Union, he communicated closely with many Swiss politicians, met with ministers of the federal government, devoted many of his works to the domestic and foreign policy of the country. Today, it is in Switzerland that Richard Kudenkhove's personal archive, correspondence, documents of the pan-European movement are kept.

How was the post-war life and work of Kudenkhove? Immediately upon his return, in 1946, he helps W. Churchill will make a famous speech on European unity, which the British politician will deliver from the chair of the University of Zurich. In it, Churchill will not forget to mention the name of his assistant: "A lot on the way to achieving this goal - the unification of Europe - was made by the efforts of the Pan-European Union, which owes a lot to the Count of Kudenhove-Kalerga."

Richard Kudenkhov was often reproached for his ineradicable idealism. Thus, with his pacifist appeals, he even appealed to Soviet politicians, including Nikita Khrushchev, hoping to reach their goodwill. However, I didn't get an answer. Only a letter from Maxim Litvinov, the USSR Ambassador to the United States in 1941-43, in which he apologizes, refusing to take part in the pan-European conference, has been preserved in the Kudenkhove archive.

In 1947, the European Parliamentary Union was created by the efforts of Kudenhove, and in 1949, also with his participation, the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. In 1950, the philosopher became the first winner of the Charlemagne International Prize (Prix Charlemagne), and in 1966 - the Charlemagne Prize of the Sudeten Germans.

Richard Kudenhove-Kalergi died on July 27, 1972. His ashes rest on the alpine slope - near the chalet, which now belongs to other owners, there is a small garden of stones, which is now taken care of by the Pan-European Union of Switzerland. The words are carved on the tombstone: "Rihard von Kudenhove-Kalergi. Pioneer of the United States of Europe".

Many of the philosopher's prophecies have come true. As he predicted back in 1923, the European continent was devastated by a new war, more terrible than the First World War. Soviet Russia subjugated Eastern and part of Central Europe. And even Great Britain - already before our eyes - broke away from the single European coast.

He did not live to see the day when his beloved Bohemia was freed from the iron Soviet embrace. He did not see the Pan-European picnic arranged by his followers when the border between Austria and Hungary opened in 1989. He died disappointed without waiting for the implementation of his ideas. If Kudenhove-Kalergi saw the situation in which the European Union found itself now, it would have a new serious cause for concern...

 

Literature

Kudenkhove-Kalergi R. Pan-Europe. Moscow, 2006.

Kudengove-Kalergi R. N. "Bolshevism and Europe (Stalin and K). Riga, 1932.

Coudenhove-Kalergi. R. Pan-European Pact Project. Berlin, 1930.

Jílek L. Pan-Europe in the years: the concept of projects in central and Western Europe. // Relations internationales (Paris-Genève). № 72 (hiver 1992).

Kučera R. Capitols from the střední Europa. Prague, 1992.

Moravcová D. Czechoslovensko, Německo and Europská hnut 1929-1932. Prague, 2001.

Ziegerhofer-Prettenthaler A. Botschafter Europas. Richard Nikolaus Coudenhove-Kalergi and the Paneuropa-Bewegung in the sanziger and seißiger years. 2004.

Source: https://ruslo.cz/index.php/pamyat/item/888-chekhiya-i-shvejtsariya-v-sudbe-tvortsa-edinoj-evropy