Posted on 02 November 2010
Max Kohnstamm, the founding President of the European University Institute from 1976 to 1981, died peacefully on October 20.
He contributed greatly to setting the EUI on its feet and to establishing its reputation for advanced scholarship and doctoral training in the humanities and social sciences in Europe.
Kohnstamm was born in Amsterdam and obtained a degree in History from the University of Amsterdam in 1939. Following a period of internment during the German occupation of the Netherlands in World War II, he served as private secretary to the Dutch Queen Wilhelmina.
He was later Secretary of the High Authority of the European Coal and Steel Community, working closely with Jean Monnet.
One of the founding fathers of the European Community, he remained a prolific commentator and analyst of European Affairs throughout his life.
Since 2001 the private papers of Max Kohnstamm are deposited at the Historical Archives of the EU and can be consulted in the reading room at the Villa Il Poggiolo. The inventory is published together with two interviews given in 1986 and 2005.
An interview with Max Kohnstamm is also available on the European NAvigator website (ENA). Browse the Interviews section.