Posted on 03 September 2013
The private papers of Paul-Henri Spaak have been digitised and can now be accessed on the web site of the Historical Archives of the European Union (HAEU) in Florence.
As a result of an agreement with the Paul-Henri Spaak Foundation in Brussels, the HAEU has prepared a detailed inventory of the contents of the papers. These inventories are available to researchers online along with the electronic version of the documents. All the papers were digitised by the Spaak Foundation apart from printed material and some series which were considered of minor importance. Some of the digitised documents are difficult to read due to the poor condition of the originals.
Paul-Henri Spaak is considered one of the most influential European politicians during the period 1930–1970. In Belgian politics he covered various prestigious roles as Parliamentary Deputy, Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1936 and Prime Minister in 1939. He was nominated once again Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Government in Exile in London during the Nazi occupation of Belgium. In the post-War period he was once again Minister of Foreign Affairs but also Secretary-General of NATO, first President of the UN Assembly and first President of the Assembly of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC).
The Spaak fonds contains thousands of documents covering almost all the official duties in which the Belgian politician was elected, from problems of insurgents during the Nazi occupation to the activities of the Belgian Government in exile to the questions concerning the decolonisation of the Congo to his international duties within the European Community and the North Atlantic Organisation.
This acquisition contributes to the enrichment of the fonds and collections preserved at the Historical Archives of the EU. It adds an important chapter to the reconstruction of the biographical and political history of the “Founders of Europe” documented in the HAEU after the recovery in original or in copies of the private archives of Alcide De Gasperi and Walter Hallstein.
Access to the Paul-Henri Spaak fonds