Coudenhove-Kalergi was a pioneer of European integration. He was the founder and President for 49 years of the Paneuropean Union. His parents were Heinrich von Coudenhove-Kalergi, an Austro-Hungarian diplomat, and Mitsuko Aoyama, the daughter of an oil merchant, antiques-dealer, and huge landowner family in Tokyo.
His "Pan-Europa" was published in 1923 and contained a membership form for the Pan-Europa movement. Coudenhove-Kalergi's movement held its first Congress in Vienna in 1926. In 1927 the French Prime Minister, Aristide Briand was elected honorary president. Personalities attending included: Albert Einstein, Thomas Mann and Sigmund Freud. Figures who later became central to founding the EU, such as Konrad Adenauer became members.
His basic idea was that democracy was a transitional stage that leads to rule by a new aristocracy that is largely taken from the Jewish "master race" (Kalergi's terminology). His movement was reviled by Hitler and Hitler's response can be seen in his venom against Jews and Internationalists in Mein Kampf. It is likely that "Practical Idealism" provoked extreme anti-semitism and it was certainly a prime target for Nazi book burning. In many ways, as the authoritarian antithesis of Nazism, "Practical Idealism" is the missing part of the jigsaw of 1920s European politics. (See The European Civil War). However, despite this role in 1930s politics Coudenhove-Kalergi is greatly respected today in the EU as a founding father and the Europe Prize is awarded in his name.
Coudenhove-Kalergi was the first recipient of the Charlemagne Prize in 1950. The 1972–1973 academic year at the College of Europe was named in his honour. Coudenhove-Kalergi proposed Beethoven's Ode to Joy as the music for the European Anthem. He also proposed a Europe Day and a European postage stamp.
This translation of only the first part of "Practical Idealism" is intended to give the reader a taste of Coudenhove-Kalergi's philosophy. It is the "great work" that inspired General de Gaulle and is the foundation of the EU.