It was during a trip to a destroyed Germany in 1947 when Max Kohnstamm, a Dutchman working as a private secretary for queen Wilhelmina, became deeply convinced that Europe should take "common responsibility" for its post-war future.
"That journey made a great impression on me," says Mr Kohnstamm who just a few years later became one of the pioneers of European integration and a close collaborator of EU 'founding father' Jean Monnet.
"I was especially overwhelmed by the unimagin...
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