Joseph Bech
Joseph Bech ( born February 17, 1887 in Diekirch in Luxembourg; † March 8, 1975 in Luxembourg City) was a Luxembourgian politician and statesman. He is considered one of the founding fathers of the European Communities.
Life
Growing up in a politically active family, Bech studied law in Freiburg in Switzerland and in Paris. In 1914, shortly before the outbreak of the First World War, he was admitted to the bar.
In June the same year he was elected by the census suffrage as a deputy for the Catholic right-wing party, a precursor of today's party CSV in the Chambre des Députés. In 1921 he was then Minister of the Interior and Education. After the brief interlude of the government Prüm in 1926 Bech was Minister of State, ie Chairman of the Government, also foreign, education and agriculture minister.
Its quite successful government had to tackle and social issues, foreign policy, he managed from 1933 distance to the Hitler regime in Germany to keep, to which Luxembourg was by its export-oriented steel industry in strong economic dependence great economic ( from 1929 global economic crisis ). Attempts to establish an undemocratic corporate state in his own party yielding, Bech tried in 1936 to bring a law that would have banned the Communist Party ( " Maulkuerfgesetz ", dt muzzle law ), which he failed in a referendum and was forced to resign as Minister of State. From 1937 to 1953 he was Minister of Foreign and viticulture, including several years a member of the government in exile ( 1940-1945 ).
During the Second World War, Joseph Bech was in exile in London. There he signed in 1944 for Luxembourg, the Benelux contracts. Also, the North Atlantic Treaty of 4 April 1949 in Washington, DC and the contract of the CECA in Paris wearing his signature on 18 April 1951.
From the year 1953 to 1958, Joseph Bech, was now for the CSV, Minister of State in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. Then he again took over the post of Foreign Minister (1958-1959) and that of the Minister for Foreign Trade and Minister for viticulture. In the postwar period, he worked in his various government offices actively involved in the European integration process. He is regarded as the founders of the ECSC and one of the most consistent exponent of the European idea. From 1959 to 1964 he was President of the Luxembourg Chamber of Deputies.
Honors
In 1955 he was awarded the Grand Gold Medal with Ribbon for Services to the Republic of Austria. 1958 Bech was awarded the Grand Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. On May 26, 1960, he was awarded the Charlemagne Prize. The eulogy was given by the President of the European Parliament Robert Schuman. As stated in the text of the document, which gave Lord Mayor of Aachen Hermann Heusch together with the actual award in the form of a medal with the inscription, Bech received the Charlemagne Prize " in recognition of his life work and his high merits for the unification of Europe, which began in the old League of Nations and in the European institutions their purposeful continuation found. ".
Cercle Joseph Bech
Named after Joseph Bech Circle, a group of strong conservative members around Frank Engel and Patrick Santer, CSV stands near and occurs from time to time with events and policy proposals to the public. The circle is considered a right of the CSV and describes itself as a think tank.