Lambert Schaus

Lambert Schaus (18 January 1908 – 10 August 1976) was a Luxembourg politician, jurist, and diplomat. He held office as a government minister and

European Commissioner A European Commissioner is a member of the 27-member European Commission. Each member within the Commission holds a specific portfolio. The commission is led by the President of the European Commission. In simple terms they are the equivalent ...

. Schaus was born in

Luxembourg City Luxembourg ( lb, Lëtzebuerg; french: Luxembourg; german: Luxemburg), also known as Luxembourg City ( lb, Stad Lëtzebuerg, link=no or ; french: Ville de Luxembourg, link=no; german: Stadt Luxemburg, link=no or ), is the capital city of the Gr ...

to a jeweller. He studied

jurisprudence Jurisprudence, or legal theory, is the theoretical study of the propriety of law. Scholars of jurisprudence seek to explain the nature of law in its most general form and they also seek to achieve a deeper understanding of legal reasoning ...

in Paris, and also in

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ru ...

for one term. In 1932 Schaus was appointed as a lawyer at the Luxembourgish

court of appeal A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much ...

. Prior to the Second World War Schaus was active in local politics as a Luxembourg town councillor. When Schaus refused to support the occupation of Luxembourg by Germany, he was arrested in 1941 by the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one orga ...

and interned in a

labour camp A labor camp (or labour camp, see spelling differences) or work camp is a detention facility where inmates are forced to engage in penal labor as a form of punishment. Labor camps have many common aspects with slavery and with prisons (espe ...

where he worked to build motorways. Later he was made an office assistant in the district administration office of

Cochem Cochem is the seat of and the biggest town in the Cochem-Zell district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. With just over 5,000 inhabitants, Cochem falls just behind Kusel, in the Kusel district, as Germany's second smallest district seat. Since 7 J ...

and was later stationed in labour camps in the

Sudetenland The Sudetenland ( , ; Czech and sk, Sudety) is the historical German name for the northern, southern, and western areas of former Czechoslovakia which were inhabited primarily by Sudeten Germans. These German speakers had predominated in the ...

and

Black Forest The Black Forest (german: Schwarzwald ) is a large forested mountain range in the state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany, bounded by the Rhine Valley to the west and south and close to the borders with France and Switzerland. It is ...

areas. On returning to Luxembourg after the war he became economy and army minister in the government of

Pierre Dupong Pierre Dupong (1 November 1885 – 23 December 1953)Thewes, Guy"Les gouvernements du Grand-Duché depuis 1848." Service information et presse. Luxembourg: Imprimerie Centrale, 2011. was a Luxembourgish politician and statesman. He was the 16th ...

in August 1946, representing the CSV party. He was responsible for the difficult reconstruction and for the first standing army of the Grand Duchy. In July 1948 Schaus left the government and again became Luxembourg town councillor until 1952. From 1952 he became a special envoy, and from 1955, ambassador to

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...

, based in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

. In this role he was significantly involved in the development of European integration and led the Luxembourg delegation negotiating the formation of the

European Economic Community The European Economic Community (EEC) was a regional organization created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957,Today the largely rewritten treaty continues in force as the ''Treaty on the functioning of the European Union'', as renamed by the Lis ...

and

Euratom The European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or Euratom) is an international organisation established by the Euratom Treaty on 25 March 1957 with the original purpose of creating a specialist market for nuclear power in Europe, by developing nucl ...

. On 18 June 1958 Schaus was appointed Luxembourg's representative on the inaugural

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body ...

, the

Hallstein Commission The Hallstein Commission is the European Commission that held office from 7 January 1958 to 30 June 1967. Its president was Walter Hallstein and held two separate mandates. Work It was the first commission on the European Economic Community and ...

, to replace the recently deceased

Michel Rasquin Michel Rasquin (19 September 1899 – 27 April 1958) was a Luxembourgish journalist and socialist politician, and European Commissioner. Rasquin was born in Pétange, Luxembourg, in 1899. After the Second World War, he was the president of the ...

. Schaus had responsibility for the Transport portfolio. He strove in particular for a common traffic policy among the EEC states as well as opening of the national markets for traffic and transport enterprises from other states. He was re-appointed to the second Hallstein commission in 1962 and served until 1967. He was succeeded by

Victor Bodson Victor Nicolas Bodson (24 March 1902 – 29 June 1984) was a Luxembourgish politician and lawyer who held a number of political posts during his career. He is recognised as Righteous Among the Nations awarded by Yad Vashem for his actions during ...

. , - , - , - 1908 births 1976 deaths Alumni of the Athénée de Luxembourg Ambassadors of Luxembourg to Belgium Christian Social People's Party politicians Councillors in Luxembourg City Luxembourgian diplomats Luxembourgian European Commissioners 20th-century Luxembourgian lawyers Members of the Council of State of Luxembourg Ministers for Defence of Luxembourg People from Luxembourg City Permanent Representatives of Luxembourg to NATO {{Luxembourg-politician-stub