Max Kohnstamm (22 May 1914 – 20 October 2010) was a Dutch historian and diplomat.
Early life
Max Kohnstamm was born in Amsterdam, Netherlands, the son of
Philip Kohnstamm, a physicist, philosopher and pedagogue of Jewish-German origin. His father was married to one of the daughters of
Jean Baptiste August Kessler, who helped create the company now known as
Royal Dutch Shell
Shell plc is a British multinational oil and gas company, headquartered in London, England. Shell is a public limited company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and secondary listings on Euronext Amsterdam and the New ...
; one of his uncles was
Geldolph Adriaan Kessler, who helped create the Dutch steel industry. During World War II, Kohnstamm and Kessler were both held hostage by the Germans along with other prominent Dutchmen at
Beekvliet in
Kamp Sint-Michielsgestel; they became quite close there despite the difference in age. He was one of the founding fathers of the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...
by playing a major part in the 1950s in developing the
European Coal and Steel Community
The European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) was a European organization created after World War II to integrate Europe's coal and steel industries into a single common market based on the principle of supranationalism which would be governe ...
(ECSC) and then of the
European Economic Community
The European Economic Community (EEC) was a regional organisation 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 Lisbo ...
.
Education
Kohnstamm was educated at
Amsterdam University, where he studied Modern History, before taking up a fellowship at
American University
The American University (AU or American) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Its main campus spans 90-acres (36 ha) on Ward Circle, in the Spri ...
,
Washington, D.C. During 1938 and 1939 he travelled through the United States as part of his studies. His correspondence with his father during this period discussed his impressions of the United States and his concerns with the looming war.
Career
Kohnstamm was private secretary to
Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands from 1945 to 1948, then served with the
Netherlands Foreign Office from 1948 to 1952. During this time he was head of its German Bureau and Director of European Affairs. He was Vice President of the Netherlands'
Schuman Plan delegation in 1950, serving as Secretary to the
High Authority of the European Coal and Steel Community from 1952 to 1956. He was Vice President of the
Action Committee for the United States of Europe from 1956. He was President of the
European University Institute
The European University Institute (EUI) is an international postgraduate and post-doctoral research-intensive university and an intergovernmental organisation with juridical personality, established by its founding member states to contribu ...
in
Florence
Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025.
Florence ...
. He was Chairman of the
Trilateral Commission in Europe.
Accomplishments
He was a former member of the Steering Committee of the
Bilderberg Group.
He was the Founding European Chairman of the
Trilateral Commission.
In 2004, Kohnstamm was awarded the 'Freedom from Fear'
Four Freedoms Award by the Roosevelt Stichting.
Jacob Kohnstamm is his son.
Death
He died in Amsterdam on 20 October 2010, aged 96.
References
Sources
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External links
Archival documentsand two interviews
INT555an
INT741 of M. Kohnstamm are at th
Historical Archives of the EUin Florence.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kohnstamm, Max
1914 births
2010 deaths
20th-century Dutch diplomats
20th-century Dutch historians
Dutch people of German-Jewish descent
Members of the Steering Committee of the Bilderberg Group
Writers from Amsterdam
University of Amsterdam alumni
Presidents of the European University Institute