Paneurope
10/31/25
Bertrand Vayssière
Translated by Regan Kramer
Digital Encyclopedia of European History
In the context of reflections on the “pre-history” of the construction of Europe, Paneurope, a movement founded after World War I by Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi, is now generally described as the oldest European-unification movement. Having spread across all of Europe and attracted the support of both politicians – like Paul Löbe, in Germany and Aristide Briand, in France – and renowned intellectuals, like Stefan Zweig and Romain Rolland, for many of its contemporaries, Paneurope became the standard bearer of a nascent ideology: Europeanism or European unification. After World War II, Paneurope sustained its momentum, even though other competing federalist movements appeared, offering a certain democratization of Europeanist activism. Studying the Paneurope movement affords us the opportunity to acknowledge the first activist generation, analyze how it worked – as a collective organization with vertical practices when it came to action and one that respected both European-unification ideals and each nation’s sovereignty – and to understand how it has evolved to the present day.