Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi

Born in 1894 to an Austro-Hungarian diplomat and Mitsuko Aoyama, the daughter of a Tokyo landowner, he grew up between worlds - his childhood name was Eijiro Aoyama. He became a Czechoslovak citizen in 1919, then French in 1939. His 1923 book Pan-Europa included a membership form for a movement that held its first Congress three years later in Vienna; by 1927, French statesman Aristide Briand was its honorary president. He served as founding president of the Paneuropean Union for 49 years, proposed a Europe Day and postage stamp, and championed Beethoven's Ninth as the continent's anthem. In 1950 he became the first recipient of the Charlemagne Prize. He died in 1972, and that academic year the College of Europe bore his name.