Founding fathers of the European Union in the context of "Deutsche Welle"

The Robert Schuman Roundabout (French: Rond-point Robert Schuman; Dutch: Robert Schumanplein), usually shortened to the Schuman Roundabout, and sometimes called Robert Schuman Square, is a roundabout in the European Quarter of Brussels, Belgium. It lies at the end of the Rue de la Loi/Wetstraat and serves as a focus for major institutions of the European Union (EU). It is named after Robert Schuman, one of the founding fathers of the European Union, the Council of Europe and NATO, and gives its name to the surrounding district (also known as the European Quarter) and Brussels-Schuman railway station.

The European People's Party (EPP) is a European political party with Christian democratic, liberal-conservative, and conservative member parties. A transnational organisation, it is composed of other political parties. Founded by primarily Christian-democratic parties in 1976, it has since broadened its membership to include liberal-conservative parties and parties with other centre-right political perspectives. On 31 May 2022, the party elected as its President Manfred Weber, who was also EPP's Spitzenkandidat in 2019.

The EPP has been the largest party in the European Parliament since 1999 and in the European Council since 2002. It is also the largest party in the current European Commission. The President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and the President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola are from the EPP. Many of the founding fathers of the European Union were also from parties that later formed the EPP.

The College of Europe (French: Collège d'Europe; Dutch: Europacollege; Polish: Kolegium Europy) is a post-graduate institute of European studies with three campuses in Bruges, Belgium; Warsaw, Poland; and Tirana, Albania.

The College of Europe in Bruges was founded in 1949 as a result of the 1948 Congress of Europe in The Hague by leading historical European figures and founding fathers of the European Union, including Salvador de Madariaga, Winston Churchill, Paul-Henri Spaak and Alcide De Gasperi, to promote "a spirit of solidarity and mutual understanding between all the nations of Western Europe and to provide elite training to individuals who will uphold these values" and "to train an elite of young executives for Europe". After the fall of communism, the College opened an additional campus in Natolin, Poland, that was donated to the institution by the Polish government in 1992. A campus in Tirana opened in 2024.

Eurocommunism was a trend in the 1970s and 1980s within various Western European communist parties, which said they had developed a theory and practice of social transformation more relevant for Western Europe. During the Cold War, they sought to reject the influence of the Soviet Union and its Communist Party. The trend was especially prominent in Italy, Spain, and France. It is commonly considered to have been prompted by the Prague Spring. Although the various parties converged against the Soviet factor, their own doctrines remained as different at the dissolution of the movement as they originally were before 1968.

Schuman (French pronunciation: [ʃuman]) is a Brussels Metro station on lines 1 and 5. It is located under the Rue de la Loi/Wetstraat in the City of Brussels, Belgium. The station received its name from the aboveground Robert Schuman Roundabout, itself named after Robert Schuman, one of the founding fathers of the European Union, the Council of Europe and NATO.

The station opened on 17 December 1969 as a premetro (underground tram) station on the tram line between De Brouckère and Schuman. This station was upgraded to full metro status on 20 September 1976, serving former east–west line 1 (further split in 1982 into former lines 1A and 1B). Then, following the reorganisation of the Brussels Metro on 4 April 2009, it now lies on the joint section of east–west lines 1 and 5.

Brussels-Schuman railway station (French: Gare de Bruxelles-Schuman; Dutch: Station Brussel-Schuman) is a railway station in the City of Brussels, Belgium, serving the European Quarter. The station received its name from the aboveground Robert Schuman Roundabout, itself named after Robert Schuman, one of the founding fathers of the European Union, the Council of Europe and NATO.

Johan Willem "Wim" Beyen (2 May 1897 – 29 April 1976) was a Dutch politician and diplomat of Liberal signature and businessman. Beyen played an important role in the creation of the European Economic Community and is regarded as one of the Founding fathers of the European Union.

Walter Hallstein (17 November 1901 – 29 March 1982) was a German academic, diplomat and statesman who was the first president of the Commission of the European Economic Community and one of the founding fathers of the European Union.

Hallstein began his academic career in the 1920s Weimar Republic and became Germany's youngest law professor in 1930, at the age of 29. During World War II he served as a First Lieutenant in the German Army in France. Captured by American troops in 1944, he spent the rest of the war in a prisoner-of-war camp in the United States, where he organised a "camp university" for his fellow soldiers. After the war he returned to Germany and continued his academic career; he became rector of the University of Frankfurt in 1946 and spent a year as a visiting professor at Georgetown University from 1948. In 1950 he was recruited to a diplomatic career, becoming the leading civil servant at the German Foreign Office, where he gave his name to the Hallstein Doctrine, West Germany's policy of isolating East Germany diplomatically.

Paul-Henri Charles Spaak (French: [pɔl ɑ̃ʁi ʃaʁl spak]; 25 January 1899 – 31 July 1972) was an influential Belgian Socialist politician, diplomat and statesman who thrice served as the prime minister of Belgium and later as the second secretary general of NATO. Nicknamed "Mr. Europe", he was a leader in the formation of the institutions that evolved into the current European Union, along with Robert Schuman, Alcide De Gasperi and Konrad Adenauer.

A member of the influential Spaak family, he served briefly in World War I before he was captured, and rose to prominence after the war as a tennis player and lawyer, becoming famous for his high-profile defence of an Italian student accused of attempting to assassinate Italy's crown prince in 1929. A convinced socialist, Spaak entered politics in 1932 for the Belgian Workers' Party (later the Belgian Socialist Party) and gained his first ministerial portfolio in the government of Paul Van Zeeland in 1935.