제주평화연구원

  [caption id="" align="alignright" width="151"] Pyeongeok AN
Associate Professor in the Department of International Relations at Daegu University and Visiting Fellow at the Jeju Peace Institute[/caption]

War not only brings destruction but also common efforts by its victims not to repeat the tragedy. This was particularly true of the Second World War which left Europe emaciated and in global decline. It is no coincidence that the first endeavor to promote peace and mutual understanding in Western Europe was undertaken in the newly-created Federal Republic of Germany (FRG, West Germany). The new Republic was the result of the Holocaust committed by the brutal Nazi regime and the territorial division of Germany created by the emerging Cold War.

  On 19 December 1949, a businessman named Dr. Kurt Pfeiffer proposed at a book club in Aachen, a city in the western part of the West German North Rhine-Westphalia Land (state), that an ‘International Charlemagne Prize of the City of Aachen’ be launched. People from business, academia and literary circles in the city met regularly to read and discuss new books in this reading group. Other members gave their whole-hearted support to the idea and it soon gained momentum with the drafting of a Public Declaration specifying the aim, scope and other procedures regarding the prize. The city’s mayor, bishop, the Vice Chancellor of the Technical University of Aachen, and other representatives of business and intellectual life joined in founding the organization to implement the civilian initiative. The prize was to be awarded to an individual who had made an outstanding contribution toward mutual understanding and peace in Europe.   The prize was an important symbol of peace and unity from a young Federal Republic just four years after the devastation of the Second World War. It was a small gesture by a tiny city long before it would become one of Europe’s preeminent peace prizes years later. The first European project for integration was proposed by then French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman on 9 May 1950. The proposal turned into the European Coal and Steel Community a year later involving the six member-states of France, West Germany, Italy and the three Benelux countries of Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. Thus, the civilian initiative of the Charlemagne Prize started half a year earlier than the formal inter-governmental efforts of the European Coal and Steel Community.   The name of the prize itself signifies a powerful historical symbol. At Rome’s Old St. Peter’s Basilica on Christmas Day in the year 800, Carolus, a Frankish king, was crowned by Pope Leo III as the emperor of the Western Roman Empire. He was later named Charlemagne for bringing peace by vastly expanding and consolidating his incipient Carolingian Empire. His territory at its peak spanned from southern Italy through parts of Central and Eastern Europe to parts of modern Spain. His reign (771-814 AD) also witnessed a flourishing of culture known as the Carolingian Renaissance. The emperor built schools, both at royal and monasteries. He also let scholars collect and edit Latin books scattered throughout the various parts of Europe and laws of the Germanic tribes. That the city of Aachen founded the Charlemagne Prize after the dark shadows of the devastating Second World War testifies to the willingness of the German people to initiate the bringing together of West Europeans modelled on the great Kaiser, one of the unifiers of Europe.   A glance at the prize’s recipients from 1950 to 2018 reveals a who’s who of European politics, economics and culture. The prize’s first recipient was Count Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi, the founder of the Pan-European movement during the inter-war years. A number of American statesmen such as George Marshall (1959), Henry Kissinger (1984), and Bill Clinton (2000) were also honored for their service to the European project. The fall of the Berlin Wall saw an increasing number of Eastern Europeans receive the prize, including Vaclav Havel, President of the Czechoslovakian Republic in 1991, and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in 2000. Scholars such as French philosopher Simone Veil (1981) and Oxford historian of contemporary Europe Timothy Garton Ash (2017) have also received the prize.   Over six decades, the prize has established itself as representing the integration of Europe, particularly after the fall of communism in Eastern Europe. One of the factors leading to its success is the independence that the prize’s board of directors have maintained since its inauguration. As of 2018, the board has twelve members from business, academia and politics. The independence of the board in the selection of members and decision of the prize winners was reaffirmed in a joint declaration in 1990 both by the city and the society.   Since 2008, the Foundation of the Charlemagne Prize has partnered with the European Parliament to award the European Charlemagne Youth Prize. As part of an outreach effort to young people aged between 16 to 30 in the member states of the European Union, the prize is given to a team of young people who have presented projects that can contribute towards European unity. The first prize in 2018 went to the Polish team, whose program was entitled ‘Worcation’ (a portmanteau of work and vacation). Young people from the various member states participated in the education and training program at a former German prisoner-of-war camp to share and learn about the tragedy.   Aachen, the city of peace in Germany, has sister city arrangements with Arlington County in the United States, Reims in France, Ningbo in China, and Toledo in Spain to exchange ideas and share its experience. Jeju can join hands with the city in the Federal Republic.   Jeju, the Island of Peace, is unique among provinces in South Korea in that it has two charters: a citizen’s charter and a peace charter. Looking back on the tragedy of the Jeju April 3 Uprising in 1948, which left up to 30,000 people massacred by the Syngman Rhee Government with the aid of the U.S. military, both charters are striving for peace at home and abroad. Jeju has the International Peace Foundation and has organized the Jeju Forum for Peace and Prosperity for over a decade, bringing together prominent figures across the world to promote the importance of the often-fragile peace on the Korean Peninsula and in the world. In an era of thawing relations between the two Koreas after this year’s three inter-Korean summits, it is high time that Jeju reach out to the cities of peace around the world to further extend its aspirations for peace. A group of researchers at the Jeju Peace Institute and several universities in Korea have teamed up to conduct research on the activities of peace cities across the globe and share their experience with the island of peace in Korea.   By Pyeongeok AN (anpye9@gmail.com) Professor AN teaches international relations at Daegu University in Daegu, South Korea. He received his MPhil and PhD from the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom. His research focuses on comparative regionalism and peace studies. He was editor-in-chief of the biannual academic journal Korean Journal of European Integration from 2015 to 2018. He is currently a visiting fellow at the Jeju Peace Institute.