De Gasperi

Along with Italy's Alcide de Gasperi, France's Jean Monnet and Germany's Konrad Adenauer, he is considered one of the "Fathers of Europe" for promoting democratic, supranational principles to thwart the possibility of another war on the continent.

Jean Monnet and Robert Schuman of France, Paul-Henri Spaak from Belgium, Alcide De Gasperi of Italy, Konrad Adenauer and Walter Hallstein from Germany along with other “new Europeans” determined to create economic relationships and political structures which would bind together European states in such a way as to make further warfare between them unthinkable.

Charles de Gaulle of France, Konrad Adenauer of West Germany and Alcide De Gasperi of Italy were conservative nationalists whose vision for Europe reflected the bitter experiences of two world wars and a failed peace.

From its outset, the European project was an institution shaped by bilinguals from border regions: Robert Schuman came from Luxembourg, the son of an Alsatian; Konrad Adenauer was a Rhinelander, Paul-Henri Spaak Belgian, and Alcide De Gasperi a Tyrolean.

Among the honorees that year were Galo Plaza Lasso, president of Ecuador; Alcide De Gasperi, prime minister of Italy; and David Ben-Gurion, prime minister of Israel.