The Charlemagne Prize
The birth of the Charlemagne Prize
‘We would now like to propose the establishment of an annual international prize for the most valuable contribution to Western European understanding and cooperation, and to humanity and world peace. The contribution may be in the field of literature, science, economics or politics.’
When Dr. Kurt Pfeiffer presented this suggestion ‘with modest restraint to the public’ at the end of his lecture to the Corona Legentium Aquensis, no one would have dared to predict how the International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen would develop in the following decades.
The award has been presented over 50 times since then. The criteria that determine the focus of the Charlemagne Prize and the selection of a laureate are set out in three key documents: