- Joseph Retinger
Joseph Retinger (Józef Hieronim Retinger,
17 April 1888 –12 June 1960 ) was a Polish political adviser and a founder of theEuropean Movement that would lead to the founding of theEuropean Union .Life
Joseph Retinger was born in
Kraków ,Poland (at that time a part ofAustria-Hungary ), the youngest of four children. His father, Józef Stanisław Retinger, was the personal legal counsel and adviser to CountWładysław Zamoyski . When Józef H. Retinger's father died, Count Zamoyski took young Józef under his wing. Retinger had planned on becoming a priest, and was enrolled in a seminary, but the prospect of celibacy made him change his mind.cn|date=April 2008Funded by Count Zamoyski, Retinger attended the Sorbonne in 1906, and was the youngest person ever to earn a Ph D there, in 1908 at the age of twenty, before his move to
England in 1911, where his closest friend was fellow Pole,Joseph Conrad . He would later write about Conrad in his book, "Conrad and His Contemporaries" (1943).In 1917, Retinger travelled to
Mexico , where he became an unofficial political adviser to union organizerLuis Morones and President Calles. Later, duringWorld War II , he advised Prime Minister of thePolish Government in Exile , General Sikorski.After the war, he became a leading advocate of
European Unification and helped to found both theEuropean Movement and theCouncil of Europe . Retinger was later to become Honorary Secretary General of the European Movement.Retinger initiated the original Bilderberg conference in 1954.
ee also
*List of Poles
References
* [http://www.bilderberg.org/bildhist.htm#Memoirs Chapter 4, European Unity.] from "Memoirs of An Eminence Grise" by John Pomian,
*cite book
last= Retinger
first= Joseph
coauthors= Pomian, John
title= Memoirs of an Eminence Grise
origyear= 1972
publisher= Sussex University Press, distr. by Chatto and Windus
isbn= 0856210021
* Dr J. H. Retinger, "Polacy w cywilizacjach zagranicznych". Warszawa 1934
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