The idea for the Charlemagne Prize came about in a meeting of the ‘Corona Legentium Aquensis,’ a literary society founded by Kurt Pfeiffer in 1946. The group served as a discussion forum for Aachen’s high society; it organized exhibitions and invited politicians, scientists and artists from all over Europe to give presentations in Aachen.

In a speech, Pfeiffer sketched out the situation of the Cold War, which was just beginning, and warned about the effects it would have on the young Federal Republic of Germany. Referring to the ideas of British historian Arnold J. Toynbee, he called upon all Western Europeans to take responsibility for European unity, and in particular for the peaceful resolution of political conflicts. The proposed international prize was primarily intended to win over the Western public to the idea of a united Europe. Pfeiffer’s speech essentially described all of the characteristics that would become the Charlemagne Prize—other than the date for the award ceremony, for which he initially suggested the highly symbolic 1st of May rather than Ascension Day.

Pfeiffer won the support of the city’s most important representatives of politics, culture, economics and academia. In the Proclamation of Christmas 1949—the prize’s foundational document—Aachen’s border location is interpreted as an obligation to mediate between peoples and to overcome “national narrow-mindedness.” By using the name of Charlemagne, the proclamation also included the idea of the Christian Occident—symbolically looking backward to the Carolingian Empire as inspiration for unity in administration, culture, religion, legislation and writing, while pointing the way toward the future with a model for the task ahead: the economic and political unification of Europe. The proclamation is thus also an artifact of its era, shaped by an anti-communist European image with strong Catholic tendencies.