Mayor Hermann Heusch on the recipient of the award:

‘In 1959 the Charlemagne Prize Board of Directors awarded the American George C. Marshall with the insignia; because of health problems he was unable to cross the ocean to receive the award and it was presented to him at his sick bed. Marshall’s name shall live on in the history of Europe for it is connected with the generous relief operation of the United States of America designed to awaken new life in the continent which was reduced to fields of ruin and terribly battered by war. […] Through the revival of the European economy the foundation for striving toward unity was created; the first success’s of which became apparent a little later in the Schuman Plan.’