Max Kohnstamm was born in Amsterdam in 1914. He studied Modern History at the University of Amsterdam. There, he became impressed by the developments in President Franklin D. Roosevelt's America. He went to the United States for a year in 1938 to study the New Deal. In 1942, the Nazis took him to the Amersfoort camp. He then remained in the Haaren and Sint Michielsgestel hostage camps. After World War II, Dr Kohnstamm became private secretary to Queen Wilhelmina. He went on to work for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 1952, Dr Kohnstamm became secretary of the High Authority of the European Coal and Steel Community in Luxembourg. For 25 years, he helped Jean Monnet form the United States of Europe. Dr Kohnstamm participated in the Bilderberg conferences, was president of the European University Institute in Florence and one of the six core members of the Club of Rome.

Dr Kohnstamm was committed to cooperation, unity and construction. He spent his life working to unify Europe. A difficult path that requires sacrifices from the ‘old countries’ in terms of power, and the realisation that they have become history. Globalisation brings unity, but at the same time ‘old-style governments’ perpetuate divisions. Dr Kohnstamm died in Amsterdam in 2010.