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Louise Weiss"A European's memory" 1893: Born
in Arras, on
the 26th of January. Her father’s family originated from Alsace(la Petite-Pierre)  Three major commitments
mark Louise Weiss’ life: Europe, the feminism
and the journalism. Since 1915, she starts with a journalistic career at the newspaper Le Radical under the pseudonym of Louis Franc. In 1919, she was correspondent at Prague Information. This position allows her meeting the new political class of Czechoslovakia in charge with the independence of the country. She also becomes member of the Soviet Union where she meets the most important leaders. Since the creation in 1918 of her magazine « The New Europe » (L’Europe Nouvelle), Louise Weiss is interested in women’s right to vote. She believes that the access of French women to vote will avoid a new war. In 1934, after resigning the chief position of her magazine, she gets into contact with the persons in charge with the voting movements, only after deciding on a common programme. She founds a propaganda association « The New Woman » (La Femme Nouvelle) through which she organises several manifestations. Louise Weiss forwards her symbolic standing for the local elections in 1935 and at the legislative ones in 1936. In 1935, she counts more than 16.000 votes. The vote for women’s suffrage is finally not possible because of the hostility of the Senate. Only in 1944 the right to vote will be given to the French women. After the Second World War, she will cooperate with the sociologist Gaston Bouthoul, the founder of the Polemology, and analyses by means of her voyages around the world the source of conflicts that emerge in the East-West context ad the colonial wars. She brings several voyage testimonies published as novels, documentaries or travel books (the collection of blue Guides). In 1965, Louise Weiss becomes executive secretary of the French Institute of Polemology (founded by Gaston Bouthoul), but she will resign in 1970 in order to found an Institute of the Sciences of Pace in 1971 in Strasbourg. In order to honour her Alsatian origins, before passing away she donates her collections to the Museum du Château des Rohan à Saverne, a part of which is dedicated to her. She also gives her correspondence and manuscripts to the National Library, and her books to the National and University Library in Strasbourg. Louise Weiss passes away on the 26th of May 1983, at 90 years old. Since 1999, the main building of the European Parliament was named Louise Weiss.  After the First World
War, Louise Weiss, like many other young women of her generation, is astonished
by the millions of deaths and the scale of destructions. Being initiated about
the new geopolitical conditions of Europe by her friends from Czechoslovakia
and Slovakia (Bénès, Stefanik, etc), she founds in 1918, at the age of 25, a magazine dedicated to
the international politics, called « The New Europe » (L’Europe Nouvelle), that she will edit
from 1920 to 1934. The articles, wrote by the most known political and
university personalities, are dealing with economic, diplomatic and literary
issues. In 1924, she meets Aristide Briand at the National Assembly of the League of Nations (LON) in Geneva. In her magazine, she supports his politics in favour of peace (reconciliation between France and Germany, and disarmament) and stands for the ideas regarding the European construction (memorandum about the European Federal Union and Plan of the European Union). She will name Briand « peace pilgrim ». In January 1934, in a hostile international circumstance regarding her struggle for peace (the accession of Nazism in Germany), she will resign from the leadership of the « New Europe ». In 1940, she becomes part of the French Resistance under the name of Valentine, and she takes part in the editorial activity of the secret newspaper “The New Republic” (La Nouvelle République). After 1945 she considers starting to edit again her magazine and she will voyage on the continent of America, Africa and Asia. In 1979, at the age of 86, she is elected on the occasion of the first European elections on universal suffrage of the European Parliament, on the Gaullist list. During the opening session, which took place on the 17th of July 1979, she holds a speech as the oldest member of the Parliament, where she mentions those who had a role in the European construction. For the future, she distinguishes three major issues: the identity, the natality and the legality. Finally she makes a call to unity stating: “Europe will find its radiance only by lighting the leading light of the conscience, the life and the right”. As a deputy (1979-1983) she is member of the European Commission of Culture, Youth and Sports. She pictures the founding of an European University, the teachers exchanges and even the founding in Strasbourg of a Museum of the European conscience. Thus, many of the accomplishments of the European Union were based on her initiatives. Political Works Biographies Novels Theatrical Works Sociological Essay Art, Archeology and Folklore Travel books
The Foundation Louise Weiss In 1971, Louise Weiss creates the Foundation Louis Weiss and an annual prize offered as a reward to the authors or the institutions that have brought the biggest contribution to the development of the sciences of peace, to the improvement of human sciences and to the efforts towards Europe. The Science Council of the Foundation Louis Weiss awards this prize every year. Among the prize-winner are: Helmut Schmidt (1977), Anouar el Sadate (1980), Simone Veil (1981), Jacques Delors (1988), Vaclav Havel (1990) and Adrien Zeller (1998). A Museum Louis Weiss in Saverne In the right wing of the castle of Rohan in Saverne, it is the Museum Louise Weiss, where we can find the collections of Louise Weiss, donated to the town of Saverne before passing away. These collections count around 600 art objects, paintings, ethnographical objects and also personal archives.
A rose dedicated to Louise Weiss
In 1993, on the occasion of celebrating 100 years since the birth of Louise Weiss, she was paid a tribute by baptising, in the rosary of Saverne, a rose “Louise Weiss”, by Catherine Lalumière, who was then executive secretary of the Council of Europe. All the rights regarding this yellow rose have been transferred to the Rosary of Saverne.
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