Jean Monnet (1888-1979) was a senior Allied official from 1916 to 1919; Deputy Secretary General of the League of Nations from 1919 to 1923; trader, investment banker and economic adviser from 1923 to 1938; senior Allied official from 1938 to 1943; member of the French Committee for National Liberation from 1943 to 1945; first Commissioner for the French Plan from 1945 to 1952; President of the High Authority of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) from 1952 to 1955; President of the Action Committee for the United States of Europe from 1955 to 1975.
The archives were handed over in 1978 when the Jean Monnet Foundation was created. An additional lot for the period 1916-1922 and discovered in 2018 has been included. Family films, brought by Jean Monnet’s grandchildren in 2018, from 1933 to 1949 were also included.
Period covered by the documentation: 1916-1979
The fund represents approximately 150 linear metres and is divided by period corresponding to Jean Monnet’s career. The documentation concerns in particular interallied economic cooperation during the First World War; Jean Monnet’s private affairs during the inter-war period, in China for example; missions to purchase war material before and during the Second World War; Franco-British and then American-British economic cooperation during the Second World War; planning the allied war economy; the French Committee for National Liberation; the modernisation and reconstruction of France after the war; the Schuman Plan, the ECSC and the origins of European integration; the European Defence Community and the European Political Community; the Treaties of Rome (Euratom and the European Economic Community); Great Britain’s accession to the Communities in 1973; the Action Committee for the United States of Europe; the drafting of Jean Monnet’s Memoirs. The fonds also contains correspondence and thematic documentation of the Action Committee for the United States of Europe.
The collection is complemented by a rich collection of photographs, sound documents and films.
