Robert Schuman’s Birthplace

Robert Schuman’s Birthplace

Robert Schuman’s Birthplace is situated in the suburb of Clausen, one of the lower suburbs of the City of Luxembourg. Clausen saw glorious times under Governor Peter Ernst von Mansfeld, who built a magnificent Renaissance chateau there during the second half of the 16th century. It was surrounded by a sumptuous park, but sadly fell into ruins through lack of maintenance after the death of its creator. The inhabitants of Clausen recycled the remains in building their own houses. The young Robert Schuman grew up in this quarter, occupied as it was by market gardeners and brewers. The Schuman family home is isolated and surrounded by greenery, at the foot of the slope beneath the European Parliament building. In fact it never belonged to Robert Schuman’s parents, who were tenants in the house. They owned another house located in the Grand-Rue in the Upper City. The house in Clausen was built in 1872/73 by the lawyer Jean-Nicolas Feyen, who sold it in 1899 to the teacher Jules Wilhelm. Today, the street bears his name. In Robert Schuman’s time, the place was called “Parc Mansfeld”. On his daily journey to school, Robert Schuman passed the German military cemetery, a reminder of the time of the federal fortress (1815-1867), when a Prussian garrison held the city. After the departure of the Schuman family, different tenants occupied the house. Edmond Dune, a French speaking Luxembourgish journalist and novelist living in Clausen, turned up many times in this meeting place of the local cultural life. The Luxembourg government bought the house in 1985, when the Luxembourgish historian Professor Gilbert Trausch founded the “Robert Schuman Center for Euro- pean Studies and research” as well as a scientific library in 1991. Since the final take over by the “Center for Contemporary and Digital History” in 2019, the house has been used as an office and meeting room without public access.