Aberkennung des Doktorgrades von Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi durch die Nationalsozialisten

EUROPEAN LETTER OF THE 8.11.2020 - Remembrance day of the Kalergi monastery Arkadi, the most important national monument of Crete Crete as an important cell of European Culture Evangelia Panagiotaki, International Relations Scientist, Rethemnos, Crete As Crete enjoying a central geopolitical position among three continents in the heart of theMediterranean, it is considered as a crossroads of civilizations. The history of Crete is ancient and can be traced back to the first myths and legends. According to Greek mythology, Zeus was born in the Ida mountains of Crete. According the mythology Minos was the son of Zeus and the Phoenician princess Europa. Many generations of Minoan, Akkadian, Persian, Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Venetian, Turkish, Khazarian, Jewish and Egyptian people lived in Crete. The spiritual dimension of the ancient Cretan civilization made Crete famous:“The consequences of the disappearance of the civilization of King Minos, the oldest that flourished in Europe, are among the most appalling dramas, and the results of this abolition will never cease to be present and tragic” (Paolo Santarcangeli, 1974, Le Livre des Labyrinth, P. 96, p. 187). Although people in ancient times lived mixed and spoke a mixed language, they lived in unity and harmony in a spiritual state of being full of empathy, unconditional kindness, simplicity and excellent beauty. We can proudly claim that the civilization, the ethics, the writing, the art expression, the music, the movement, the dance, the creativity, the name, the openness, the values even though the nowadays monetary currency “euro” of European Union, emerged all from the abundant island of Crete. There is anything significant cultural element, that Crete did not granted to the culture of the European Continent. This multicultural island of Crete was the material and spiritual environment from which the Kalergi family comes from. Kalergi were part of a distinguished Pontic family named Phokas, sent to Crete by the Byzantine Emperor Alexios II Komnenos in the mid-12th century. Some members of this Byzantine family, were married to spouses of Persian, Arab, Khazarian, East Asian origins. Matthew Kalergis, a wealthy Rethemnian distinguished businessman and war exhibition prominent general of pope authority, having recrewing own Cretan soldiers, when he married the niece of the Doges of Venice, became the founder of the famous Vendramin Calergi Cretovenezian family. They owned important properties in the Grand Canal of Venezia as the well known Vendramin Calergi Casino Palace, the Grimani theatre etc. Their influence was remarkable on the formation of many states of the European Continent. The founder of the Pan-European movement Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi, the pioneer of the modern European unification movement based on democratic principles, comes from this Venezian Kaleri line in connection with the Dutch Coudenhoves.