HARVARD GAZETTE ARCHIVES

De Gunzburg Family Increases Support For Center for European Studies

At a dinner Monday, scholars and friends of the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies (CES) celebrated the announcement of significant new endowment support from the de Gunzburg family.

Members of the family have committed $5 million to the Center, in addition to their previous gift of $10 million in 1986. The de Gunzburgs will pay the $5 million in two installments: $3 million in 1998 and $2 million in 2000, and the University will match these gifts at the time they are received. As the $6 million from the 1998 de Gunzburg installment and the University match will accrue interest until 2000, the new support for the Center approaches $11 million.

On behalf of the family, Jean and Charles de Gunzburg -- the sons of Alain and Minda de Gunzburg -- expressed their support of the Center. "We, as our mother before us, remain committed to the values of scholarship, excellence, and European-American cooperation. We are honored and privileged to participate

in such an outstanding institution."

President Neil L. Rudenstine expressed his thanks for the new gift: "We are extremely grateful to Alain, Jean, and Charles de Gunzburg for this latest expression of their remarkable generosity. The family's support has played an invaluable role in Harvard's efforts to sustain and strengthen scholarship and education in European studies, at a time when historic changes in Europe and elsewhere call for renewed emphasis on an increased understanding of international affairs. Harvard welcomes the opportunity to match the de Gunzburgs' important new commitment, which will help ensure the vitality of the Center for European Studies far into the future."

The new endowment will support the Center's activities in general, and also will fulfill a commitment to the German government, which honored the Center in 1990 with a 10-year gift of one-and-a-half million German marks a year (approximately $1 million a year) to support German and European studies at Harvard. In accepting the grant from the German government, Harvard agreed to create an endowment that would sustain indefinitely the essential activities of the Program for the Study of Germany and Europe.

Family's history of support

When the de Gunzburgs gave Harvard $10 million in 1986, they funded the renovation of Adolphus Busch Hall -- which then became the Center's headquarters -- and enriched the Center's endowment fund. Harvard then named the Center for Minda de Gunzburg, who died in 1985.

Minda de Gunzburg was married to Alain de Gunzburg '46, MBA '47, a Paris-based banker. Jean de Gunzburg is a molecular biologist. He received a doctorate in molecular biology from the University of Paris in 1985 and directs a cancer research laboratory at the Curie Institute in Paris. From 1986 to 1988, Jean de Gunzburg was a postdoctoral fellow at M.I.T.'s Whitehead Institute, and during that time he also participated in the programs of the Minda de Gunzburg Center. Charles de Gunzburg is vice chairman of First Spring Corp. in New York City. He earned a bachelor of arts degree from Dartmouth College in 1983 and, in 1989, he received an M.P.A. from the Kennedy School of Government.

Aileen Mindel Bronfman de Gunzburg, known to her family and friends as "Minda," was born and raised in Montreal, educated in the United States, and spent most of her adult life in Paris. She went to Smith College and earned a master's degree in political science and history from Columbia University and a master's degree in art history from the University of Paris.

"The de Gunzburgs' support has been essential to the success of the Center," said Guido Goldman, who served as founding director of the CES from 1969 until 1994. "We needed a larger permanent home for our growing group of faculty, students, and visiting researchers -- and, we had the opportunity to move from 5 Bryant Street to the extraordinary ambiance of Busch Hall. We also required funds for our myriad activities. The de Gunzburgs' original gift generously provided both. The new gift enhances and stabilizes our existence for the next generation."

Broad range of activities

Largely because of the activities of the de Gunzburg Center, Harvard is widely regarded as the premier place for the study of contemporary European history, politics, and culture.

Established in 1969 to enhance interdisciplinary scholarship and teaching on modern Europe, the Center's primary purpose continues to be the training of graduate students with a commitment to European studies.

Paul and Catherine Buttenwieser University Professor Stanley H. Hoffmann, who helped found the Center and served as its chairman until 1995, said, "I felt it was very exciting getting together a number of colleagues, including graduate students and junior faculty, who had similar interests in Europe and a variety of experiences to examine the issues and talk about common problems facing European countries."

Hoffmann's goal of gathering a community of scholars surely has been realized: in 1996-97, the Center comprises 18 senior faculty members, 10 junior faculty, 26 visiting scholars, 47 affiliates from Harvard and other local universities, and 52 graduate students. "We've always tried to make the Center as nonhierarchical as possible," Hoffmann said. "We treat everyone as a member of a research community."

The Center has not only engaged Harvard faculty and students but is also closely allied with M.I.T. faculty and students from the political science, history, and German departments, and the Sloan School of Management.

Krupp Foundation Professor of European Studies Charles S. Maier, now the director of the de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, said, "The de Gunzburgs' support, added to their original gift, secures our capacity to maintain a broad range of programs. We are thus able to move confidently and strongly into the twenty-first century."

Maier explained that some of the Center's scholars focus on cultural and historical studies, others emphasize the role of normative theory in analyzing new dimensions of citizenship, and yet others examine institutional development, the role of the state and the market, labor and firms, or political parties and social movements.

"Originally our emphasis was in political history and political economic issues. That continues, but interest in cultural history, citizenship, ethnicity, and popular culture has grown," he noted.

"The heart of our activities has been the continued training of graduate students with a commitment to international affairs," commented Maier, "and we also try to encourage undergraduates to become educated about European affairs, and, perhaps, pursue advanced studies in European-related subjects."

Citing nearly 10 top scholars in the field, Hoffmann said: "Many of the best young scholars around the country teaching about contemporary Europe are people who trained at this Center."

Fellowship opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students are essential components in supporting their study of Europe. "We think a year or more in Europe is very important for our students," said Maier in regard to making funding available for travel, research, and dissertation writing.

Upcoming events planned

The Center is concluding the current academic year with a two-day event commemorating the 50th anniversary of the announcement of the Marshall Plan at Commencement in June 1947. The occasion is being jointly sponsored by the Kennedy School of Government.

Ongoing at the Center are the regular monthly calendar of 20 study groups and research projects, a publishing program, and an extensive array of grants for undergraduates, graduates, and postdoctoral scholars. A preview of CES conferences and workshops for 1997-98 indicates the remarkable breadth of activity that makes the Center so intellectually exciting and effective.

Conferences and workshops scheduled for the coming academic year include "Challenges to Concepts of Civic Life in Contemporary France" in September and, in November, a graduate student workshop on the functioning of state socialism in Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, and Poland from 1949 to 1989.

Also planned are three workshops connected to ongoing research projects: "Varieties of Liberalism: Economic and Political Inclusion," in November; "The New Politics of the Welfare State," in December; and "A Tale of Two Regions: Political Strategies for Economic Development in East Germany and Southern Italy," in January 1998.

In February 1998, the Center hosts a conference entitled "Berlin: The European Capital City at the Turn of the Century?" which will be complemented by exhibitions at the Graduate School of Design and the Busch Reisinger Museum and by a film series at the Goethe Institute in Boston.

A graduate student workshop, "The Military in European Societies, 1871-1989," is also scheduled for February 1998. A concluding conference on "The Fate of Consociationalism in Western Europe" will be convened in April 1998.

Scholars and students from the United States and Europe will come to Harvard to participate in these events.