Uwe W. Kitzinger (1928–2023)

Uwe Kitzinger was born to a Jewish family in Nuremberg, Germany. He arrived in England as a refugee from the Nazis as a child in July 1939. He was educated at Watford Grammar School and then studied at Oxford University (Balliol College and New College), where he was elected president of the Oxford Union. In 1950, he graduated with a First Class Honors degree in philosophy, politics and economics. The following year, Kitzinger was appointed the first British economist at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, where he worked on European economic integration. In 1952, he married Sheila Webster, who became an international reformer of birthing practices, with whom he had five daughters. In 1956, when Britain declined to join the European Economic Community, Kitzinger returned to Oxford as Ford Research Fellow in European Politics at Nuffield College. He founded the Journal of Common Market Studies in 1963 to promote research on contemporary Europe in English-speaking universities. He campaigned on television and in the press for Britain to join the European Communities. He also worked as a visiting professor at the University of the West Indies, Harvard University, and the University of Paris. In 1976, he became Dean of INSEAD (Institut Européen d'Administration des Affaires or European Institute for Business Management) in Fontainebleau, France, where he encouraged research. In 1984, he became a founder and the first president of Templeton College, Oxford, From 1993 to 2003, he was back at Harvard as a visiting scholar. He has served on the Councils of Chatham House, the European Movement, Oxfam, the Federation Britannique des Alliances Françaises, Asylum Welcome and other voluntary organizations. In 1980 he was named a CBE. He has written numerous books, including German Electoral Politics (1960), The Challenge of the Common Market (1963), Britain, Europe and Beyond (2964), and Diplomacy and Persuasion (1973), and co-edited Macro-Engineering and the Earth with Ernst Frankel (1998).