PREFACE 
Stories in history 
Thorbjørn Jagland, Secretary General of the Council of Europe
Gabriella Battaini-Dragoni, Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe
THE BEGINNING
Summer 1949 in Strasbourg 
Félix Kappler
THE 1950s
René Cassin, symbol of the Europe of human rights 
Guido Raimondi
12 gold stars on a sky blue background 
Charles Kohler
THE 1960s
In defence of Cinderella 
Jan Malinowski
Fighting a dictatorship in the “homeland of democracy” 
Peter Leuprecht
THE 1970s 
An Iberian dawn 
Roger Massie
Abolishing the death penalty in Europe 
Allard Plate
THE 1980s 
“Ostpolitik” makes its appearance 
Bruno Haller
Travels beyond the Iron Curtain 
Bruno Haller
Take it like a man 
Mark Neville
One November night on the motorway 
Marc Scheuer
Europe, our common home 
Alexander Orlov
My road to Damascus 
Catherine Lalumière
THE 1990s 
A memorable tour 
Catherine Lalumière
A Venitian story 
Gianni Buquicchio
A marriage of head and heart 
Catherine Trautmann
An Albanian summer 
Claudia Luciani
Building a Greater Europe 
Hans Winkler
A dress that tells a story 
Eliana Carvalho
Reconciling Europe with itself
Jacques Warin
From indifference to difference: a Bosnian story
Simona Granata-Menghini and Tanja Rakusic-Hadzic
From “Mani pulite” to “Caviar-Gate”
Gianluca Esposito
Building democracy on a local basis 
Ulrich Bohner
THE 2000s 
The prisoners of Gobustan 
Catherine Hugel
Heart-to-heart 
Eva Konecna and Johan Friestedt
A new ambition for the European continent 
Denis Huber and Hanna Machińska
Fighting against violence 
Maud de Boer-Buquicchio
Blood and honey 
Denis Huber
The wheel turning in a vacuum 
Tatiana Termacic
THE 2010s 
Violence and serenity 
Snežana Samardžić-Marković
Culture, the foundation for a European renaissance 
Gabriella Battaini-Dragoni
POSTFACE 
A human enterprise 
Emmanuel Macron, President of the French Republic
APPENDICES 
The 47 member states of the Council of Europe 
The Council of Europe in brief 
Key dates 
The authors