Marcel Decombis

Marcel Decombis (born December 23, 1916 in Gentilly near Paris , † September 10, 2003 in Brussels ) was the co-founder of the first European School in Luxembourg .

Life

Marcel Decombis attended elementary school in his grandparents' home. Here he was recognized as an excellent student and attended grammar school in Douai near Lille . He received the 2nd prize for philosophy in all of France for his achievements in high school . He later studied at the Sorbonne and took his exam in German . During the Second World War he was taken to a labor camp in Neubrandenburg . After a year he was issued a certificate of incapacity for work and returned to France. After the war he founded the Center Culturel Français in Innsbruck . There he married his first wife and there his first daughter, Anne Marie, was born in 1947. Three years later they moved to Paris where Marcel Decombis taught at various schools. In 1951 his first wife died and Marcel Decombis moved on to Luxembourg . There he worked in Jean Monnet's cabinet. Here he also met his second wife, Elsbeth Zeh. In 1953 he founded the first European school together with M. Van Houtte . In 1959 his second daughter, Beatrice, was born. In 1960 he founded the European School in Varese . He later worked in a managerial position at the Brussels European School until he retired at the age of 63 . In 2003 he returned to Luxembourg as a guest of honor and keynote speaker to experience the 50th anniversary of the school he co-founded. He died in Brussels on September 10, 2003.

Services and guiding principles

One of Marcel Decombi's greatest achievements was the establishment of the first European school in Luxembourg. Decombi's goal was the unification of Europe and the strengthening of European identity against the backdrop of the Cold War between the USA and the USSR . UA he introduced a joint class for geography and history: SH (human sciences). Here connections between the two subjects are integrated holistically in the classroom. In the middle and high school, history is taught in the first foreign language. This was a highly controversial concept in the period shortly after World War II.