Lambert Schaus

Who was Lambert Schaus?

Lambert Schaus was a Luxembourg politician, jurist, and diplomat. He held office as a government minister and European Commissioner.

Schaus was born in Luxembourg City to a jeweller. He studied jurisprudence in Paris, and also in Bonn for one term. In 1932 Schaus was appointed as a lawyer at the Luxembourgish court of appeal. Prior to the Second World War Schaus was active in local politics as a Luxembourg town councillor. When Schaus refused to support the occupation of Luxembourg by Germany, he was arrested in 1941 by the Gestapo and interned in a labour camp where he worked to build motorways. Later he was made an office assistant in the district administration office of Cochem and was later stationed in labour camps in the Sudetenland and Black Forest areas.

On returning to Luxembourg after the war he became economy and army minister in the government of Pierre Dupong in August 1946, representing the CSV party. He was responsible for the difficult reconstruction and for the first standing army of the Grand Duchy. In July 1948 Schaus left the government and again became Luxembourg town councillor until 1952. From 1952 he became a special envoy, and from 1955, ambassador to Belgium, based in Brussels. In this role he was significantly involved in the development of European integration and led the Luxembourg delegation negotiating the formation of the European Economic Community and Euratom.