The worship of Charlemagne at two crucial turning points of the new German history

The person of Charlemagne steps predominantly into the foreground at two crucial turning points of the new German history: After the decline of the Old Empire when Napoleon considered himself being the founder of a New Empire combining France and Germany, tried to legitimate his reign over the two countries by referring to the Carolingians, and when his worship of Charlemagne was taken up by his supporters in Germany; and then once more after the fall of the Third Reich when Konrad Adenauer and Robert Schumann were striving for the reconciliation between the Federal Republic of Germany and France in the spirit of the Christian occidental idea of a united Europe and pro-European politicians and publicists stylized Charlemagne to the common ancestor of the European peoples and to the symbolic figure (rex, pater Europae) of the united Europe. The worship of Charlemagne was also serving the idea of a united Europe. Since its medieval origins there existed two aspects: a political and a religious-liturgical one which were combined mainly at the sepulchre of Charlemagne in Aachen. It was here that Napoleon held court before his coronation in the year 1804 and it is here that the "Karlspreis" for merits for the unification of Europe has been awarded since 1950.