HISTORY OF THE S.E.C.

The SEC was formally founded in 1950. But in 1946 already, at the first Rencontres Internationales of Geneva, the project of a European Society of Culture presented by Umberto Campagnolo was very favourably received by writers, artists, scientists, eminent personalities of the cultural world in those days. The idea was that they should leave the “ivory tower” to act together on the public scene, not as servers of any particular cause, but in the name of the universal values of culture. Ideally, the initiator saw in this institution “The organ of the present day social function of culture. A function essentially of fostering peace and liberty, peace and liberty being indissoluble insofar as absolutely interdependent … This rather new conception of culture is already shared by many and the awareness of their responsibility grows ever more efficaciously among ‘les hommes de culture’[= intellectuals] …”. And this was recognized by creators like: Julien Benda, J.D. Bernal, André Breton, Marc Chagall, Benedetto Croce, Eugenio d’Ors, Mircea Eliade, Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz, Karl Barth, Thomas Mann, François Mauriac, Giuseppe Ungaretti, Hans Urs von Balthasar, Giorgio La Pira, Henri Matisse, Jean-Paul Sartre …
During the many years of the Cold War, the Society has been strongly engaged in defending the principle of dialogue and in keeping dialogue effectively going between East and West .
Without ever neglecting the European questions, given the general evolution the SEC has been naturally led to reflect and work on the phenomena brought about by the ongoing globalization.