Prime Minister, held by six different leaders. In 1954, De Gasperi also had to give up the leadership of the party, when Amintore Fanfani was appointed new Secretary of the Christian Democracy in June. Death and legacy On 19 August 1954, De Gasperi died in Sella di Valsugana, in his beloved Trentino. It is said that he had to be given a State funeral as he had died with almost no means of his own. He is buried in the Basilica di San Lorenzo fuori le Mura, a basilica in Rome. The process for his beatification was opened in 1993. "De Gasperi was against exacerbating conflict", according to his former secretary and former Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti. "He taught us to search for compromise, to mediate." He is considered to be one of the founding fathers of the European Union. From the very beginning of European integration, De Gasperi, Robert Schuman and Konrad Adenauer met regularly. He helped to organize the Council of Europe and supported the Schuman Declaration, which in 1951 led to the foundation of the European Coal and Steel Community – a forerunner in the process of European integration. In 1954 he was elected president of the forerunner of the European Parliament, the Community's Common Assembly. Although eventually transformed into the current project of the European Union, De Gasperi helped to develop the idea of a common European defence policy. In 1952, he received the Karlspreis (International Charlemagne Prize of the City of Aachen), an award by the German city of Aachen to people who contributed to the European idea and European peace. The 1954–1955 academic year at the College of Europe was named in his honour. Personal life On 14 June 1922, De Gasperi married Francesca Romani (30 August 1894 – 20 August 1998) and had four daughters, Maria Romana, Lucia, Cecilia and Paola. In Florestano Vancini's film The Assassination of Matteotti (1973), De Gasperi is played by Ezio Marano. Electoral history See also Alcide de Gasperi Building Notes Further reading Bigaran, Mariapia. "Alcide De Gasperi: the apprenticeship of a political leader", Modern Italy Nov 2009, Vol. 14 Issue 4, pp 415–30 Carrillo, Elisa. Alcide De Gasperi: The Long Apprenticeship. University of Notre Dame Press, 1965. Cau, Maurizio. "Alcide De Gasperi: a political thinker or a thinking politician?" Modern Italy Nov 2009, Vol. 14 Issue 4, pp 431–45 Duggan, Christopher. Force of Destiny: A History of