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In mid-July 1870, the First Vatican Council proclaimed the infallibility of the Pope, France declared war on Prussia and a French poet planted a tree on the English Channel Island of Guernsey.

It was Victor Hugo who made a connection between the three mentioned events.

The entry in his notebook of July 17, 1870 reads: “While three days ago, on July 14, I was planting the oak of the United States of Europe in my garden at Hauteville House, the war broke out in Europe and in Rome at the same time the infallibility of the Pope.

In a hundred years there will be no more war, there will be no more Pope and the oak tree will be big. "

Victor Hugo planted the oak in exile.

After revolting against the coup d'état in 1851, with which Louis Napoléon made himself president for life and then emperor, Hugo was exiled from France after a brief imprisonment.

He went into exile via Brussels to Jersey and later to Guernsey.

In May 1856 he bought a magnificent property there: Hauteville House.

He was able to pay for it with the fee he received for the volumes of poetry "Les Contemplations" and "Les Châtiments", the latter a collection of satirical humiliating poems on "Napoléon-le-Petit" and the Second Empire.

On the top floor of Hauteville House, his “look-out”, from which one could see the coast of France far over the sea when the weather was clear, Victor Hugo wrote the novels “Les Misérables” and “Les Travailleurs de la mer” at the standing desk.

Hugo's room with a view, the "look-out" in the Hauteville House on Guernsey

Source: picture alliance / dpa

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Victor Hugo recorded details of the planting of the oak in a second note in red ink: “Today, July 14, 1870, at one o'clock in the afternoon, with the help of my gardener Tourtell, I planted the acorn from which the oak was made in my garden which I will baptize with the name Oak of the United States of Europe. ”Victor Hugo listed the family members and guests who attended the planting act, including his beloved grandchildren“ Petit Georges ”and“ Petite Anne ”.

Victor Hugo in Hauteville House

On the occasion of the planting, Victor Hugo wrote a long poem consisting of 42 quatrains: “Aux Proscrits”.

Dedicated to the exiles of the imperial dictatorship, he used the core metaphor of the freshly planted oak to describe his vision of a united Europe.

A few weeks later he began to prepare to return to France to “do my duty as a citizen”.

Received triumphantly in Paris, he received a message from Hauteville House on September 13, 1870: “Julie (Hugo's sister-in-law) writes to me from Guernsey that the oak that I planted on July 14 has germinated.

The oak of the United States of Europe came out of the earth on September 5th - the day I returned to Paris. "

In 1872 Victor Hugo visited Hauteville House again.

In the diary entry of August 17, it becomes clear what careful precautions he had taken to bring the oak to light: “When I arrived, I put the two small oaks - of the five I planted two years ago - in a good one Condition found. "

Freshly renovated today: Hauteville House

Source: AFP via Getty Images

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In 1927 Victor Hugo's heirs sold his home in Guernsey to the city of Paris.

Hauteville House deteriorated before it was extensively restored two years ago thanks to a large donation from the art patron François Pinault.

The oak of the United States of Europe is still standing.

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