Achille Joinard

Achille Joinard opened the International Peace Tour in 1955

Achille Henri Joinard (born October 28, 1889 in Paris , † October 20, 1958 there ) was a French sports official and nationalist . From 1947 to 1957 he was President of the World Cycling Association Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI).

Political activities

Achille Joinard became a nationalist at a young age. In May 1906, at the age of 16, he was a founding member of the Ligue de la Rose , of which he was also president. This "League of Catholic and Patriotic Youth" had monarchist tendencies, turned against Freemasonry and agitated, for example, against the school teacher and professor Amédée Thalamas , who had doubts about the divine mission of Joanna of Orleans (Jeanne d'Arc ) had expressed why he was violently hostile. The league published its own magazine, Le Mousquetaire , of which Joinard was also editor-in-chief.

The group was extremely active between 1906 and 1910, organizing patriotic ceremonies such as laying wreaths in front of statues of Joan of Arc and the Panthéon, as well as public gatherings and conferences. In 1910, the league honored the journalist Louis Grégori , who two years earlier had committed an assassination attempt on Alfred Dreyfus and whose secretary Joinard was. In 1912, Joinard and the members of the league wanted to found a union française of all right-wing and nationalist leagues under the presidency of the former minister Émile Flourens , but the project was unsuccessful.

In 1907, Joinard was fined 15  francs and sentenced to two days in prison for disturbing the peace at night because, after leaving a meeting in the Salle Wagram in Paris , he said “Down with Picquart ! Down with Clemenceau ! ”Had shouted. In 1909 someone posted an obituary notice of his, which was immediately denied in Figaro . Achille Joinard initially worked as an employee of Crédit Lyonnais and later as a dealer in religious articles.

In 1912 Joinard ran as a declared “anti-Freemason” and “anti-Jewish” candidate for the Union française in the local elections in the district of Quartier de l'Hôpital-Saint-Louis , where he received four percent approval with 266 votes. He was a member of the Association of Amis des retraites militaires (German friends of the former military ) before he joined the Jeunesses patriotes (German patriotic youth ) in the 1920s . In the 1930s he became a member of the Ligue des Patriotes (LDP), where he was president of the section of the 10th arrondissement . Under his leadership, the league members fought with actions especially for the defense of traditional values, for example by disrupting supposedly immoral theater performances.

Career in cycling

Achille Joinard was a versatile athlete; he practiced fencing , boxing and athletics . From 1925 he was president of a cycling club in the 10th arrondissement in Paris. He began to combine his two passions by founding a cycling group in the LDP and also getting involved in sports politics. In 1931 he took the side of the French racing driver Lucien Michard at the World Track Championships in Copenhagen against a decision by the UCI World Cycling Association. In 1933 he founded the cycling club Jeunesses Populaires et Sportives (JPS), with Michard as an honorary member and with himself as president; the association was still closely associated with national and right-wing extremist circles. Joinard organized a celebration in the club to mark the 50th anniversary of the death of the nationalist poet Paul Déroulède . From 1940 to 1942 he was Vice-President of the Union vélocipédique de France and supported its transformation into the Fédération française de cyclisme (FFC) as President of the Committee of the Île-de-France . In 1943 he became interim president of the FFC after the then president César Banino resigned.

In 1945 Achille Joinard became President of the FFC and in 1947 President of the UCI. As such, he persuaded French racing cyclists to take part in the International Peace Tour , which he described as the " Tour de France des East ". His saying “La bicyclette est fille de Bretagne” (Eng. “The bicycle is a daughter of Brittany”) is also often quoted.

In 1955, Joinard came under suspicion of corruption: The French association, which had initially applied to host the UCI track world championships in 1955 , had allegedly received the equivalent of 5 million marks from the Italian association for withdrawing its application . Rumors that Joinard, who was also president of the French association, received the money personally, were rejected by the French association. The World Cup was not hosted because at the UCI Track World Championships in 1952 , which took place in Paris, the audience was too low.

Honors

Joinard was Chevalier of the Legion of Honor , officer of the Académie de l'éducation physique and holder of its gold medal. He was also Vice President of the French National Olympic Committee and a member of the French Supreme Education Council.

literature

• Jacques Marchand: Velodrame . Calmann-Lévy, 2008.
• Jean Philippet: Le temps des ligues. Pierre Taittinger et les Jeunesses patriotes (1919-1944) . Paris 1999, p. 53
• Detlef Mühlberger: The Social Basis of European Fascist Movements , Beckenham, Croom Helm, 1987, p. 197
• Henri Temerson: Biographies des principales personnalités françaises décédées au cours de l'année 1957. Paris 1958

Web links

Commons : Achille Joinard  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ la84foundation.org (English; PDF; 1.7 MB)
2. ^ ^{A b} Achille Joinard: "Chronique des 'As' de France" In: La Croix , March 25, 1917
3. ^ Le Matin , March 5, 1911
4. ↑ ^{a b c} "Les Amis de M. Millerand". In: Armée et démocratie , February 16, 1913, p. 117
5. ↑ "Les fêtes de Jeanne d'Arc". In: La Croix , May 14, 1907
6. ^ ^{A b} Jean de Paris: “Plaisanterie macabre”. In: Le Figaro , February 28, 1909
7. ↑ "Manifestation au Panthéon". In: Le Temps , April 16, 1909
8. ↑ "En l'honneur de Jeanne d'Arc". In: La Croix , May 12, 1908
9. ↑ "Avis diverse". In: La Croix , April 7, 1908
10. ↑ Comte P. Antoine de Jean de Lyé: “Sur le chantier”. In: La Croisade française , pp. 15. – 31. May 1912
11. ^ "Convocations - Ligue de la Rose Blanche". In: La Presse , July 13, 1911
12. ↑ "La Rose Blanche". In: La Croix , December 18, 1907
13. ↑ Le Figaro , May 6, 1912
14. ^ "Le théâtre antifrançais", Le Figaro , March 26, 1931
15. ↑ Le Figaro , May 11, 1931
16. ↑ Jacques Augendre: “La loi des fédérations”. In: Les cahiers de médiologie , No. 5 ( La Bicyclette ), 1998, p. 218
17. ↑ René Bierre: "Nos clubs cyclistes: les Jeunesses populaires et sportives". In: Match l'intran , February 20, 1934
18. ↑ Sport , November 21, 1934, quoted from William J. Murray: "Sport and Politics in France in the 1930s". In: Studies in Sports History , No. 2 ( Sport: Nationalism and Internationalism ). Edited by The Australian Society for Sports History, 1987, p. 78
19. ^ "Les Sports". In: Le Matin , November 19, 1943
20. ↑ friedensfahrt-info.de
21. ↑ letour.fr ( Memento of the original from July 17, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (French) 
22. ^ Cycling , January 3, 1956