André Tardieu

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André Tardieu

André Tardieu (born September 22, 1876 in Paris , † September 15, 1945 in Menton ) was a French Republican-Conservative politician . At the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 , Tardieu was an advisor to Georges Clemenceau . From 1926 to 1932 he was Minister and Prime Minister several times . He was a central figure in French politics between 1929 and 1932 in particular.

Early years

André Tardieu was a descendant of the Tardieu family of engravers . He attended the renowned Lycée Condorcet in Paris. In the national school leaving exam he was one of the best in his year. He first entered the diplomatic service. He left this to work as a journalist for the newspaper Le Temps . He developed into a foreign policy reporter and commentator recognized throughout Europe. Together with Georges Mandel he founded the conservative newspaper L'Echo National .

He became professor of the history of diplomacy at the École libre des sciences politiques and a military school. There he came into friendly contact with Ferdinand Foch . In 1908 he was visiting professor at Harvard University . As a conservative of the Parti républicain démocratique , he was elected to the French parliament for the first time in 1914 .

He joined the army after the outbreak of the First World War and was responsible for contact with the press, initially on Joseph Joffre's staff . He then worked on the staff of Foch before commanding an infantry company. After being wounded in 1916, he was sent to the United States to promote the French cause. Back in France, he wrote a series of articles in which he advocated the replacement of Joffre. In 1917 he was appointed French High Commissioner in the United States. In 1918 Tardieu was responsible for Franco-American cooperation in wartime matters. He developed a good relationship with Colonel Edward M. House . As his advisor and to Georges Clemenceau , he played a role at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 .

Political rise

In the period of the Bloc national after the end of the war until 1924 he was one of the most prominent young parliamentarians. In 1919 he was Minister for the Liberated Areas. He was thus responsible for the administration of Alsace and Lorraine . He held the post until 1920. He published an influential pamphlet in 1921 in defense of the Versailles Treaty. In it he reaffirmed, among other things, the conviction of the German war guilt . He later relativized this anti-German position.

After the defeat of the Bloc national in 1924, it initially played no role before returning to parliament in 1926. He was a member of this until 1936. He criticized the French parliamentarism at the time, the crises of which the ordinary voter could hardly see through. He pleaded to overcome the existing parliamentary fronts and to strengthen the rights of the government. He later tried to enforce this concept.

Minister and Prime Minister

In 1926 he became Minister for Public Works in the government of Raymond Poincaré , whose positions he had previously rejected. He was Minister of the Interior between 1928 and 1930. He was Prime Minister for the first time from November 1929 to December 1930, but retained the post of Minister of the Interior. It filled the political void that had arisen in the center-right with the resignation of Poincare. He was a leading representative of a younger generation of politicians. Aristide Briand supported him in foreign policy . During this time, among other things, the Young Plan was adopted and part of the occupied Rhineland was cleared . The decision to build the Maginot Line was also made at this time. The term of office was interrupted for a few days by the government of Camille Chautemps .

Tardieu was well aware of France's relative economic backwardness. So he tried to expand the industrial sector. In connection with the onset of the global economic crisis , he implemented a large program of public investments. At a time when Germany and Great Britain were badly affected by the withdrawal of American capital, public investments ensured a comparatively positive economic development through the expansion of infrastructure and public buildings in France. This ended when Germany stopped its reparations payments in 1931 and London abandoned the gold standard . In addition, he relied on social reforms. He also connected this with a party-political calculation. The introduction of general child benefit or free secondary education should serve to broaden the conservative voter base.

Between January 1931 and 1932 he was Minister of Agriculture. In 1932 he was Minister of War. For the second time, as the successor to Pierre Laval , he was Prime Minister and Foreign Minister between February and May 1932. Between the murder of Paul Doumer and the election of Albert Lebrun in 1932 he was also acting head of state for a few days. With a view to the upcoming elections, he shied away from unpopular decisions, especially the devaluation of the franc . Instead, he relied on protectionist measures. This did not improve the crisis.

In the parliamentary elections of 1932, a relatively closed bloc of the right ran against a rather loose alliance of the left. The right under Tardieu was sharply demarcated from the socialist and internationalist left. She countered this with a conservative nationalism. Sociopolitically, the right propagated a traditional liberal individualism against a left collectivism. Tardieu and the right-wing parties were blamed by the majority of voters for the economic misery. He lost the elections and that ended his political leadership role.

After the election he founded his own political group, the Center républicain (republican center). At the height of the political crisis of the Third Republic, he criticized the omnipotence of parliament, which he saw in this way.

In 1934 the political crisis reached a level threatening the existence of the republic. A government union national was formed under Gaston Doumergue . This also had the aim of reforming the institutions. In this government, Tardieu was again Minister of State without portfolio for a short time. His proposals to reform the political system by strengthening the powers of the executive and the president failed because of parliamentary resistance.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Encyclopedia of World War I . Volume 1, Santa Barbara 2005, p. 1159.
  2. ^ Frano Ilić: France and Germany: The image of Germany in the French parliament 1919-1933 . Münster 2004, p. 241f.
  3. ↑ Thomas Raithel: The difficult game of parliamentarism. German Reichstag and French Chambre des Deputes during the inflation crises of the 1920s . Munich 2006, p. 482f.
  4. ^ Frano Ilić: France and Germany: The image of Germany in the French parliament 1919-1933 . Münster 2004, p. 243.
  5. ↑ Stefan Mertens: From the First World War to the end of the Vichy regime (1914-1944) . In: Ernst Hinrichs (ed.): Little history of France . Stuttgart 2003, p. 390.
  6. ↑ Stefan Mertens: From the First World War to the end of the Vichy regime (1914-1944) . In: Ernst Hinrichs (ed.): Little history of France . Stuttgart 2003, p. 391.
  7. ^ Daniela Neri-Ultsch: Republic in the crisis. On the political culture of France in the interwar period . In: History and Knowledge of Time: From Enlightenment to the Present. Festschrift for Horst Möller . Munich 2008, p. 185.
  8. ↑ Horst Möller: Europe between the world wars . Munich 1998, p. 111.
  9. ↑ Stefan Mertens: From the First World War to the end of the Vichy regime (1914-1944) . In: Ernst Hinrichs (ed.): Little history of France . Stuttgart 2003, p. 393.

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personal data
SURNAME Tardieu, André
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French politician
DATE OF BIRTH September 22, 1876
PLACE OF BIRTH Paris
DATE OF DEATH September 15, 1945
Place of death Menton