Augustin Alexandre Darthé

Augustin Alexandre Joseph Darthé (* 1769 in Saint-Pol-sur-Ternoise (today in the Pas-de-Calais department ), † May 27, 1797 in Vendôme ) was a French revolutionary.

Life

Augustin Alexandre Joseph Darthé was born the son of a petty aristocratic doctor in Saint-Pol-sur-Ternoise and studied law in Paris when the revolution broke out.

Darthé took part in the storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789. He joined the Jacobin Club and was elected to the board of directors of the Pas-de-Calais department in November 1792. In the summer of 1793 he put down an uprising ( "Kleine Vendée" ) near Pernes-en-Artois with relentless severity. Then Darthé and his brother-in-law Joseph Le Bon worked as “representatives in mission” in the northern region and established the Jacobins' “ reign of terror ” there . Darthé served as a juror and since April 1794 as public prosecutor at the Revolutionary Tribunal in Arras and Cambrai .

Darthé was imprisoned after the overthrow of the 9th Thermidor (July 27, 1794) and met his future comrade Babeuf in prison. After the suppression of the royalist Vendémiaire uprising on October 5, 1795, the Thermidorians decided on a general amnesty for jailed Jacobins. Darthé was released from prison on October 14, 1795. In November 1795 he became a member of the " Society of Friends of the Republic " , who held their meetings near the Panthéon and was therefore called the "Panthéon Club" . There Darthé could quickly gain influence. The Panthéon Club quickly found widespread acceptance among the masses living in misery. The board of directors feared a strengthening of the opposition from the left and on February 27, 1796 enforced the closure of the Panthéon Club. Babeuf , Filippo Buonarroti , Darthé and other opponents of the Board of Directors formed the "Secret Executive Board for the Public Good" on April 9, 1796 to plan and carry out the " Conspiracy of Equals " . Due to his talent for speaking and his practical understanding of politics, Darthé gained the lead in preparation for the uprising alongside Babeuf. In contrast to Babeuf, who aspired to a communist society, Darthé advocated a temporary dictatorship of an individual. This dictator, without a controlling legislature, should act only in the name and for the good of the people.

As a result of information from the police spy Grisel, Babeuf, Darthé and over forty co-conspirators were arrested on May 10, 1796. Darthé did not speak out during the police interrogations. He consistently remained silent during the trial that began on February 20, 1797 in Vendôme. On May 26, 1797, the court pronounced the verdicts. Forty defendants were acquitted and five defendants, including Filippo Buonarotti, were sentenced to deportation. Only Babeuf and Darthé received the death penalty. Both tried in vain to stab each other after the verdict was announced. On May 27, 1797, the seriously injured Babeuf and Darthé were executed. Some farmers from the area around Vendôme buried the bodies of the executed in the nearby cemetery.

literature

• Bernd Jeschonnek: Revolution in France 1789–1799. A lexicon. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-05-000801-6 .
• Katharina Middell, Matthias Middell: François Noël Babeuf. Martyrs of equality. New Life, Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-355-00604-1 .