Bernard Journu-Auber

Bernard Journu-Auber (born May 15, 1745 in Bordeaux , † February 28, 1815 ) was a French politician, scholar and shipowner.

The offspring of a merchant family from Bordeaux married a rich Creole heiress named Monique-Geneviève Auber from Port-à-la-Paix in 1775 . He worked as a shipowner and learned farmer and wrote an award-winning Mémoire sur l'infertilité des Landes in 1789 . 1778-80 he was consul of the Bordeaux stock exchange. He was elected as a member of the Legislative National Assembly in 1791 and belonged to the constitutionally monarchist Club of Feuillants. On colonial issues, he turned against the liberation of slaves. During the Jacobin Terror he was imprisoned for a time in the Fort du Hâ in Bordeaux.

The coup d'état of Napoleon Bonaparte on Brumaire 18 (November 9, 1799) saw Journu-Auber on the winning side. He became senator, one of the founders of the Banque de France , commander of the Legion of Honor (1804) and received the title of Count Comte de Tustal in 1808. He managed to enrich the art museum in his hometown by administrative allocation of 29 valuable paintings.

On April 3, 1814, however, he voted in the Senate for the deposition of Napoleon and was by Louis XVIII. rewarded with the title of Pair of France . Journu-Auber died shortly before the return of the emperor and the "100 days"