Eugène Merle

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Eugène Merle (1927)

Eugène Merle (* 5. February 1884 in Marseille , † 1946 in Paris ) was a French publisher, trades and - in the words Ilya Ehrenburg - "not fortzudenkender part in the Paris of politicians, financiers and writers."

Live and act

The illegitimate son of a maid lived in Marseille initially as a laborer, was a supporter of militant anarchism from an early age and was enthusiastic about desperados like Jules Bonnot . He got shorter prison terms. In Paris he took on functions in the anarchist press. He later published left-wing papers such as Frou-Frou (rustling) or Le Merle Blanc ( white blackbird satirical paper ). In 1923 he founded the evening paper Paris-Soir , which over the next 15 years blossomed into the daily newspaper with the highest circulation in Europe, albeit without Merle. In 1933 he was shipwrecked while attempting to revive the White Blackbird . He supported republican Spain . His activities during the Second World War and the German occupation (→ Western campaign ) are in the dark. The lord of the castle and gourmet was married twice. He died (1946) of throat cancer.

Despite his playful nature and the corresponding tricks, Merle was a helpful, even kind person, as Ehrenburg testifies. Merle promoted numerous young writers such as Georges Simenon , Robert Desnos and Ilja Ehrenburg himself. In his regular bars or in his splendid country house not far from Paris, he gave meals and parties where those named met “God and the world”. Simenon assures that in view of the winking cynicism of the newspaper bosses, ministers and even prime ministers (such as Édouard Herriot ) present, he had suffered an insurmountable disgust in Merle's castle for what was happening on the political stage.

literature

  • Ilja Ehrenburg : People - Years - Lives (Memoirs), Munich 1962, special edition Munich 1965, Volume II 1923–1941, pages 191–197, ISBN 3-463-00512-3 (portrait)
  • Laurent Martin: De l'anarchisme à l'affairisme. Les deux vies d'Eugène Merle, homme de presse (1884–1946) . In: Revue historique , Vol. 612 (1999), pp. 789-808, ISSN  0035-3264
  • Laurent Martin: La presse écrite en France au XXe siècle. Quotidiens et périodiques de la Belle Époque à nos jours . Le livre de poche, Paris 2005, ISBN 2-253-11541-X , p. 77.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ehrenburg Munich 1965, page 191
  2. ↑ Detailed information about this phase here , accessed on April 25, 2011
  3. ↑ "The blackmailer was made to keep the banker on the path of virtue", Merle is said to have once remarked - according to Silvia Valentin , accessed on April 25, 2011, which deals with the corruption of the French press around 1900
  4. ↑ Ehrenburg mentions a. a. the story according to which Simenon, crouching in a glass cage in the publishing house, wrote a serial novel for Merle's short-term paper Paris Matinal (page 192). According to the Wikipedia article on Simenon , she is a duck
  5. ^ Château d'Avrainville , accessed April 25, 2011
  6. ^ Ehrenburg, page 193
  7. ↑ According to Trussell , accessed April 25, 2011
personal data
SURNAME Merle, Eugène
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French publisher
DATE OF BIRTH February 5, 1884
PLACE OF BIRTH Marseille
DATE OF DEATH 1946
Place of death Paris