François Simonnet de Coulmier

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François Simonnet de Coulmier

François Simonnet de Coulmier (born September 30, 1741 in Dijon , † June 4, 1818 in Paris ), also known as François Simonnet de Coulmiers , was a French religious and politician.

Life

Coming from a middle-class Burgundian family who had grown rich through trade and finance and was finally ennobled, François Simonnet received the name de Coulmier from his paternal grandfather (from Colmier-le-Haut, Haute-Marne). Contemporary witnesses described him as short (approx. 120 centimeters), bow-legged and humped. Member of the Premonstratensian Order since 1764 , de Coulmier was the last abbot of the Notre-Dame-d'Abbécourt monastery in Orgeval before it was destroyed during the Revolution. 1789-1791 he was in the group of clergy ("clergé") member of the National Constituent Assembly and he joined the third estate. It has been suggested that he has been a member of the Masonic Lodge Les Neuf Sœurs since then . Evidence of this has not yet been found.

After 1790 he withdrew from public life. It worried him when his niece emigrated in 1793, and he emigrated himself after his brother had been guillotined as General Tax Collector ("fermier-général") in 1794.

The day after the 9th Thermidor (July 27, 1794), he returned to France and took part in the state administration of a monastery of the Lazarists near Sevran . In the era of the consulate , de Coulmier was from December 25, 1799 to July 1, 1803 as a moderate ("modéré") member of the legislative assembly ("corps législatif").

"Régisseur général" in the Charenton hospice (1797–1814)

Charenton Hospice. Today »Hôpital Esquirol«

De Coulmier became known as "régisseur général" in the Charenton hospice east of Paris .

Charenton Hospice 1641 - 1797

Since 1641, the sick, insane and epileptic in Charenton have been treated by the Brothers of Mercy of St. John looked after by God . State prisoners were also interned here . On June 30, 1795, the Charenton hospital was closed and became national property.

Charenton Hospice 1797-1814

On June 15, 1797, the Charenton Hospice was reopened by the Ministry of the Interior. From the desolate buildings in the city center, the madmen were to be relocated to an environment more conducive to recovery. Both sexes were accepted. The cure was extended from the previous six weeks to three months. Those who were not cured afterwards could remain as a paying pensioner. The poor terminally ill were transferred to the Bicêtre or the Salpêtrière . The overall management of the hospital was not entrusted to a doctor, but to François Simonnet de Coulmier, who took up his post as chief administrator ("régisseur général") on September 22, 1797. In the course of a few years, de Coulmier succeeded in filling the vacuum left by the monks in Charenton with his office, so that he (supported by the supervisory administrator Dumoutier), as director of the institution, looked like a secret abbot. The clinic's buildings were dilapidated and de Coulmier invested his private fortune in the reconstruction. He determined all matters relating to patient care, including the choice of therapy method, the granting of privileges or punishment. Repressive measures such as cold baths, restraint with handcuffs or straitjackets were rarely used. The German doctor August Friedrich Schweigger , who had visited Charenton in 1808, stated:

“There is absolutely no mistreatment and two overseers (surveillans) are watching the guards in this regard. The usual punishment consists in locking up, in an emergency by tying the hands together, at most tying in bed by means of long sleeves and, in the case of educated patients, in the presence of others. "

Based on Chiarugi ( Della pazzia in genere, e in specie. 1793–1794), Crichton ( An inquiry into the nature and origin of mental derangement. 1798), Pinel ( Traité médico-philosophique sur l'aliénation mental ou la manie . 1801) and Cabanis ( Rapports du physique et du moral de l'homme . 1802) was treated more “morally” than “physical” in Charenton. Medicines and bloodletting were used very cautiously.

A special feature of the clinic was the use of the theater as a therapy tool. AF Schweigger 1808 again:

“To cheer up and reward the mad, comedies, concerts and other celebrations are organized, which sometimes end with fireworks. There is a small theater in the madhouse for the performance of the comedies. After repeated rehearsals, the piece is formally performed. "

Light plays were performed once a month, mostly comedies by Molière , Marivaux or Mercier , followed by musical entertainment. During his second stay in Charenton, the Marquis de Sade was a director and often simultaneously an actor in the theater productions. The actors were partly patients from the clinic, partly professional actors from the capital. In addition to patients, there were also paying guests from Paris in the auditorium. From the point of view of the "régisseur général" de Coulmier, the theater was part of the therapy in the sense of a catharsis . He has been bitterly reproached for his generosity and liberalism. The whole medical school allied against this former priest who ran a psychiatric facility without ever having studied medicine.

In addition to the "régisseur général" de Coulmier, a chief physician for medicine and a chief physician for surgery were in the clinic management. The chief medical officer lived in Paris and came on rounds two to three times a week. The surgeon also lived outside the clinic, but was always available. From 1797 until his death in December 1805, Joseph Gastaldy , devoted to the pleasures of the senses, was chief of medicine. He was followed (January 23, 1806 - 1825) by Antoine-Athanase Royer-Collard, who was known for his strict moral standards and recommended by the medical faculty .

Marat / Sade production at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond , October 1969, directed by Keith Fowler

Peter Weiss used the Charenton theater as a template for his Marat Sade play, which premiered in 1964 .

De Sade in Charenton

First stay 1789–1790

On the night of July 4, 1789, de Sade was forcibly abducted from the Bastille to the Charenton hospice . In doing so, he had to leave behind his 600-volume library, his clothes and furniture, but also manuscripts ready for printing that were confiscated, looted or burned. On March 13, 1790, the Constituent Assembly issued a decree concerning state prisoners , according to which those persons were to be released within six weeks who had not been convicted, indicted or insane. Due to this decree, de Sade was released on April 2, 1790.

Second stay 1803–1814

In the era of the consulate , de Sade was given administrative support on April 2, 1801 - again without a trial - in the "reformatory for lost girls" Maison de Sainte-Pélagie in Paris, which had been converted into a political prison. Between February 20 and March 14, 1803 he wanted to satisfy his lust there on careless young people who had been sent to Sainte-Pélagie for a few days due to debauchery they had committed in the Théâtre-Français. When this became known, there was a scandal and de Sade was moved to the Bicêtre . After the intervention of his family, he exchanged the bicetre with the hospice in Charenton on April 27, 1803 . There the administrative director de Coulmier was well disposed to him. De Coulmier found support in Gastaldy , the pleasure-loving chief medical officer. De Sade received a spacious room on the second floor with a view over the Marne and the Seine. He could set up a library in an adjoining room. He received paper and writing materials. His friend Marie-Constance Quesnet was allowed to live in the clinic. This fragile condition was suddenly destroyed when, after Gastaldy's death, the strict Royer-Collard took over the position of chief medical officer. In August 1808, Royer-Collard wrote a report for Police Minister Joseph Fouché on the conditions in Charenton, in particular on the freedoms granted by de Coulmier to the inmate de Sade. Royer-Collard judged de Sade: “This person is not crazy. The vice is his madness… ”He recommended internment in a prison. In September 1808, the police minister Fouché ordered that de Sade be transferred to the Ham fortress . The surgeon Deguise, however, certified de Sade incapable of transport, and so he was able to stay in Charenton. On October 18, 1810, the Minister of the Interior issued an order that was to be implemented immediately. De Sade should be kept separate from the rest of the patients and should not be allowed to have contact inside or outside the institution. In addition, paper and writing materials should be withdrawn from him. De Coulmier was able to delay the implementation of this decree. On May 6, 1813, a ministerial decree put an end to theatrical performances in Charenton. On May 30, 1814, de Coulmier was replaced by the lawyer Simon Martin Grégoire de Roulhac Dumaupas in his function as administrative director. De Sade died in Charenton on December 2, 1814.

Works (selection)

  • Motion sur les finances, faite par M. l'Abbé de Coulmiers; Abbé d'Abbecour , le Vendredi 4 Décembre, Imprimée par ordre de l'Assemblée Nationale. Imprimerie nationale, Paris 1789 (digitized version)
  • Motion sur le tabac, by M. de Coulmiers, Abbé d'Abbécourt, Député de la Vicomté de Paris. Imprimerie de Valleyre, Paris 1791 (digitized version )
  • Opinion on the serment civique . Extrait de la Société Nationale des Neuf Sœurs. January 14, 1791 (digitized version)

Doctors in Charenton 1797-1840

Doctor / chief physician. medicine Assistant doctor. medicine Doctor / chief physician. surgery Assistant doctor. surgery
Meditations c.jpg1797–1805 Joseph Gastaldy 1797-1818 F. Deguise sen.
Royer-Collard.jpg1805 / 06-1813 Antoine-Athanase Royer-Collard
1813-1825 Antoine-Athanase Royer-Collard

(Chief doctor)

1813–1841 Bleynie 1819–1832 F. Deguise sen.

(Chief doctor)

1819-1843 Ramon
Jean-Étienne Dominique Esquirol.jpg1825 / 26–1840 Jean Étienne Esquirol 1833-1843 JF Deguise Jr. († 1871)

literature

  • Joseph Frank . Travel to Paris, London, and much of the rest of England and Scotland in relation to hospitals, supply houses, other poor institutes, medical schools, and prisons . Camesianische Buchhandlung, Vienna 1804, Volume I, pp. 92–94: Hospice de St. Maurice à Charenton (digitized version )
  • Charles-François-Simon Giraudy (1770-1848). Mémoire sur la Maison nationale de Charenton, exclusivement destinée au traitement des aliénés… présenté… au Ministre de l'Interieur, par le Directeur et les médecins de cet Etablissement. Paris to XII. - 1804 (digitized version)
  • Johann Gottfried Langermann (editor). August Friedrich Schweigger . Via sick and poor institutions in Paris. JA Lübeck, Bayreuth 1809 P. 8–27: Charenton (digitized version) P. 153: Commentary on Charenton by JG Langermann (digitized version)
  • Karl Maximilian Andree . Latest condition of the more excellent hospitals and poor institutions in some of the main towns at home and abroad. JA Barth, Volume I, Leipzig 1810, pp. 216–221: Charenton (digitized version )
  • Johann Ludwig Casper . Characteristic of French medicine, with comparative glimpses of English . FA Brockhaus, Leipzig 1822, pp. 455-462: Charenton. Royer-Collard. (Digitized version)
  • Johann Heinrich Kopp . Medical remarks prompted by a trip to Germany and France in the spring and summer of 1824 . Hermann, Frankfurt am Main 1825, p. 146: Charenton (digitized version)
  • Jean Étienne Esquirol . Mémoire historique et statistique sur la maison royale de Charenton . In: Annales d'hygiène publique et de médecine légale . 13 (1835), pp. 5–192 Here: pp. 27–59 (digitized version )
  • Gilbert Lély . Vie du marquis de Sade . JJ Pauvert, Paris 1965, pp. 632-656: Le vieillard de Charenton. Saint-Maurice
  • Dieter Jetter. On the typology of the madhouse in France and Germany (1780–1840) . Steiner, Wiesbaden 1971, pp. 38-45: La Maison de Charenton .
  • Maurice Lever . Donatien Alphonse François marquis de Sade. Fayard, Paris 1991, Chapter XXVI (pp. 583-618): Charenton
  • Laure Murat. L'homme qui se prenait pour Napoléon: Pour une histoire politique de la folie. Gallimard, Paris 2011
    • Deke Dusinberre (translation). The man who thought he was Napoleon. Toward a Political History of Madness . University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London 2014, pp. 87-105: Sade in Charenton: “This man is not insane.” ISBN 978-0-226-02573-5
  • Jean-Luc Chappey. Le Nain, le médecin et le divin marquis. In: Annales historiques de la Révolution française . October / December 2013 (digitized version)
  • Volker Reinhardt . De Sade or The Measurement of Evil. A biography. CH Beck, Munich 2014, pp. 347–385: Director in the insane asylum . ISBN 978-3-406-66515-8

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ G. Lély 1965, pp. 632-656; M. Lever 1991, pp. 583-618; L. Murat 2014, pp. 87-105
  2. ↑ In the 1820s, 50 to 60 poor places were created in Charenton - supported by the government with 60,000 francs a year. (JL Casper 1822, p. 455: (digitized) )
  3. ^ Charles-François-Simon Giraudy (1770-1848). Mémoire sur la Maison nationale de Charenton, exclusivement destinée au traitement des aliénés… présenté… au Ministre de l'Interieur, par le Directeur et les médecins de cet Etablissement. Paris to XII. - 1804, p. 2 (digitized version)
  4. ^ Johann Gottfried Langermann (editor). August Friedrich Schweigger. Via sick and poor institutions in Paris. JA Lübeck, Bayreuth 1809 p. 11 (digitized version)
  5. ^ Karl Christian Hille and Johann Christian August Heinroth (arrangement and commentary). Esquirol ’s general and special pathology and therapy of mental disorders . Hartmann, Leipzig 1827, p. 158 (digitized version)
  6. ^ Gilbert Lély. Vie du marquis de Sade . JJ Pauvert, Paris 1965, p. 454: Neuf mois à Charenton Saint-Maurice .
  7. ↑ The poet Théodore Désorgues (November 9, 1764 - June 5, 1808) was interned in Charenton in 1803 because he wrote the following rhyme: Oui, le grand Napoléon - Est un grand caméleon .
  8. ↑ "Cet homme n'est pas aliéné. Son délire est celui de vice… “Expert opinion and correspondence printed in: Gilbert Lély . Vie du marquis de Sade . JJ Pauvert, Paris 1965, pp. 640-641
personal data
SURNAME Coulmier, François Simonnet de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Coulmiers, François Simonnet de (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French religious and politician
DATE OF BIRTH September 30, 1741
PLACE OF BIRTH Dijon
DATE OF DEATH June 4, 1818
Place of death Paris