Georges Couthon
Georges Auguste Couthon (born December 22, 1755 in Orcet , Auvergne , † July 28, 1794 executed in Paris ) was a French revolutionary and close friend and supporter of Robespierre .
Life
Couthon studied in Clermont to 1785 jurisprudence . On December 11, 1786 he was initiated there as a Freemason in the Loge Saint Maurice .
In 1791 he was elected as a member of the National Assembly . At this point he was already paralyzed from the waist down and was using a wheelchair he had designed himself to move around .
While Couthon has always described himself as an enlightened supporter of a constitutional monarchy in earlier publications , Louis XVI's attempt to escape had him . and his family made a bitter enemy of the king in June 1791 ( flight to Varennes ). For this reason he voted, elected to the National Convention in September 1792 , in the trial of Louis XVI. for the death of the monarch. When he became a member of the Welfare Committee on May 30, 1793 , he had been an unconditional follower of Robespierre for some time, with whose opinion he particularly agreed on religious issues. Together with Marie-Jean Hérault de Séchelles and Louis Antoine de Saint-Just , Couthon also worked on the new constitution in the first year of the republic . After his return from Lyon , where he had been appointed as Representative en mission to promote the " levée en masse ", Couthon became President of the National Convention on December 21, 1793.
On June 10, 1794, Couthon brought the so-called law of terror of the 22nd Prairial to a vote, which was largely written by him and Robespierre . Among other things, the law abolished the defense of the accused and allowed the courts to quickly try all alleged opponents of the revolution. Couthon justified the law with the words: "It is not about punishing the enemies of the fatherland, it is about destroying them." With this law began the last phase of the reign of terror, the Grande Terreur .
On 9th Thermidor (July 27th 1794) he was arrested along with Robespierre, Saint-Just and others and guillotined on July 28th on the Place de la Revolution . Due to his paralysis, it was only after several minutes painful for Couthon that it was possible to get him into a sideways position that allowed his execution.
The wheelchair he built can still be viewed in the Musée Carnavalet today.
Web links
Individual evidence
| predecessor | Office | successor |
|---|---|---|
| Jean-Henri Voulland |
President of the French National Convention December 21, 1793 - January 5, 1794 |
Jacques-Louis David |
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Couthon, Georges |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Couthon, Georges Auguste |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French revolutionary |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 22, 1755 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Orcet , Auvergne |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 28, 1794 |
| Place of death | Paris |