Jean-Baptiste Coffinhal

Pierre-André Coffinhal-Dubail , known as Jean-Baptiste Coffinhal , (born November 7, 1762 in Vic-sur-Cère , † August 6, 1794 in Paris ) was a French lawyer, member of the Paris City Council and member of the Revolutionary Tribunal . He was notorious for his show trials in the reign of terror and died under the guillotine himself after the fall of Maximilien Robespierre on the 9th Thermidor .

Coffinhal was the son of a lawyer in his birthplace who belonged to the bourgeois notable class there. Two of his older brothers studied law and became lawyers: Joseph (1757-1841), who was Baron Dunoyer and Councilor of State under Napoleon, and Jean-Baptiste (1746-1818).

Coffinhal initially studied medicine, but gave up and became a legal clerk at the prosecutor's office. He was an avid supporter of the French Revolution, was a member of the Jacobin Club and took part in the storming of the Tuileries in August 1792. When the Revolutionary Tribunal was introduced on March 10, 1793, he became one of the judges, was close to Robespierre and was friends with the notorious public prosecutor Antoine Quentin Fouquier-Tinville .

He presided over the trial of Jacques-René Hébert and his followers (March 1794) and the general tenants , including the famous chemist Antoine de Lavoisier (May 1794). He displayed a fanatical zeal in his trials, was notorious for cutting off the accused, forged protocols, and embezzled and forged evidence. In the trial against Lavoisier he is said to have stated his scientific merits as someone: La république n'a pas besoin de savants et de chimistes, le cours de la justice ne peut être suspendu. ("The republic needs neither scientists nor chemists. The course of justice must not be stopped.") , But this is controversial (see the article by Antoine de Lavoisier ). During the negotiations he spoke profusely to the wine and he was known for his touches of misguided joke against the defendants.

In June 1794 he became one of the three vice-presidents of the Revolutionary Tribunal and led the trial against André Chénier .

When Robespierre fell on July 27, 1794 ( 9th Thermidor ), he was entrenched with him in the town hall and after his storming fled initially and was able to hide for a few days, but was then betrayed and arrested. During his imprisonment, according to his cellmate Fouquier-Tinville, he is said to have continuously cursed François Hanriot in particular , who was unable to prevent Robespierre's fall and even promoted it through unsafe behavior. There were even rumors that he threw Thermidor Hanriot out the window of the town hall on the 9th. Hanriot had previously been captured in an attempt to free Robespierre in the Tuileries itself and was freed by Coffinhal. As commander of the National Guard, Hanriot was supposed to ensure the safety of Robespierre supporters. On August 6, 1794, he was sentenced to death and guillotined. The crowd chanted at the execution, alluding to his own behavior in the Revolutionary Tribunal, Coffinhal, tu n'as pas la parole! (Coffinhal, you do not have the floor).

literature

• François Wartelle, Albert Soboul (ed.): Dictionnaire historique de la Révolution française, Presse Universitaire de France 2005, article Coffinhal-Dubail, Pierre-André , p. 246.

Web links

• French biography in Tombes et Sepultres