Jean Charles François de Ladoucette

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Jean Charles François de Ladoucette, lithograph

Jean Charles François de Ladoucette (born October 4, 1772 in Nancy , † March 10, 1848 in Paris ) was a French politician and writer .

Life

The future Charles-François, Baron de Ladoucette, was born on October 4, 1772 as a commoner with the name Jean Charles François Ladoucette in Nancy , Lorraine . After studying law at the Faculty of Law in Nancy, Ladoucette went to Metz , where his family came from , in 1791 with a license to practice civil and canon law. Here he took up his work as a lawyer and began to get involved in politics. From 1793 he was repeatedly sent to foreign policy assignments in Switzerland on behalf of the young French republic, where he learned German. In Basel Ladoucette made the acquaintance of Suzanne Charlotte Gobert , whom he married around 1800.

In 1802 Ladoucette's career began, which is inextricably linked with the person of Napoléon Bonaparte . As a conqueror of the chaotic conditions in post-revolutionary France, Napoleon Bonaparte took care of a modern infrastructure of the new state from the end of 1799 with great organizational skill and with a hard hand, which has survived in many areas to this day. Among other things, Napoléon Bonaparte created a centralized administrative system in all French departments with a prefect at the head. Ladoucette was appointed such a prefect on April 13, 1802, in the Hautes-Alpes department in the French High Alps with its seat in Gap (between Grenoble and Nice).

In the Hautes-Alpes department, Ladoucette prompted the rapid expansion of the infrastructure: bridge construction, bank reinforcements, canalization, draining swamps and finally the construction of the road to the Col de Montgenèvre alpine pass . This road construction, for which Ladoucette submitted 25,000 francs out of pocket, meant that the department had year-round traffic connections to Italy. His special commitment to road construction earned Ladoucette the nickname “ Grand Routier” , which means “the great road builder”, but can also be translated as “who travels a lot”.

In 1866, the city of Gap posthumously erected a statue on Place Ladoucette in honor of Ladoucette . There is also a street named after him there ( Cours Ladoucette ). In Rosans (Hautes-Alpes) there is still a fountain that the inhabitants had built in 1806 as a token of gratitude for the road builder ( Fontaine Ladoucette ).

In 1809 Ladoucette left the Hautes-Alpes department because he was appointed prefect of the Rur department on March 31, based in the London court in Aachen . Ladoucette had applied to leave Gap on the official grounds that the harsh climate in the high Alps was damaging to his health. On May 20, 1809, the good German-speaking new prefect in Aachen took over his official duties. Shortly after his arrival in Aachen, Ladoucette was ennobled on August 15, 1809 by Napoléon Bonaparte on his birthday. The Napoleon friend received the title of Baron de l'Empire, newly created after the revolution in the empire . As part of his baron coat of arms, Ladoucette chose trois feuilles de doucette (three leaves of lamb's lettuce). The youngest daughter of his five children, Amélie, was born in Aachen in 1813 while he was prefect. Ladoucette did not apply for another prefectural post in metropolitan France, but stayed in Aachen until the Rur department was dissolved in January 1814. Before the approaching Prussian and Cossack troops, Ladoucette and his family fled to Paris via Liège .

It was not until Napoléon Bonaparte returned from Elba in March 1815 that Ladoucette was given a prefecture again. On March 22, 1815, he was reappointed prefect of the Hautes-Alpes department in Gap, but did not take up this post, but instead became prefect of the Moselle department in Metz on March 28, 1815 . After the Battle of Waterloo and the final abdication of Napoléon Bonaparte on June 22, 1815, Ladoucette had to vacate his post in mid-July 1815. In the course of the Restoration in France, he was dismissed from civil service in the same year at the age of 43.

Thereafter, Ladoucette devoted himself to various researches and literary activities. He revised the records from his time as a prefect and started their publication. In addition, he wrote a broad literary work that includes stories, plays, apologies, novels and fables. Ladoucette lived mainly in Paris (8, rue de Chantereine, today: Rue de la Victoire), and in 1819 became president of the Société royale des Antiquaires de France . In 1803 he had acquired a country estate in Viels-Maisons (between Reims and Paris). Ladoucette frequently commuted between Paris and his country estate, where he conducted agricultural studies, especially in the warmer months, and took care of the restoration of the ruined gardens of the former castle. In the Jardins de Viels-Maisons gardens, which are still owned by the Ladoucette family today , you come across a bronze bust of the ancestor in a box hedge.

It was not until 1834 that Ladoucette managed to return to the world of French politics under the citizen king Louis-Philippe I. He became a member of the Briey (then Moselle department ) in the Paris Chambre des Députés and held this post until his death on March 10, 1848 in Paris.

Services

Statue Ladoucettes by Jean Marcellin in Gap

In the Hautes-Alpes department, Ladoucette prompted the rapid expansion of the infrastructure: bridges, bank reinforcements, canalization, draining of swamps and finally the construction of the road to the Col de Montgenèvre alpine pass , for which he paid 25,000 francs from his own pocket, meant for the department connection to the rest of the world. The city of Gap had a statue erected in his honor in 1861. There is also a street named after him. Even today he is revered as a benefactor of Gaps. In Metz, a bust of Ladoucette by Emmanuel Hannaux commemorated him. Ladoucette published an archaeological study on Gap in 1806 and a treatise on the history, dialects and customs of the high Alps in 1820 . He presented the Rur department in detail in a travel description in letters from 1818. The history of the High Alps was only published again in 1995 and the journey through the country between the Meuse and the Rhine in 2009 in German. His literary work, on the other hand, is rather insignificant from today's perspective.

Works

  • Archéologie de "Mons Seleucus", ville romaine dans le pays des Voconces, aujourd'hui Labatie-Mont-Saléon, préfecture des Hautes-Alpes. Allier, Gap 1806.
  • Histoire, antiquités, usages, dialectes des Hautes-Alpes. Fantin, Paris 1820. New edition: Lafitte, Marseille 1994, ISBN 2-86276-257-1 .
  • Voyage fait en 1813 et 1814 dans le pays entre Meuse et Rhin. Suivi de notes. Avec une carte geographique. Laruelle Fils / Alexis Eyméry, Paris / Aix-la-Chapelle, 1818.
  • Des Ubiens, de Colonia Agrippina, coup d'oeil sur l'histoire de Cologne jusqu'à nos jours, in: Mémoires de la Société royale des antiquaires de France , Paris 1823, pp. 507-527.
  • Robert et Léontine, ou la Moselle au XVIe siècle. Paris 1843.
  • Fables. Lugan, Paris 1827. Bertrand, Paris 1842.
  • Robert et Léontine, histoire du seizième siècle. I.-III. Paris 1827.
  • Le Troubadour or Guillaume et Marguerite. Masson, Paris 1824.
  • Novelles, contes, apologues et mélanges. Fantin, Paris 1822.
  • Jean Charles François Baron de Ladoucette: Journey in 1813 and 1814 through the country between the Meuse and the Rhine . Ed .: Birgit Gerlach. 1st edition. Antiquariat Am St. Vith, Mönchengladbach 2009, ISBN 978-3-00-028810-4 .

literature

  • Hans Josef Broich: 200 years ago, a French prefect and his province, in: From the history of the Erkelenzer Land, writings of the Heimatverein der Erkelenzer Lande No. 24; 2010, pp. 80-89.
  • Émile Duvernoy: Un préfet homme de lettres: Jean-Charles-François de Ladoucette (1772-1848) . In: Le Pays Lorraine. Journal de la Société d'Archéologie Lorraine et du Musée Historique Lorrain . 1968, pp. 166-172.
  • Axel Heimsoth: Between Meuse and Rhine - the travels of the French prefect in the Rurdépartement ; in: Yearbook District Wesel; Volume 33; 2012 (2011), pp. 78–84.
  • Jean Charles François Baron de Ladoucette: Journey in 1813 and 1814 through the country between the Meuse and the Rhine . Ed .: Birgit Gerlach. 1st edition. Antiquariat Am St. Vith, Mönchengladbach 2009, ISBN 978-3-00-028810-4 .
  • Thomas R. Kraus : On the way to the modern age - Aachen in the French time 1792/93. 1794–1814 , Verlag des Aachener Geschichtsverein , Aachen 1994, ISBN 3-9802705-1-3 ; P.175ff and a.
  • Hans Gerd Lauscher: The canton of Montjoie from the perspective of the French prefect Ladoucette, in: Das Monschauer Land Volume 36; 2008 (2007), pp. 51-62.
  • Stefan Schmitz: Aachen's departure into the modern age - travel memories of the last French prefect, in: Aachener Reisen - Through the centuries with pilgrims, kings, bathers and other tourists, Series 9 of the AKV Collection Crous GmbH, Aachen 2016, pp. 204–215.
  • Goswin Joseph Augustin de Stassart : Notice on Jean-Charles-François, baron Ladoucette , in: Annuaire de l'Académie royale de Belgique , 1849, pp. 121-133.
  • Marlene Zedelius: The area of ​​the Rhein-Kreis Neuss in the travel report of the Baron de Ladoucette 1813/14, in: Yearbook for the Rhein-Kreis Neuss; 2007 (2006), pp. 34-53.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Ladoucette, Jean Charles François de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ladoucette, Jean Charles François Baron de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French prefect and writer
DATE OF BIRTH October 4, 1772
PLACE OF BIRTH Nancy
DATE OF DEATH March 10, 1848
Place of death Paris