Louis Delâge

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Louis Delâge

Louis Delâge (born March 22, 1874 in Cognac as Pierre Louis Delâge , † December 14, 1947 in Le Pecq ) was a French automobile pioneer and founder of the automobile manufacturer Delage .

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Delâge grew up in modest circumstances. As an infant, he lost sight of one eye. At the age of 16 he attended the Arts et Métiers engineering school in Angers and graduated as an engineer in 1893. He then did his military service and was stationed in Algeria . In 1895 he was discharged from the army and found work for a railway company in the south of France. In 1900 he moved to the development department of a vehicle manufacturer in Paris , until he accepted an offer from Renault in 1903 .

Delâge soon realized the great potential of automobiles when demand exceeded production. In 1905 he had enough money to open his own assembly plant in a barn in Levallois-Perret , a suburb of Paris. The Delage Automobile Company grew rapidly, and their vehicles soon gained a reputation for their elegant looks and quality. For the sake of its international customers, Delâge did without the accent circonflexe in the company name (company). Delage was also successfully represented in motor racing . But the global economic crisis in the 1930s caused the demand for cars to collapse considerably. In 1935 Delage had to file for bankruptcy and the naming rights were sold to Delahaye .

Delâge was almost 60 years old when he was also in a private financial crisis - made even worse by his divorce. He sought consolation in the Roman Catholic faith . As he was too poor to afford a car, he often made his pilgrimages to the monastery in Lisieux on foot or by bicycle. In 1947 Louis Delâge died at the age of 73 in great poverty and almost forgotten. He was buried in the cemetery in Le Pecq .

In 1990, the industrial school named after him, "Lycée professionnel Louis Delâge", was founded in his native Cognac .

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