Louis Kahn (naval officer)

Louis-Lazare Kahn (born 13. November 1895 in Versailles , died 27. January 1967 in Paris ) was a French Navy - engineer officer , most recently as General du maritime Ingénieur génie . From 1963 to 1967 he was president of the Consistoire central israélite de France , the highest organization of the Jewish communities in France.

family

Louis Kahn was the son of at the synagogue of Versailles make cantor Salomon Kahn. In 1922 he married Marcelle Schrameck (1896–1965), the first female mining engineer in France, with whom he had two sons. His sister Renée Kahn married Michel Darmon (1925–2012), who became Ingénieur général du Génie maritime in 1978 .

Life

Louis Kahn attended the Lycée Hoche and was admitted to the École polytechnique in Paris in 1914 . From 1914 to 1918 he took part in the First World War , first as a soldier in the artillery and later as an officer . He then studied again at the École polytechnique and at the École d'application du génie maritime , where he obtained a degree as a marine engineer. From 1920 he worked as an engineer at the naval shipyard in Brest as Chef du service des machines et de l'électricité. In 1925 he became director of the arsenal in Saigon . In 1928 he became a member of the staff of Defense Minister Paul Painlevé , and later he was chief of staff of Aviation Minister Laurent Eynac . In 1936 he became director of the Section des porte-avions in the Service technique des otherwiseructions navales , and in 1937 he was head of the cabinet of the Minister of Aviation Pierre Cot . In 1939 he was sent to the USA to buy weapons . After the defeat of France, he was discharged from the navy on August 15, 1941 by the Vichy regime because of his Jewish faith. At the end of 1942 he fled to London via Spain . His family followed on the same route in October 1943. In London, he joined the Forces navales françaises libres , the navy of the French armed forces . He was from Charles de Gaulle to the Director of Central constructions et armes navales appointed. In Algiers , in the unoccupied French North Africa , he developed the free French navy as chief engineer under the naval minister Louis Jacquinot . In 1944 he was appointed Ingénieur général du génie maritime . In 1950 he became Secrétaire général aux forces armées and in 1955 President of the Commission des inventions de la défence nationale . From 1959 to 1961 he was President of the French Naval Academy ( Académie de marine ), then its Secrétaire perpétuel .

From 1963 to 1967 Louis Kahn was active as President of the Consistoire central israélite de France .

Honors

As a knight, he became a member of the Legion of Honor in 1920, an officer in 1933, a commander in 1945 and a senior officer in 1950. In 1918 he received the Croix de guerre 1914-1918 , 1945 the Croix de guerre 1939-1945 .

Publications

• Sur la détermination astronomique du point à l'aide d'une carte conforme, utilisable comme carte orthodromique . In: Comptes rendus de l'Académie des Sciences 186, 1928, pp. 284-286 ( digitized version ).
• Sur une carte conforme utilisable comme carte orthodromique pour les grands itinéraires . In: Comptes rendus de l'Académie des Sciences 186, 1928, pp. 496-498 ( digitized version ).
• Sur une extension de la projection de Mercator. Les nouvelles cartes aériennes . In: Académie de Marine. Communications et Mémoires 8, 1929, pp. 63-79.
• Itineraires transcontinentales orthodromiques conformes Louis Kahn. Cartes de navigation aérienne et maritime ...; publiées avec le concours des services techniques de l'Aéronautique . Paris 1929-1934.

literature

• R. Cassin: Louis Cahn . In: Revue de la France libre 166, 1967, pp. 29-31.
• Jean Dieudonne: Louis Kahn (1895-1967) . In: Bulletin de l'Association technique maritime et aéronautique 67, 1967, pp. 66-69.
• Louis Kahn . In: Mémorial de l'artillerie française 42, No. 164, 1968, pp. I – V.
• Pierre Kahn: Essai sur les méthodes de pensée et d'action de l'ingénieur général du Génie maritime Louis Kahn. Académie de marine, Paris 1973 ( digitized version )
• Jean-Louis Cohn: L'Amiral Louis Kahn: Une résistance auprès de Gaulle. in Association pour la recherche sur l'histoire contemporaine des Juifs (ed.): Les Juifs dans la Résistance et la Liberation. Paris 1985, pp. 62-65.
• Richard Ayoun: Un grand homme de la communauté juive de Versailles: l'ingénieur général du génie maritime Louis Kahn (1895–1967). In: Centenaire de la synagogue de Versailles. Versailles 1986, pp. 33-36.
• C. Meyer: Kahn, Louis . In: Dictionnaire de biographie française . Vol. 18, Paris 1994, p. 1073.

Web links

• Documents for admission to the Legion of Honor at Base Léonore
• Interview with Louis Kahn at Voices of the Holocaust
• Forces navales françaises libres on the side of the Polytechniciens dans la Résistance (with picture)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Interview with Marcelle Kahn at Voices of the Holocaust .
2. ↑ Michel Darmon ( Memento of the original from September 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the side of the Aumônerie Israélite des Armées . 
3. ↑ Interview with the son Jean Kahn (* 1931) at Voices of the Holocaust .