Maurice Rouvier

Maurice Rouvier

Maurice Rouvier (born April 17, 1842 in Aix-en-Provence , † June 7, 1911 in Neuilly-sur-Seine ) was a French politician. In 1887 and again from 1905 to 1906 he was Prime Minister of France.

Rouvier studied law and was a lawyer in Marseille under the Second Empire , which he fought fiercely in the opposition papers . Member of the republican party, he was appointed general secretary of the Bouches-du-Rhône department after September 4, 1870 . Elected to the National Assembly in the by-elections on July 2, 1871 , he joined the extreme left. Member of the Chamber of Deputies since 1876 , he was accused of a moral offense in the Palais Royal and was declared innocent by the court, but in a way that was insulting to him, although the defamation was evident.

Mocking postcard around 1905

Rouvier took an active part in the Chamber's negotiations, particularly on financial and economic issues, and was rapporteur for the budget several times. Léon Gambetta made him head of the Ministry of Commerce in his cabinet in November 1881, but he resigned with Gambetta on January 26, 1882. He directed it for the second time under Ferry from October 1884 to March 1885. When the Goblet Ministry resigned in May 1887, Rouvier was commissioned to bring about a new cabinet. Rouvier took over the finances as well as the department of posts and telegraphs. In the Chamber, the new ministry was immediately and violently attacked by the radicals, and Rouvier had to resign as early as December 1887.

From 1890 to 1911 Rouvier was President of the General Council of the Alpes-Maritimes Department . Highly valued by the business world, a skilled financier, he was again Minister of Finance in February 1889. But his undoubted involvement in the Panama fraud compelled him to retire on December 13, 1892. In February 1893, however, he was dismissed by the courts and reappointed a member of parliament in the elections on August 20, 1893. His reputation as an outstanding financier was so great that he was again Minister of Finance in the cabinet of Émile Combes in June 1902 . In January 1903 he was elected to the Senate . In January 1905 he became Prime Minister and Minister of Finance and then, when the anti-German Foreign Minister Théophile Delcassé had led the country close to war with Germany on the Moroccan question, after Delcassé's dismissal he took over the Foreign Ministry. On the Moroccan question in September 1905, he steered a peaceful path through an agreement with Germany. On the other hand, on July 3, 1905, he enforced the law separating church and state in the Chamber of Deputies , but was overthrown with his cabinet on March 6, 1906 because of inept handling of this law.

predecessor	Office	successor
René Goblet Émile Combes	Prime Minister of France May 30, 1887 - December 12, 1887 January 24, 1905 - March 12, 1906	Pierre Tirard Ferdinand Sarrien
Théophile Delcassé	Foreign Minister of France June 6, 1905 - March 13, 1906	Léon Bourgeois
Albert Dauphin Paul Peytral Joseph Caillaux	Finance Minister of France May 30, 1887 - December 12, 1887 February 22, 1889 - December 12, 1892 June 7, 1902 - June 17, 1905	Pierre Tirard Pierre Tirard Pierre Merlou

This article is based on a text in the public domain from Meyers Konversations-Lexikon , 4th edition from 1888 to 1890.

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