Maurice Schumann

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Maurice Schumann (1969)

Maurice Schumann (born April 10, 1911 in Paris , † February 9, 1998 there ) was a French politician .

Life

Schumann, the son of a textile industrialist of Alsatian-Jewish origin, graduated from the Lycée Janson de Sailly and the Lycée Henri IV and then obtained a licentiate from the Faculty of Philosophy of the Sorbonne (Faculté des lettres de Paris). From 1935 to 1939 he worked as a journalist and was a member of the Section française de l'Internationale ouvrière during this time . After the start of World War II , he volunteered for the army and served as a military interpreter for the British Expeditionary Force . On June 21, 1940, he sailed from Saint-Jean-de-Luz with the Polish passenger ship Batory to London , where he got in touch with Charles de Gaulle . Schumann gave a daily address on the BBC . He called on the French to resist and was called the voice of Free France . Schumann was later the official spokesman for the French government in exile. He was one of the first French to find out about the invasion of France and took part in the liberation of Paris as a captain .

After the war he took part in the founding of the Catholic Republican People's Movement (MRP). In 1949 Schumann was elected to the consultative national assembly. From 1950 to 1973 he was a member of the National Assembly for the Northern Department . In 1950 and 1953 he represented France at the United Nations .

From 1951 to 1954 he was State Secretary in the French Foreign Ministry. From 1959 to April 1962 and December 1962 to March 1967 he was chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Assembly.

In April 1962 he became Minister for Development. He resigned on May 16, 1962 in protest against de Gaulle's European policy. In April 1967 he became Minister of State for Science, Atomic Energy and Space and then Minister of State for Social Affairs. From June 1969 he was Foreign Minister . After losing his seat in the National Assembly after the March 1973 election, he resigned as Foreign Minister.

In September 1974 he was elected to the Senate and on March 7, 1974 he was admitted to the Académie française . He was also a Knight of the Legion of Honor and holder of the Ordre de la Liberation .

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