Pantheon Club

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The Panthéon Club (French Club du Panthéon ) was a French revolutionary political club founded on November 6, 1795 in Paris . Its official name was "Association of Friends of the Republic" (Réunion des Amis de la République) . It was made up of former "terrorists", i. H. Supporters and actors of the reign of terror 1793–1794, and unconditional Jacobins who came from the petty bourgeoisie together.

The club met in Paris on the Montagne Sainte-Geneviève in the former royal abbey of Sainte-Geneviève , now the Lycée Henri IV , near the Panthéon .

Among the founders was René Lebois, printer and journalist of the Orateur plébéien , perhaps an agent of Paul de Barras . The club was attended by those who wanted to influence the policy of the board of directors after the suppression of the royalist uprising of the 13th Vendémiaire on October 5, 1795 politically to the left. However, the club's policy was initially rather moderate and law-abiding, for example refusing to accept the members of the National Convention who had been declared ineligible .

However, the club soon attracted a number of former Montagnards , including Jean-Pierre-André Amar and Pierre Joseph Duhem, former members of the General Safety Committee, Pierre-Antoine Antonelle , Sylvain Maréchal , Restif de La Bretonne , Jean-Nicolas Pache and Robert Lindet and Philippe Buonarroti , a friend of Gracchus Babeuf's , who moved the club towards radical republicanism.

The association grew rapidly: on November 29, 1795, it had 934 members, and its meetings in February 1796 attracted around 2,400 people.

Several members of the club who were beaten in the national convention elections, as well as "terrorists" such as Augustin Darthé, former prosecutor of the Revolutionary Tribunal, had the ambition to convert the club. They wanted the government to abandon the 1795 constitution to fall back on the more radical 1793 constitution . Despite not being a member of the club, Gracchus Babeuf was one of the keynote speakers and developed his equality doctrine , which is considered a foundation of communism.

Fearing that the club might disturb the law and public order and question the legitimacy of the board of directors, the latter ordered its dissolution, and on February 27, 1796, Napoleon Bonaparte , who as a young general commanded the army of the interior, carried out the orders .

The club's leaders later formed the nucleus of Babeuf's " Conspiracy of Equals ".

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Denis Woronoff: République bourgeoise. De Thermidore à Brumaire 1794-1799 (La) . Points, 2013, ISBN 978-2-7578-3927-0 ( google.com [accessed May 4, 2020]).
  2. ^ A b Paul R. Hanson: The A to Z of the French Revolution . Scarecrow Press, 2007, ISBN 978-1-4617-1606-8 ( google.com [accessed May 4, 2020]).
  3. ↑ Philippe Riviale: Le procès de Gracchus Babeuf devant la Haute cour de Vendome, ou, La vertu coupable . Harmattan, 2011, ISBN 978-2-296-56127-4 ( google.com [accessed May 4, 2020]).
  4. ^ Jean Tulard: Les Thermidoriens . Fayard, 2005, ISBN 978-2-213-64080-8 ( google.com [accessed May 4, 2020]).