Pierre Messmer

Pierre Messmer in Trouville 1988

Pierre Messmer (born March 20, 1916 in Vincennes , Seine , today Val-de-Marne , † August 29, 2007 in Paris ) was a French politician .

Life

Youth and education

Pierre Messmer was born in 1916 into an Alsatian family who had opted for France after the Franco-Prussian War in 1871. After attending the École Massillon and the Lycée Charlemagne , he studied from 1934 to 1937 at the École nationale de la France d'Outre-Mer and from 1934 to 1936 at the Institut national des langues et civilizations orientales . In 1939 he received his doctorate in law .

World War II and Indochina War

In 1939 Messmer was first lieutenant in the 12th Regiment of Tirailleurs sénégalais during World War II . After the defeat in 1940 , he joined the armed forces of Free France . As an officer in the 13th half-brigade of the Foreign Legion , he fought in Eritrea, Syria and North Africa ( Battle of Bir Hakeim and El-Alamein , 1942). In 1944 he was involved in the Normandy landing and the liberation of Paris .

In August 1945 Messmer came to French Indochina as a paratrooper . There he was captured by the Việt Minh in the Indochina War (1946 to 1954) , but was able to escape from captivity after two months.

Administrative officer in the overseas territories

As a result, Messmer performed numerous functions in the administration of the French overseas territories. In 1946 he became general secretary of the Interministerial Committee for Indochina (Comité interministériel pour l'Indochine) , and from 1947 to 1948 he was head of the cabinet of the French High Commissioner in Indochina. In 1950 he moved to French West Africa and was first the district administrator of the Adrar region in Mauritania , then in 1952 governor of Mauritania. From 1954 to 1956 he was governor of the Ivory Coast . In 1956 he returned to Paris for a short time as the cabinet director of the overseas minister ( Gaston Defferre , ministre de la France d'outre-mer) before becoming high commissioner in Cameroon that same year . In 1958 he briefly held the position of High Commissioner in French Equatorial Africa . From 1958 to 1959 Messmer was High Commissioner in French West Africa.

Minister for National Defense

After the founding of the Fifth Republic by Charles de Gaulle Messmer was in February 1960 Army Minister . His term of office until April 1969 included the "uprising of the generals" in April 1961, the end of the Algerian war in 1962, the reduction and restructuring of the French armed forces at the end of the colonial era and France's withdrawal from the military integration of NATO in 1966 Atomic force desired by President de Gaulle , the so-called ' Force de frappe '. In this context, Messmer was also responsible for the effects of the French nuclear weapons tests ("Essai nucléaire") - partly above ground - since the beginning of the 1960s:

• 1960–1961, France carried out four surface nuclear weapons tests in a populated area, namely in the Algerian Sahara near Reggane . As a result, up to 30,000 people suffered damage as a result.
• At In Ekker , the French army carried out 13 underground nuclear weapons tests. Messmer and Science Minister Gaston Palewski were present at the second test (May 1, 1962) . The explosion blew radioactivity into the atmosphere; around a hundred people (including the two ministers) were exposed to radiation doses of over 50 mSv each.

• From July 2, 1966 to September 14, 1974, France carried out a further 41 surface tests.

In 1971, Messmer was briefly overseas minister (ministre de la France d'outre-mer).

Terms of office as prime minister

On July 6, 1972, Messmer was appointed Prime Minister by President Georges Pompidou to succeed Jacques Chaban-Delmas . Messmer subsequently heads three short-lived governments (July 6, 1972 to April 2, 1973, April 5 and 6, 1973 to March 1, 1974, March 1, 1974 to May 28, 1974).

Activities as elected representative

In addition to his functions in high government offices, Messmer was also a member of the National Assembly for the Moselle department from 1968 to 1988 . From 1986 to 1988 he was parliamentary group leader of the Gaullist RPR in the National Assembly.

He was also Mayor of Sarrebourg from 1971 to 1989 , President of the Regional Council of Lorraine from 1978 to 1979 and Member of the European Parliament from 1979 to 1980 .

Withdrawal from politics

In 1988, after his retirement from politics, Messmer was elected to the Académie des sciences morales et politiques (one of the five academies of the Institut de France ), of which he was "eternal secretary" (secrétaire perpétuel) from 1995 to 1998. In 1995 he became President of the Institut Charles de Gaulle . On March 25, 1999, he was elected to the Académie française , taking the place of Maurice Schumann (“13th fauteuil ”). From 1999 to 2006 he was Chancellor of the Institut de France . Since October 2001 Messmer was also President of the Fondation de la France Libre . Since 2006 he has been Chancellor of the Ordre de la Liberation . Pierre Messmer died on August 29, 2007 in the Val-de-Grâce military hospital in Paris.

Works

• Le Régime administratif des emprunts coloniaux (doctoral thesis, 1939)
• Le service militaire. Débat avec Jean-Pierre Chevènement (1977)
• Les Écrits militaires du général de Gaulle (1985, together with Alain Larcan )
• Après tant de batailles. Mémoires (1992)
• Les Blancs s'en vont. Récits de décolonisation (1998)
• Le Rôle et la place de l'État au début du XXI ^e siècle (2001)
• La Patrouille Perdue (2002)
• Ma part de France. Entretiens avec Philippe de Saint-Robert (2003)

Honors

Pierre Messmer was the recipient of the following orders and honorary titles:

• Grand Cross of the French Legion of Honor
• Ordre de la Liberation by decree of June 23, 1941
• Croix de guerre (six times between 1939 and 1945)
• Médaille de la Resistance
• Médaille des Evadés
• Colonial merit medal with the battle clips «Erythrée», «Libye», «Bir-Hakeim»
• Médaille Commémorative 1939/1945
• Officier de l'American Legion
• Commander du Nichan Iftikhar ( Tunisia )
• Commander of the Royal Order of Cambodia
• 2002: Grand Officer of the Star of Romania
• 2016: on the occasion of his 100th birthday, a plaque was unveiled at the seat in the Assemblée nationale, where he sat from 1968 to 1978 as a UDR member and from 1978 to 1988 as an RPR member.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ zeit.de April 23, 1971: De Gaulle's legacy is liquidated
2. ↑ ARD-Weltspiegel, Thomas Schneider, January 18, 2009: 30,000 victims from French nuclear tests? ( Memento from May 31, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
3. ^ France to Pay Nuclear Test Victims The New York Times, March 24, 2009
4. ↑ Atomic Test Case Time Magazine, April 26, 2006
5. ↑ "France's ex-Prime Minister Messmer died" ( Memento of the original from September 11, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Basler Zeitung, August 29, 2007) 
6. ↑ www.assemblee-nationale.tv

Web links

Commons : Pierre Messmer  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Pierre Messmer in the catalog of the German National Library
• Short biography and list of works of the Académie française (French)
• Entry on Pierre Messmer in the database of Members of the European Parliament
• Biography at the Ordre de la Liberation (French)
• Report with pictures from the funeral service (French)