René Levasseur

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René Levasseur de la Sarthe

René Levasseur (born May 27, 1747 in Sainte-Croix, Maine , † September 18, 1834 in Le Mans ) was a French doctor, revolutionary and politician who was an active participant in some of the most important events of the French Revolution . As a member of the Sarthe department , therefore also called René Levasseur de la Sarthe , he was a member of the National Convention in Paris from September 1792 to October 1795 . He was a Jacobin and a member of the Mountain Party , as a doctor, a surgeon and obstetrician. He also left behind a scientific work that has not only attracted attention in France.

Streak of life

Before starting his political career in Paris, René Levasseur lived and worked in Le Mans. There he belonged to the Third Estate as a council member in 1789 . From 1790 he was in a political circle (Club des Minimes), where he met revolutionaries like Pierre Philippeaux (1754–1794) or Étienne-François Le Tourneur (1751–1817). In 1791 he was district administrator (administrateur) in the Le Mans district. On September 7th, 1792 René Levasseur was elected as a member of the National Convention, in which he then joined the mountain party and thus radically confessed to the revolution. In the vote on the fate of Louis XVI. on January 15, 1793, he voted for his death without delay or appeal. René Levasseur was repeatedly sent as Representative en mission by the convention to army units in the north and east of France in order to reorganize them and to look after the public good in the respective areas. For example, he was in the Ardennes from April to July 1793 . The law on the abolition of slavery in the colonies, passed by the Convention on February 4, 1794, was partly the work of René Levasseur de la Sarthe.

After the Thermidor , René Levasseur had to experience the decline and end of Jacobinism, which was no longer supported by the people. “Since the people had 'abdicated', he writes in his 'Mémoires', the club has only been 'an impotent lever'.” So he was defeated in his fight against the new rulers and in 1795 had to spend some time in prison. After his release, René Levasseur returned to Le Mans and worked there again as a doctor.

During the time of the Restoration (1815-1830) René Levasseur lived in exile in the Netherlands . He was also a successful doctor there and became a member of the University of Leuven in 1819 . In 1822 he published his dissertation on obstetrics in Brussels and in 1829 the first volume of his memoirs appeared in Paris, followed by three more volumes. The work has caused a sensation and outrage and is widely used. (The young Karl Marx studied the Mémoires in detail and, for a planned work on the history of the Convention, extracted texts from them from the end of 1843 to the beginning of 1844, excerpts that were included in the Marx-Engels Complete Edition [MEGA2 4.2: 725] can be found.)

After the July Revolution of 1830 René Levasseur was able to return to France. Four years later he died in Le Mans.

Addendum

A piece of the René Levasseur boulevard in Le Mans
  • A boulevard in Le Mans is named after René Levasseur.
  • In 1911, a monument was erected for René Levasseur in Le Mans: a standing figure, cast from metal, on a very high, stone base, which looked quite martial and was certainly intended to show him when he was serving as a representative in the army. The memorial was demolished in the Second World War in order to extract war material from it.

Works

  • Dissertation on the Symphyséotomie et sur l'enclavment: avec quatre figures en grandeur naturelle, Berthot, Brussels 1822.
  • Mémoires de R. Levasseur (de la Sarthe), first volume, Rappily, Libraire, Paris 1829 ( digitized ).
  • Memoires de Levasseur de la Sarthe, Seraswati Press, Dehradun 2012 (English).

literature

  • Michel Lebrun: Le chirurgien-accoucheur René Levasseur: députe à la Convention , Librairie médicale Marcel Vigné, Paris 1938
  • Jacqueline Laugier: La Mission de René de la Sarthe dans le départment des Ardennes , without publisher and year

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Has risen in Le Mans
  2. ^ Albert Soboul : The Great French Revolution, 1979, p. 390.
  3. ↑ Two images (postcards) of the René Levasseur monument in Le Mans
personal data
SURNAME Levasseur, René
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Levasseur de la Sartne, René; Levasseur, R.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French doctor, revolutionary and politician
DATE OF BIRTH May 27, 1747
PLACE OF BIRTH Sainte-Croix, Maine (province)
DATE OF DEATH September 18, 1834
Place of death Le Mans