Rirette Maîtrejean

Rirette Maîtrejean around 1905

Rirette Maîtrejean (born August 14, 1887 as Anna Henriette Estorges in Saint-Mexant ; † June 11, 1968 in Limeil-Brévannes ) was a French anarchist and feminist who belonged to the individual-anarchist scene , the Milieu libre , in Paris . She became known for her criticism of illegalism and her friendship with Albert Camus .

Youth and first contacts in the anarchist scene

Rirette Maîtrejean was born Anna Henriette Estorges in Saint-Mexant in south-west France in 1887 and lived there on a farm until the family moved to Tulle a few years later . In 1903 the father died, which plunged the family into deep poverty. Rirette, who was then 16 years old, wanted to become a teacher; however, the early and unexpected death of the father made this impossible.

Her mother wanted to marry her because of the financially precarious situation, but Rirette persistently refused. She fell out with her mother and ran away to Paris alone and penniless in 1904. There she found work as a seamstress and attended the so-called “People's Universities” ( Universités populaires ) and the “Popular Discussion Events” ( Causeries populaires ) - institutions for the self-taught education of the working class . From there she made her first contacts with the individual anarchist scene, the "Milieu libre" around the magazine L'anarchie , which had been founded in 1905 by the individual anarchists Albert Libertad (1875-1908) and Anna Mahé (1881-1960) .

In 1905 she began a relationship with Louis Maîtrejean (born 1882), a skilled worker, anarchist and secretary of the tanners ' union , whom she married in September 1906 when she became pregnant. Shortly after each other she had two children, Henriette (father unknown) and Sarah with Louis as the biological father. However, as was customary in these circles at the time, she was an advocate of free love .

Rirette Maîtrejean u. Formulated her ideas for free love. a. in an article with the title La Cohabitation , which appeared in the magazine L'anarchie in Paris in August 1909 and whose “background experience” was probably also the “elementary forced situation” of the almost complete forced marriage . In the concept of marriage, she saw “only one variant of prostitution.” Marriage makes “the man a master and the woman a toy, which so completely renounces her individuality that she no longer even keeps her name.” Maîtrejean Because of her advocacy of free love, she also campaigned for the right of women to abortion and contraception . For them it was inevitable when one was talking about “the freedom to love”. All those women who "want to dispose of their own bodies, sometimes pay dearly for this forbidden freedom."

L'anarchy , "Illegalism" and the "Bonnot Affair"

Victor Serge and Rirette Maîtrejean

Rirette Maîtrejean was part of the editorial collective of L'anarchie in 1909 and again in 1911/12 , one of the most important magazines of individualistic anarchism in France at that time, based in a house in Romainville , a suburb of Paris. In this context, she also met her future partner, the revolutionary Victor Serge , with whom she fell out in the early 1930s because of his turn to Bolshevism . Serge had emigrated to the Soviet Union in 1919 and became a member of the CPSU .

Although Maîtrejean acts of violence in the name of anarchism, the so-called " illegalism ", the propaganda of the act and robberies by (self-appointed) anarchists - e. B. the Bonnot gang - convicted early on, L'anarchie and the “Milieu libre” had personal connections with these circles. This led to house searches in the editorial offices of L'anarchie and in the private apartments of various anarchists, including Maîtrejeans and Serge's apartment. As a result, she was arrested in 1912 and was one of the accused in the trial against the Bonnot gang. Although she had nothing to do with the robberies of this group and did not approve of them, she refused to the last to testify in court against other anarchists. A total of 22 defendants were on trial, the verdict on February 28, 1913 resulted in four death sentences and life imprisonment, only a few - among them Rirette Maîtrejean - were acquitted.

The settlement with illegalism: Souvenirs d'anarchie

Between August 18 and August 31, 1913, Rirette Maîtrejean published a series of articles in the daily Le Matin in which she settled accounts with that part of the individual anarchist current that had committed itself to illegalism, armed robbery and propaganda. These articles, published under the title Souvernirs d'anarchie (Memories of Anarchy, whereby “d'anarchie” refers to the magazine L'anarchie ) were at the same time an anarchist critique of violence and other problematic tendencies in the individual-anarchist scene of the time such as an absurd pseudo-scientific belief in natural healing methods or an anti-feminist and misogynistic attitude of many male colleagues. For part of the anarchist scene, she was henceforth a "traitor" and was showered with denunciations because she had questioned the myth of the "noble anarchist robber".

Influence on Albert Camus

Albert Camus, 1957

From 1923 Maîtrejean worked as a proofreader a . a. at the French daily Paris-Soir . In the course of this activity she came into contact with anarcho-syndicalists and organized herself in the anarcho-syndicalist-oriented union "Syndicat des correcteurs" (union of correctors). While at work, Maîtrejean met Albert Camus , who worked as a journalist and editorial secretary for Paris Soir , in 1940 , and a lifelong friendship developed between the two. Iris Radisch writes in her Camus biography: "Politically, Camus was ultimately closest to the French libertarians, with whom he has maintained good contacts through his girlfriend Rirette Maîtrejean since his time at the Paris Soir ." She should accompany him, according to her biographer Lou Marin familiarized with the history of anarchism in France. Marin summed up Maîtrejeans crucial influence on Camus' political thinking in that it had introduced him into the libertarian tradition. Michel Onfray, on the other hand, doubted that Maîtrejean had brought Camus into contact with anarchism. Already at a young age he dealt with libertarian philosophy. According to Marin, Maîtrejean influenced Camus' later criticism of nihilism with her criticism of illegalism . To him, this influence is "obvious" in many ways. Corresponding passages in Camus' work The Man in the Revolt would correspond to the considerations of Maîtrejeans on the subject "down to the last detail".

Rirette Maîtrejean said of Camus that he was “not only a lovely person”, but also a “reliable friend” who was “really extremely close” to anarchism. In the 1950s she met him at gatherings around the libertarian magazine Témoins in Paris. T. took place in Camus' apartment. After his death in 1960 she worked on an anthology in his honor.

Maîtrejean worked as a proofreader until she went blind in old age. She died in 1968 in a hospital in Limeil-Brévannes and is buried in a columbarium in the Père-Lachaise cemetery.

Publications

• Souvenirs d'anarchy . Editions La Digitale, Quimperle 2005, ISBN 2-903383-53-7 (orig. 1913) (French)
• Lou Marin (Ed.): Albert Camus - Libertarian Writings (1948–1960 ), Laika-Verlag, Hamburg 2013, ISBN 978-3-942281-56-0 . Two chapters in which Rirette Maîtrejean worked have been included in the book, see p. Table of contents . (French: Camus et les libertaires (1948–1960). 2008)

literature

• Lou Marin: Rirette Maîtrejean. Assassination critic, anarchist feminist, individual anarchist. Verlag Graswurzelrevolution, Heidelberg 2016, ISBN 978-3-939045-26-7 .
• Anne Steiner: Rirette, l'insoumise. Milles Sources, Tulle 2013, ISBN 978-2-909744-29-2 . (French)
• Anne Steiner: Les En-dehors. Anarchistes individualistes et illégalistes à la “Belle Époque”. L'Échappée, Paris 2008, ISBN 978-2-915830-13-2 . (French)

Web links

Commons : Rirette Maîtrejean  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Rirette Maîtrejean in the BnF catalog ( Bibliothèque nationale de France )
• Rirette Maîtrejean in the SUDOC catalog
• Rirette Maîtrejean: you col claudine à la bande à Bonnot. Radio feature , France Inter , June 5, 2016 (audio podcast, 55 minutes, French)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Anne Steiner: Rirette Maîtrejean: une adolescence rebelle. in: dies .: Les militantes anarchistes individualistes: des femmes libres à la Belle Époque. In: Amnis - Revue de civilization contemporaine Europes / Amériques. 8/2008, p. 15, online. (Note: Anne Steiner is a sociologist at the University of Paris-Nanterre.)
2. ↑ This article was translated into German by Andrea Schärer and Lou Marin and is published in: Lou Marin: Rirette Maitrejean. Assassination critic, anarchist feminist, individual anarchist. Verlag Graswurzelrevolution, Heidelberg 2016, pp. 215–217.
3. ↑ Lou Marin: Rirette Maitrejean. Assassination critic, anarchist feminist, individual anarchist. Verlag Graswurzelrevolution, Heidelberg 2016, p. 20.
4. ↑ Rirette Maîtrejean: Indecency, prudery. In: L'anarchy. No. 331, August 10, 1911, p. 1. Read in German translation in: Lou Marin: Rirette Maitrejean. Assassination critic, anarchist feminist, individual anarchist. Verlag Graswurzelrevolution, Heidelberg 2016, p. 219. Translated by: Andrea Schärer and Lou Marin.
5. ↑ Lou Marin: Rirette Maitrejean. Assassination critic, anarchist feminist, individual anarchist. Verlag Graswurzelrevolution, Heidelberg 2016, pp. 68–81.
6. ↑ Lou Marin: Rirette Maitrejean. Assassination critic, anarchist feminist, individual anarchist. Verlag Graswurzelrevolution, Heidelberg 2016, in particular pp. 51–68.
7. ↑ Iris Radisch: Camus. The ideal of simplicity - A biography. Rowohlt Verlag, Reinbek bei Hamburg 2013, ISBN 978-3-498-05789-3 , p. 248.
8. ↑ Lou Marin: Origin of the Revolt. Albert Camus and anarchism. Verlag Graswurzelrevolution, Nettersheim 1998.
9. ↑ Lou Marin (Ed.): Albert Camus - Libertarian Writings (1948-1960). Laika, Hamburg 2013, introduction, p. 13 f.
10. ↑ Lou Marin: Rirette Maitrejean. Assassination critic, anarchist feminist, individual anarchist. Verlag Graswurzelrevolution, Heidelberg 2016, pp. 196–211.
11. ↑ Lou Marin: Camus and his Libertarian Critique of Violence. In: Willi Jung (Ed.): Albert Camus, or, The Happy Sisyphos. Bonn University Press at V&R unipress, 2013, ISBN 978-3-8471-0146-8 , p. 80.
12. ↑ Michel Onfray: The role of the Rirette. In: ders .: In the name of freedom. Life and Philosophy of Albert Camus. Knaus Verlag, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-8135-0533-7 , p. 248 f.
13. ↑ Lou Marin: Rirette Maitrejean. Assassination critic, anarchist feminist, individual anarchist. Verlag Graswurzelrevolution, Heidelberg 2016, p. 202 f.
14. ↑ Lou Marin: Rirette Maitrejean. Assassination critic, anarchist feminist, individual anarchist. Verlag Graswurzelrevolution, Heidelberg 2016, p. 197.
15. ↑ Marin in Willi Jung, ibid.
16. ↑ Michel Onfray, ibid.
17. ^ Anne Steiner: Rirette Maîtrejean: une femme libre à la Belle-Epoque. Quartiers Libres, No. 101/2005
18. ^ Père-Lachaise, group 87, grave number: 2439
19. ↑ Review by Karsten Hueck in Deutschlandradio Kultur.