Yann Goulet

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Yann Goulet (also Yann Renard-Goulet , actually Jean Gustave René ; born August 20, 1914 in Saint-Nazaire , † August 22, 1999 in Bray , Ireland ) was a Breton nationalist and sculptor who worked with the German occupiers during the Second World War worked together .

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Breton nationalism and artistic beginnings

Goulet studied art and architecture at the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts in Paris . He studied sculpture with Charles Despiau , a former assistant to Auguste Rodin . He received a first prize in sculpture and a second prize in painting. His main pre-war works are bas-reliefs at the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et industriels moderne , Paris 1938 and the Monument de la jeunesse de l'empire Français , Lille 1939.

Goulet joined the Breton regionalist artists' association Seiz Breur and became a member of the Parti national breton , but was also temporarily a member of the socialist Section française de l'Internationale ouvrière (SFIO). He was suspected by the authorities of having participated in the demolition of a monument in Pontivy as a member of the Gwenn ha Du on December 18, 1938 , but was soon released without charge.

Second World War

In 1939, because of his political activities, Goulet was refused training as an officer in the pioneer troops and was instead sent to the Strasbourg area for sabotage training. He took part in the Franco-German fighting and was captured by Germany as a prisoner of war on June 11, 1940 when a bridge over the Aisne was blown up. Relocated to Germany, he became head of the Luckenwalde prisoner-of-war camp and returned to Brittany in September 1940 with the last transport of freedmen from the Parti nationaliste breton (PNB) .

In the course of the following months, Goulet joined the Bagadoù Stourm , the security service of the Parti national breton and worked for the right-wing Breton nationalist magazine L'Heure bretonne . In January 1941 he took over the management of the Bagadou stourm and the youth organization of the Parti national breton. Like the party leader Raymond Delaporte , Goulet strove to set up an independent Breton army that would neither depend on the support of the Germans nor have alliance obligations towards them. The promotion of the officers of the Bagadou Stourm was dedicated to the memory of Patrick Pearse on the 25th anniversary of the Irish Easter Rising of 1916 . In general, Goulet always liked to recall the Irish role models of the Bagadoù Stourm , in particular the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and thus deliberately contrasted the organization he led with the Lu Brezhon under the leadership of Célestin Lainé , with whom it was then also in the course of the In 1941 there was increasing tension. Yann Goulet rejected the pro-German stance of Lainé and Olier Mordrel and, together with Alan Louarn, also opposed their attempt to poach members of the Bagadoù Stourm for Lainés Bezen Perrot .

As the person in charge of the summer camp of the Bagadoù Stourm in 1943, he was arrested by the French gendarmerie on August 11 for the capture of a police inspector on the occasion of clashes with the local population. On August 13, he was released on the orders of the German police in Brest. On September 9, 1943, he was arrested and detained again by the French police in Rennes . He was only released on October 30, 1943 at the instigation of the Germans.

Exile in Ireland

After the liberation of France by the Allies , Goulet and his family fled to the Republic of Ireland . He was sentenced to death in 1947 by the Cour de Justice in Rennes for collaborating with the enemy in absentia. After assuming Irish citizenship in 1952, he worked as an art teacher and quickly became one of the most important sculptors in the country, particularly concerned with events in Irish Republican history. Some of his works can be found on public buildings, such as the Memorial of Custom House in Dublin , the Memorial to the Republican soldiers executed by Free State forces at Ballyseedy in Ballyseedy or the Republican Memorial in Crossmaglen. Goulet became a member of the Irish artists' association Aosdána .

At the end of the 1960s, Goulet described himself as the leader of the Front de liberation de la Bretagne (Liberation Front of Brittany) and claimed the authorship of all attacks that were committed by this underground organization. Some of his students even wanted to volunteer to fight by his side in Brittany . For this reason, however, benevolent friends called him “tonton Yann” (Uncle Yann), while more skeptical friends called him “général micro” (for example mini-general ). In 1969 Goulet became general secretary of a Comité National de la Bretagne Libre (CBL) . However, he probably no longer had any real influence in the politically more left-wing autonomist movement of Brittany, which grew stronger in the course of the 1960s. Yann Goulet was still calling for the "national revolution that was missed in 1940" until the very end. He died on August 22, 1999.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Kristian Hamon: Les Nationalistes bretons sous l'Occupation . Yoran Embanner, Fouesnant 2004 (page 123). ISBN 2-914855-19-2 .
  2. ↑ s. a. Web links
personal data
SURNAME Goulet, Yann
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Renard-Goulet, Yann (pseudonym); René, Jean Gustave (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Breton nationalist and sculptor
DATE OF BIRTH August 20, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Saint-Nazaire
DATE OF DEATH August 22, 1999
Place of death Bray , Ireland