Albert François Lebrun
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia:
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Albert Lebrun
(born Aug. 29, 1871, Mercy-le-Haut, Francedied March 6, 1950, Paris) French statesman and last president (193240) of France's Third Republic. Trained as a mining engineer, he served in the Chamber of Deputies (190020) and Senate (192032). He was elected president as a compromise candidate and served as a mediator and symbol of unity, rarely influencing policy. In 1940 he complied with the cabinet's decision to seek an armistice with Germany and acquiesced to his replacement by the Vichy France government. He was interned by the Germans (194344). In 1944 he acknowledged Charles de Gaulle as head of the provisional government.
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Oxford Dictionary of Political Biography:
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Albert Lebrun
(b. 29 Aug. 1871; d. 6 Mar. 1950) French; President of the Third Republic 1932 – 40 Albert Lebrun came from a peasant family in eastern France and was educated in Paris at the prestigious École Polytechnique. He was elected to the Chamber of Deputies as a conservative Republican in 1900, held a number of middle-rank ministerial posts before and during the First World War, and in 1920 entered the Senate, whose president he became in 1931. The Senate presidency was a traditional stepping stone to the presidency of the Republic. When President Doumer was assassinated by a Russian anarchist in 1932, Lebrun felt obliged to offer himself as successor and was duly elected by a huge majority of the National Assembly. A conscientious attender of official functions, he lacked personal charisma (his propensity to weep in public made him an easy target for satirists) and made no attempt to challenge the prevailing Republican orthodoxy which prevented the President from asserting an independent political authority. Thus in 1936 he overcame his aversion to the victory of the left-wing Popular Front and dutifully invited the Socialist Blum to become Prime Minister. Four years later, after a less than triumphal re-election in 1939, he behaved with similar constitutional scruple in the dramatic events surrounding the fall of France. He made no attempt to support those of "his" ministers who opposed the growing clamour for an end to the war and, by appointing Pétain Prime Minister, made certain that an armistice would be signed. He was similarly inert in the hectic days leading to the establishment of the Vichy regime and the overthrow of the Republic whose head he was supposed to be. He was deported to Germany during the war and played no part in politics after it.
In his war memoirs, de Gaulle dismisses Lebrun's role in 1940 with curt brutality. Lebrun personified the weakness of the Third Republic head of state and was the anti-model for the presidency which de Gaulle created in the 1958 constitution.
Columbia Encyclopedia:
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Albert Lebrun
Lebrun, Albert (älbĕr' ləbröN'), 1871-1950, French statesman, last president of the Third Republic. Elected to the chamber of deputies in 1900, he later became a senator and held various cabinet posts. A moderate, he succeeded Paul Doumer as president in 1932 and was reelected in 1939. In July, 1940, the establishment of the Vichy government under Marshal Pétain deprived Lebrun of all authority. In 1944 he recognized Charles de Gaulle as provisional president of France.
Wikipedia on Answers.com:
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Albert François Lebrun
| Albert Lebrun | |
|---|---|
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| Albert Lebrun in 1932 | |
| President of the French Republic Co-Prince of Andorra |
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| In office 10 May 1932 – 10 July 1940 |
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| Preceded by | Paul Doumer |
| Succeeded by | Philippe Pétain (as Chief of State of Vichy France) Vincent Auriol in 1947 (no president from 1940 to 1947) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 29 August 1871 Mercy-le-Haut, Meurthe-et-Moselle |
| Died | 6 March 1950 (aged 78) Paris |
| Nationality | French |
| Political party | Democratic Alliance |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
Albert François Lebrun (French: [albɛʁ ləbʁœ̃]; 1871–1950) was a French politician, President of France from 1932 to 1940. He was the last president of the Third Republic. He was a member of the center-right Democratic Republican Alliance (ARD).
Biography
Born to a farming family in Mercy-le-Haut, Meurthe-et-Moselle, he attended the École Polytechnique and the École des Mines, graduating from both at the top of his class. He then became a mining engineer in Vesoul and Nancy, but left that profession at the age of 29 to enter politics. Lebrun gained a seat in the Chamber of Deputies in 1900 as a member of the Left Republican Party, later serving on the cabinet as Minister for the Colonies from 1912–1914, Minister of War in 1913 and Minister for Liberated Regions, 1917–1919. Joining the Democratic Alliance, he was elected to the French senate from Meurthe-et-Moselle in 1920, and served as Vice President of the Senate from 1925 through 1929. He was president of that body from 1931–1932.
Lebrun was elected president of France following the assassination of president Paul Doumer by Pavel Gurgulov on 6 May 1932. Re-elected in 1939, largely because of his record of accommodating all political sides, he exercised little power as president. On 10 July 1940, Lebrun was replaced by Philippe Pétain (although Lebrun never officially resigned) as head of state by a vote of the parliament.
He then fled to Vizille (Isère) on 15 July, but was captured on 27 August 1943 when the Germans moved into the region and was sent into captivity at the Itter Castle in Tyrol. On 10 October 1943 he was allowed to return to Vizille due to poor health, but was kept under constant surveillance.
On 9 August 1944, when the Allies restored the French government, Lebrun met with Charles de Gaulle and acknowledged the General's leadership, saying that he had not formally resigned as president because the dissolution of the National Assembly had left nobody to accept his resignation.
After the war, Lebrun lived in retirement. He died of pneumonia in Paris on 6 March 1950 after a protracted illness.[1]
References
- ^ "Albert Lebrun Taken by Death". Associated Press. 6 March 1950. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=M5EpAAAAIBAJ&sjid=oOUDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6191,3090619&dq=albert+lebrun&hl=en. Retrieved 2011-03-15.
| Political offices | ||
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| Preceded by Paul Doumer |
President of France 1932–1940 |
Succeeded by Philippe Pétain (Chief of State of Vichy France) |
| Regnal titles | ||
| Preceded by Paul Doumer and Justí Guitart i Vilardebó |
Co-Prince of Andorra 1932–1940 with Justí Guitart i Vilardebó (until 30 January 1940) |
Succeeded by Philippe Pétain with Ramon Iglesias i Navarri (from 4 April 1943) |
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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 1994-2012 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more
Oxford Dictionary of Political Biography
A Dictionary of Political Biography. Copyright © 1998, 2003 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.
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Columbia Encyclopedia
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/.
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