Ernest Denis

Biography

Nîmois, resulting from an old Protestant family of Gard, Ernest Denis affirmed very quickly republican convictions which will never leave it. After its secondary studies at the Jauffret institution in Paris, it is received eighth with the entrance examination of the National university.

In 1870, Ernest Denis took part in the defense of Paris besieged. It is during this seat which it took knowledge of proclamation that the Czech deputies addressed, on December 8th, 1870, with the count de Beust, then chancellor of the Empire of Austria-Hungary. At that time Bohemia was integral part of the empire of Austria-Hungary and for this reason of the Czechs sat at the Parliament of Vienna. In this proclamation which was to be given to the emperor François Joseph Ier itself, the Czech deputies, in the name of offended humanity, protested against the violence made with the France, “heroic nation, filled of a right national pride”.

Ernest Denis was very touched by this proclamation and he wanted to better know the history of the Czech people then far from known in France.

After one year of teaching in Bastia, Ernest Denis, aggregate young person of history and very marked by the recent one and severe defeat of the France against the Prussia, undertake its first voyage in Bohemia in 1872. It is registered at the Charles university of Prague where it spends three years. He learns Czech and Russian and gathers documentation for the thesis which he devotes to the Czech reformer of the beginning of the fourteenth century, Jan Hus, victim him also of the Germans during the council of Constancy. This one will appear only in 1878 after its return in France. This first stay in Prague enables him to meet the large historian of the Czechs, Frantisek Palacky (1798-1876). After his return in France, Denis is successively named professor of secondary education in Chambéry, Carcassonne, Angouleme and Bordeaux. Its very marked republican convictions then cause some movements in France of the " Order moral". Its nomination in the higher education in 1878 is also a way of drawing aside this qualified professor but a little too republican…

In November 1878, Denis is thus named university lecturer with the Faculty of Arts of Bordeaux where, in spite of very strict professional duties, he endeavors to make place in his courses with the questions Slaves without forgetting the interests of France. It manages to attract a public of students increasingly more. At the end of 1881, it leaves Bordeaux to go to Grenoble in the capacity as part-time lecturer of the foreign literatures while inserting the slavistique one in the framework of its official obligations.

It accomplishes frequent voyages in Bohemia, Moravie, Poland, Russia and Germany between 1885 and 1898, while returning to teach in Bordeaux.

In 1896, it is named substitute for Alfred Rambaud, professor of modern history at the university of the Sorbonne, when this one is elected senator. In 1906 it becomes titular of this prestigious pulpit. At the 57 years age Ernest Denis is thus a recognized historian. He then published several reference books on the history of Bohemia (see the bibliography) and on contemporary Germany.

The events of its time (the crisis in Balkans then the release of the war) then will mobilize all its energy for the defense of a cause: release of the Czech and Slovak people. With some other Slavists like Louis Leger, Louis Eisenmann, Jules Legras, L will endeavor to inform the political decision makers on the internal situation of Austria-Hungary. It thus founds two reviews which will play a leading role in knowledge that the French will be able to have of the situation of Slavic in Europe: the Czech Nation in 1915 then Slavic Le Monde . It helps of sound best the Czechs and the Slovak ones who settle in France after 1914. It thus accommodates the young person Edouard Bénès who has the role of promoting the idea of the independence of the Czechs in France. It meets also the Czech philosopher Tomas Masaryk and opens the columns of to him the Czech Nation .

This activity is rewarded with the autumn 1918 with the recognition for independence for the Czechs and Slovak by the allies. The empire of Austria-Hungary is parcelled out and a new State, Czechoslovakia, gathers these two people which never really lived together hitherto.

These generous efforts were also recognized by the creation of a pulpit of history of Slavic and their civilization at the university of Paris. This pulpit received the name of " Pulpit Ernest Denis, Foundation of the Republic tchécoslovaque". The French government created at the National school of the Eastern languages in Paris, a Czech pulpit and assistantship.

In 1919-1920 Ernest Denis teaches during two six-month periods in Belgrade and Prague. One can understand that a new visit in Bohemia, undertaken by Denis in October 1920, resembled a triumphal voyage. Its name is then known of all the Czechs and it has the appearance of “a founding father” of the new State as well as Masaryk, Stéfanik or Buckets. It is thus in full glory which it is struck by the disease which obliges it to put a term at its voyage earlier than envisaged. Ernest Denis dies on January 4th 1921 in Paris.

A bust and a commemorative plaque in its honor are on the place Malostranska, one of the most beautiful historical places of the Czech capital , Prague. A monument in the honor of Ernest Denis had been built with Prague, on the same Malostranska place, in 1928. But after the invasion of the Czechoslovakia by the troops of the Army of the IIIe Reich in 1939, the bust was destroyed. Another however had been preserved in the town of Nimes and is always laid out on one of its more beautiful places.

" Bohemia taught us that it is not necessary between-to commit suicide because the men do not translate all, by the same symbols, their common anguishes and their desires semblables". (Ernest Denis)

Brief bibliography:

Jean Huss and Hussites , Paris, Leroux, 1878.
Origins of the Unit of the Brothers bohêmes , Angers, 1885.
Georges de Podebrad .
Bohemia during second half of the 15th century , 1885.
Establishment of the Austrian dynasty in Bohemia , 1889 Fine
of independence Bohemia , 1890 (2 volumes)
France in Moscow , 1891.
general History of the 4th century at our days, collective work, 4 volumes 1891 to 1894.
Germany 1789-1810 , 1896.
Germany 1810-1852 , 1898.
the Germanic Confederation , 1898.
Memories and tests on Palacky , 1898.
Bohemia since Mountain-white the , 1903.
the Foundation of the German Empire , (1852-1871), 1906.
Which wanted the war? , in collaboration with professing it Emile Durkheim, 1914.
the War. Immediate and remote causes. Intoxication of people , 1915.
Large Serbia , 1915.
the Question of Austria , 1917.
Germany and peace , 1918.

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