Paul Deschanel , born the February 13rd 1855 with Schaerbeek (Brussels) and dead the April 28th 1922 with Paris, is a statesman French, whose career culminated with its mandate of President of the French Republic, of the February 18th to the September 21st 1920, under the Third Republic.

Paul Deschanel was also man of letters and elected official to the French Academy the May 18th 1899.

Biography

Childhood

The coup d'etat of December 2nd, 1851 condemns the Republicans, to which Emile Deschanel belongbelonged, to the exile in Belgium. Paul Deschanel becomes as of his birth a symbol, the proof that the Républicains ideals survive the exile. He has Victor Hugo for spiritual godfather. Edgar Quinet exclaims: " Can it see the promised land soon! We greet it like the espérance." Venerated by his/her father, this last believes to hear references to the Greek or Latin culture in the babillements of his/her child.

Schooling

In 1859, following the amnesty of Napoleon III, the Deschanel family returns to Paris. Its professors regard Paul as " intelligent but talkative, agitated and dissipé". The child dedicates a true worship with his parents in spite of the severity and the requirement of his father. This last tears and returns the letters of his/her son as soon as they contain an spelling error. It is in 4th that Paul Deschanel changes attitude: its school course becomes brilliant, as if it had accepted the lessons and the requirements of his father. August 10th, 1871, it obtains its baccalaureat of letters very quickly then its license (on November 4th of the same year). Its formation is thus with the literary departure and it writes in 1872 a comedy, an article on Rabelais published in the review Bleu , another on Diderot and Edgar Quinet in the Newspaper of DEBATEs .

Its political career starts whereas the Republicans decide to name in the provinces of new civils servant for éradiquer any possibility of political crisis. In 1877, Marcère, Minister of Interior Department, name new sub-prefects: Deschanel in fact part. The first political steps of the future President of the Republic are thus done under the major influence of his/her father.

Marriage and children

In 1901 it marries Germaine Brice de Viel which will give him 3 children: Renee-Antoinette (1902-1977), Jean (1904-1963, politician) and Louis-Paul (1909-1939, died for France).

The Elysium in 1920

Paul Deschanel is elected president of the republic the January 17th 1920. It remains in the History for the mental disorders which struck it during its mandate, perhaps consecutive with a great emotional tiredness, or too brutal arrival with the ridge of its career.

The fall out of the train

During a voyage by train bound for Montbrison, on May 23rd, 1920 towards 23:15, being leant by the window of his compartment whereas it tested a feeling of suffocation, Paul Deschanel falls accidentally out of the coach. Fortunately, the convoy circulated at this time with relatively weak pace (50 km/h) in a working area to Mignerette (in the Loiret, with a dozen kilometers in the North-West of Montargis).

Very ensanglanté - in spite of the benign nature of its wounds -, relatively stupefied and vêtu of sound only pyjamas, Paul Deschanel was not long in meeting André Radeau, working railwayman who supervised the working area, and to which it is presented as being the president of the Republic. The image of the public men at the time being diffused still little in the population, the railwayman shows skeptic - thinking at first sight of dealing with drunkard - but led nevertheless the broken traveller to a house of Garde-barrière near, where the casualty is looked after and put at the bed by his rescuers. The gate-keeper, Gustave Dariot, impressed by the dignity of wounded and the coherence of his explanations, leave during this time to warn the gendarmerie of Corbeilles. For the little story, the woman of the gate-keeper would have said to journalists: “I had seen well that it was a Mister: he had the clean feet! ”. The slowness of the communications between the various levels makes that, in spite of the short distances, the sub-prefect of Montargis, Mr. Lesueur, are prevented by telegram only around 5 hours of the morning. The incident starts to have an unquestionable repercussion when one realizes, before the arrival of the train in station of Roanne, around 7 hours of the morning, that the president of the Republic disappeared from the convoy. The presidential continuation which wait on the station platform and which is carried out by Theodore Steeg (1868-1950), then Minister of Interior Department, do not remain a long time without news. The contents of a dispatch, sent by the station of Montargis to that of Saint-Germain-of-Ditches (Allier), dispatch which briefly explains the course of the events which have occurred in the night, are quickly transmitted to him.

The incident gives obviously place in the press of the time to many caricatures, often cruel, and inspires the liveliness of the chansonniers. Everyone is not let however not go to embroider in an even untrue disproportionate way on an incident certainly curious (and which strikes the spirits because of the notoriety of its victim). A “resident” of the places of the accident will obtain thus, several decades later, that is affixed a very sober commemorative stele incident, without any element of caricature, near the Crossing level and of the old house of gate-keeper where Paul Deschanel after his fall had been led.

Another incident

September 10th 1920, it goes down at dawn to walk in the park of the Château of Rambouillet, with half-vêtu, discusses a few moments with a gardener then enters to half-length a basin. Brought back in its apartments, it seems to be aware of nothing.

Thesis on the madness

The fall of the train seems to be the consequence of a form of Somnambulisme caused by several factors (sleeping pill, heat of the coach,…) but also by the particular opening of the windows of the train which allowed the swing of the President towards the outside. It seems in fact extremely probable that President Deschanel was simply very sensitive to the drugs.

On the other hand, the other incidents (the president would have signed Napoleon or Vercingétorix certain documents and its resignation signed by his wife), are not shown. These signatures were always done in front of witness and there does not exist any administrative trace of these last. They are more the fruit of scandalmongering of political adversaries.

Paul Deschanel would be in fact victim of depression and overwork become aware that as a president of the Republic under IIIe République, it has only few capacities. Those were indeed concentrated in the hands of the president of the Council. He is rather prone to an accentuated suffering leading sometimes to a hyperexpressivity and a relative disintegration of the Me.

He was also prone to crises of anguish, in particular related to the constraints of his Presidency. He constantly is surrounded by bodyguards, moved away from his family, receives several letters of death threat against his children, must come to a conclusion about a death sentence (he is savagely opposite there).

One can also suppose that it felt a culpability with respect to his father who had never reached his positions (French Academy and Presidency of the Republic). Although Deschanel is a man impassioned but not passion, the relation with his/her father extremely probably contributes to “the instability” of the President. With his death, in 1922, Paul Deschanel expresses his sadness thus: “One starts to die the day when one loses his parents”.

Deschanel is obviously not the insane President whom one believes. If one detects at his place a desire of escape in work, a suroccupation, an anguish to displease, these elements are all of order nevrotic but cannot be regarded as maniac. He aspired a long time to an artistic career (writer and actor) and his speeches, all famous, betray a need for seduction and a clear inclination with the theatralism, to see with the Histrionisme (attitude characterized by the need to draw the attention to oneself and to allure the entourage).

To note that its resignation is the proof of a great courage and a great clearness as for its aptitudes. If it delayed this decision, it is only under the pressure of its entourage (on September 21st, president Deschanel renews its offer of resignation presented first once after the incident of the train, and which Alexandre Millerand, president of the Council, had convinced it to reconsider).

Once " libéré" presidency of the Republic, its state improves very quickly. He is elected besides senator of Eure-et-Loir, on January 9th 1921, as of the first turn, by 50,34  % of the votes cast (360 votes).

End of its life

Of return to the Senate, he is elected with the presidency of the Commission of the Foreign affairs in January 1922, when Raymond Poincaré, which occupied the station since its own departure of the presidency of the Republic, is had a presentiment of to become President of the Council.

Victim of a Pleurisy, it dies out on April 28th, 1922.

Paul Deschanel is buried in a family vault (where also his/her father Emile Deschanel rests, professor with the Collège de France) with the Cimetière of Montparnasse, in the 14th division, in edge of the avenue of North. Its tomb is with two steps of that of the draftsman, writer and scenario writer Roland Topor.

Electoral mandates

• 1885 - 1919: deputy of Eure-et-Loir. He voted on July 3rd, 1905 the law of December 9th, 1905 concerning the separation of the Church and the State.
• President of the House of Commons twice
• 1921: senator

Bonds

• Which occurred Paul Deschanel
• Another version of the famous railway accident: the syndrome of Elpenor.

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