André Marie

For other people of the same name, see André-Marie.
André Marie
Prime Minister of France
In office
26 July 1948 – 5 September 1948
Preceded by Robert Schuman
Succeeded by Robert Schuman
Personal details
Born 3 December 1897
Died 12 June 1974(1974-06-12) (aged 76)
Political party Radical

André Marie (3 December 1897  – 12 June 1974) was a French Radical politician who served as Prime Minister during the Fourth Republic in 1948.

Biography

Born at Honfleur, Calvados, the young André Marie studied at primary and secondary level there, going on to the Lycée Pierre Corneille,[1] when his parents moved to Rouen in 1908. While preparing to apply to the École Normale Supérieure Lettres et Sciences Humaines, he was mobilised at the end of 1916. By the end of World War I, he commanded a battery of 75 men. He received two light injuries and numerous commendations. He was decorated with the Croix de guerre with palm.

He started work as a lawyer in 1922. He was elected Deputy for Seine-Inférieure (now Seine-Maritime), holding his seat in the Palais Bourbon from 1928 to 1962. In 1933, André Marie entered the government as Under-Secretary of State to Albert Sarraut, responsible for Alsace-Lorraine. He served in several Under-Secretarial posts, and represented France at the League of Nations.

As World War II escalated, André Marie, a reserve captain, was one of several parliamentarians who enlisted voluntarily. An artillery captain, he was decorated with a second croix de guerre, taken prisoner, and imprisoned at the Oflag at Saarburg. He was therefore absent for the vote of 10 July 1940, which empowered Marshal Pétain and instituted the regime of Vichy France.

Marie was freed in 1941, having served as an officer in both World Wars. Refusing Vichy politics on his return to Seine-Maritime, he resigned all his elected offices, and in a letter to his constituents, expained that he could not exercise his mandate while the people could not be consulted freely. As a member of the Georges-France resistance network, he was denounced and arrested on 12 September 1943 by occupation authorities, imprisoned at Compiègne, then deported to a camp at Buchenwald on 16 December 1943, where he remained until the liberation of the camp by American troops on 11 April 1945. He had lost 30 kilograms, and had suffered a heart infection and a liver infection.

On his return to France, André Marie quickly regained his place in political life, both at departmental and national levels.

Ministerial career

Minister of Justice

In 1947, he was appointed Minister of Justice in the Ramadier ministry, and presided over the last trials in the High Court of collaborators.

Prime Minister of France

The President called on him to become Prime Minister, replacing Robert Schuman on 27 July 1948, but he was obliged to resign a month later.

Subsequent ministerial offices

He accepted the post of Deputy Prime Minister in the Queuille cabinet in 1948, and was again named Minister of Justice, refusing to pursue the Communists after the miners' strikes of 1948. On 3 February 1949, as Minister of Justice, he was called to account in the National Assembly on the matter of the economic collaborator Pierre Brice. The radical Deputy Emmanuel d'Astier de la Vigerie declared: "Men who have amassed fortunes as a result of collaboration are now largely free to enjoy the fruits of their treason because the government, indulgent towards collaborators, has led a politic of repression against the working class." Weakened by the affair, André Marie resigned on 13 February 1949.

He then served as Minister of Education, from August 1951 until June 1954. Il brought about the Marie and Barangé laws, in support of free education. An ardent proponent of public education, he brought about the law, still in place, which makes students of the écoles normales supérieures trainee civil servants: in exchange for a monthly salary, they may be asked to serve the government at any point during the ten years following their matriculation.

Municipal office

As Mayor of Barentin from 1945 to 1974, he installed the statues of the town's famous "street museum". He died, aged 76, in Rouen.

Ministry (26 July - 5 September 1948)

References

  1. ↑ Lycée Pierre Corneille de Rouen - History
Political offices
Preceded by
Paul Ramadier		 Minister of Justice
1947–1948 		Succeeded by
Rober Lecourt
Preceded by
Robert Schuman		 Prime Minister of France
1948 		Succeeded by
Robert Schuman
Preceded by
Pierre-Olivier Lapie		 Minister of National Education
1951–1954 		Succeeded by
Jean Berthoin
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