Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle

Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle ( born May 10, 1760 in Lons -le- Saunier, † June 26, 1836 in Choisy -le- Roi ) was a French composer, poet and officer.

He wrote and composed in the night from 25 to 26 April 1792 as the declaration of war on Austria, in the Alsace Strasbourg, the war song of the French Army of the Rhine " Chant de guerre pour l' armée du Rhin ", which then later, under the name La Marseillaise, became a revolutionary song. Already in 1795 the Marseillaise was proclaimed the national anthem, but banned several times in the following years and in 1879 finally recognized.

While his authorship is undisputed for the text of the Marseillaise, was occasionally doubted by music historians that Rouget de Lisle is indeed the composer of the song.

Rouget de Lisle himself was not a supporter of the revolution and spent because of his royalist sentiments some time in prison.

He died on June 26, 1836 at the age of 76 years in Choisy -le- Roi. His remains were transferred on 14 July 1915 in the Invalides.