Alexandre Auguste Ledru-Rollin

Alexandre Auguste Ledru -Rollin ( born February 2, 1807 in Paris, † December 31, 1874 in Fontenay- aux- Roses) was a French politician and had dated 24 February held the office of Minister of the Interior, among others, to May 11, 1848.

Alexandre Ledru -Rollin began his political rise in the July Monarchy. From 1841, he was a radical republican and democrat in the French Parliament and appeared as one of the sharpest critics of the government of Louis Philippe. Previously, he had appeared as a defender of newspapers to court and had publicly called for universal suffrage, which made him extremely popular. Through a rich marriage him a fortune was available, with whom he founded the newspaper La Réforme, which became the mouthpiece of the radical left.

After the February Revolution of 1848 he was French interior minister for two and a half months. In this role, he replaced the royalist provincial officials by republican -minded and organized the elections, he is therefore in France as the father of universal suffrage, which he sat by himself. After doing the moderate Republicans had prevailed, he only just elected to the Executive Committee, the new government. When he publicly supported the unpopular utopian socialist Louis Blanc, he finally lost the support of the population. For the election of the President of the Republic, he took up for the extreme left and won only 371,000 votes.

As one of the most outspoken public critics of the election winner Napoléon III. However, and especially the Prime Minister Odilon Barrot won Ledru -Rollin quickly in popularity and in 1849 from five departments elected to the Legislative Assembly. In this capacity, he called for the formation of a "National Convention " as a counter- meeting on what he had to flee to Belgium and was sentenced in absentia for deportation. It was not until 1870 he was allowed, after he had spent 20 years in exile in the UK, to return to France, but played no political role.