Édouard René de Laboulaye

Édouard René Lefebvre de Laboulaye ( born January 18, 1811 in Paris, † May 25, 1883 ) was a French jurist, publicist, journalist and politician of the Third Republic. 1865 From him came the impulse to give the Statue of Liberty to the United States of America.

Life and work

The Americans supported the inhabitants of the city of Paris during the time of the siege in the war of France against Prussia with food parcels and deliveries. Édouard Laboulaye - as president of the newly formed Franco-American company - suggested in 1865 this gift for the 100th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence - as a symbol of freedom.

"If in America its independence a monument should be built in memory, then it would be only natural to me that it would be built as a joint work of both nations. "

One of his friends, the sculptor Bartholdi put this idea five years later into reality.

According to him, the city Laboulaye in the Argentine province of Córdoba and the Place Charles Édouard de Laboulaye in Versailles, France are named.