Georges-Eugène Haussmann

Georges -Eugène, Baron Haussmann ( born March 27, 1809 in Paris, † January 11, 1891 ibid ) was prefect of the French departments of Seine and city planners of Paris. He gave Paris the mid 19th century a modern cityscape, which is preserved to this day.

Life

Hausmann was born into a prestigious maternal Palatine Lutheran pastor's family. He was born the second oldest child of four siblings, the son of Nicolas Valentin Haussmann and his wife Eva Maria Henrietta Carolina, daughter of the German pastor, Jacobin and Napoleonic officer in services, Georg Friedrich Dentzel, in Paris. House 's father, in the higher military service, died in 1876 at an old age as an officer of the Legion of Honour.

After completing a law degree in Paris in 1831, Hausmann served first as sub-prefect in a number of provincial towns where he could put his organizational skills and his perseverance to the test. His area of ​​responsibility included, among others, the expansion of the road network, the school management and the water supply of communities. Napoléon III. became aware of Haussmann primarily through its work in Yonne and Bordeaux.

Napoléon III. recognized in Haussmann the appropriate man to realize his ambitious goals in terms of a basic urban restructuring its capital. He appointed him in 1853 as prefect of Paris, then Département de la Seine, and endowed him with extraordinary powers. Hausmann worked in this capacity until 1870 for extensive satisfaction of the monarch. The French Emperor wanted to make Paris into a modern metropolis of the industrial age in order to compete with the capitals of the other major European powers such as London and Berlin can. The metropolis should be clearly organized by monumental vistas the system and adapted to the demands of modern road and rail transport. In addition to the transportation facilities and spacious gardens originated in the English style, partly as an extension and redesign of existing facilities (eg, Jardin du Luxembourg, the Bois de Boulogne ). During the reconstruction of the city and military aspects played a role, it favored the " Haussmannisation " of Paris without a doubt the warfare of regular troops against rebellious citizens.

The work focused mainly on the areas of the Louvre, the Tuileries palace, the access routes to the Hôtel de Ville, Rue de Rivoli, the environment of the opera, the Île de la Cité, the Grands Boulevards, which from the time Louis XIV came, and the avenues which converge on the Place de l'Etoile (now Place Charles de Gaulle). Overall, roads were built around 150 kilometers in length. In addition to the large covered market Les Halles ( these halls was demolished in 1969 and replaced by the Forum des Halles ) were created, major train stations and other municipal facilities including several theaters and a new sewer system.

The appearance of the new district was coined by the then prevailing European style of classicism, on the expression of the Académie des Beaux -Arts was instrumental. Hausmann also pushed for the incorporation of the suburbs outside the old fortifications in 1840, looped belt. Among the staff who served Hausmann as engineers and city planners, are especially Jean -Charles Alphand ( Bois de Boulogne, 1854), Jakob Ignaz Hittorff, Victor Baltard, Charles Garnier, Antoine Bailly and Louis Duc mentioned.

Of course such a radical transformation called critics on the scene. One first lamented the irreparable loss of cultural property, the emerging art of photography could hold at least some memories of the old Paris (see Charles Marville ). Furthermore, the forced resettlement of many citizens and land speculation repeatedly caused resentment. The criticism was dampened, however, by the good employment situation.

After the defeat of France in the Franco-German War of 1870 /71, the Kaiser's abdication and the establishment of the Third Republic Haussmann had to leave his post in 1870 as a confidant of the emperor. He was accused to have acquired his fortune in the course of urban renewal through participation in public tenders, but it could not demonstrate any breach of the law. As deputy Corsica (1877-1881) he was still another decade politically active.

Reception

The transformation of Paris under Haussmann is rezipiert today partially positive in spite of serious interventions in urban landscape and social structure. According to him, the Boulevard Haussmann has been designated a several -kilometer-long stretch of road in the 8th and 9th arrondissement, between the Avenue de Friedland and boulevard Montmartre.

Haussmann's redesign of Paris had in the 19th and 20th centuries example, effects on other major European cities. Bucharest Europeanized in the second half of the 19th century Parisian model. But Buenos Aires sought under its Mayor Torcuato de Alvear modeled after the architecture 's house to become the " Paris of South America " by 1894 opened Avenida de Mayo made ​​a beginning. Both Mussolini like Hitler thought of similar transformations of their cities. Mussolini had to settle on the breakthroughs in Via della Conciliazione towards St. Peter's Basilica and Via dei Fori Imperiali towards the Colosseum in Rome due to the density of historical buildings in Rome. Hitler's ideas regarding the two " major axes " in Berlin (or Germania ) remained plans.

Haussmann's contemporary Jules Ferry created given the fantastical plans Hausmanns the bon mot of " homestyle fantastic bills " ( les comptes fantastiques de Haussmann, compte = the bill; conte = the story ), loosely based on " The Tales of Hoffmann " by Jacques Offenbach. He gave in 1868 a booklet with this title out.

Work

• Baron Haussmann: Mémoires. Édition intégrale. Précédée d'une introduction générale par Francoise Choay et d'une introduction technique par Bernard Landau et Vincent Sainte Marie Gauthier. Éditions du Seuil, Paris 2000, ISBN 2-02-039898-2.

• Hausmann, Georges -Eugène: Memoires du Baron Haussmann. Avant l' Hotel de Ville. 2nd edition. Paris, 1890.
• Hausmann, Georges -Eugène: Memoires du Baron Haussmann. Préfecture de la Seine. Paris, 1890.
• Hausmann, Georges -Eugène: Memoires du Baron Haussmann. Grands Travaux de Paris. Paris, from 1890 to 1893.