Michel Marcel Navratil

Michel Marcel Navratil ( born June 12, 1908 in Nice, France, † January 30, 2001 in Montpellier, France) was a French philosopher, professor at the University of Montpellier was. He was at the time of his death one of the last male survivor of the sinking of the Titanic

Life

Michel Navratil was the oldest of two children of Michel Navratil Sr. and his wife Marcelle. Under the pseudonym " Louis M. Hoffman ," which was borrowed from a friend of his father, his father, was issued on 10 April 1912 at Southampton along with him and his brother Roger ( born March 5, 1910) as a passenger on the Titanic. The reason was a bitter custody battle with Marcelle, had abducted the children in the course of Michel Navratil Sr..

In the night of April 15, 1912 the boys were asleep when her father in her cabin, F -2, crashed, woke her up and up with another passenger by means of barriers and corridors brought onto the boat deck. Here he put the children in folding boat D, the last abfierende lifeboat, and wore them greetings to the mother. Michel Navratil Sr. came in that night killed. After the fall, first, the first-class passenger Margaret Hays agreed to take the boys on their arrival in New York City with them and care for them, because they were the only children who had survived without a parent or guardian. About newspapers in which was the photo of the boys around the world, learned Marcelle Navratil from the fate of their sons. On 16 May 1912, the mother took her sons and returned with them on board the Oceanic back to France.

Navratil attended the University, where in 1933 he met his future wife. He himself became a doctor, and in 1952 professor of philosophy at the University of Montpellier. His retirement was made in 1969. His scientific activity was marked by the experience of the shipwreck and its traumatic consequences. In an interview he stated that he had died at the age of four years.

Writings

• Introduction à une critique de la pensée découverte, Presses universitaires de France, Paris 1954
• Les tendances constitutives de la pensée vivante, Presses universitaires de France, Paris 1954