École Militaire

École Militaire - Front view of the Paris Military School.

1784 - Napoleon Bonaparte attended the École Militaire.

Anthropologist Germaine Tillion directed colonels Dutheil de la Rochère and Paul Hauet to the Musée de l'Homme resistance.

World War One statue of General Mangin was destroyed in the summer of 1940 by the Third Reich.

Location of [Your POI]

Description of École Militaire

The École Militaire is a military school that was enlisted in 1752 in front of the Champ de Mars to train French military officers. France had appeared from the War of Austrian Succession in 1748 victorious but with high causalities and Calvary Officer Marshal Maurice de Saxe sighted an education that would train children whose fathers had been lost in combat. While the proposal to build the school was signed by French ruler Louis VX on January 13, 1751 with an aim to train 500 cadets, the École Militaire did not come into existence until 1756 due to frequent warfare that drained capital and initially carried 200 cadets. The school boasts a clock that has been ticking as early as 1773, a banister worth 18,000 pounds, a “lavishly decorated,”[1] council chamber featuring war paintings, a chapel that cites wedding and religious ceremonies, and a prestigious educational curriculum for military subjects including Napoleon Bonaparte in 1784. Situated within a district that carries vegetable allotments and a wide-open parade ground, the École Militaire further made gathering for war tattoos as well as horseracing and continues to hold as a center for public events as well as the headquarters for French military education. Even though it was built along with other public sites including the Collège de France, the l’Hôtel de la Monnaie, and the theatre of the Odéon as a desire to remodel Paris and supply career training for impoverished gentry, the École Militaire has also held as a spot for Republican events and festivals. The Fête de la Fédération on July 14th 1790, the Fête de l’Etre Suprême on June 8th 1784, the ‘aerostat’[2] tests in 1783, the exhibition of industrial accomplishments in 1798, and many celebrations on the First Empire were stationed on the Champ de Mars. While visitors are unable to access the indoors, the École Militaire remains as a historical monument that is situated near an exhibit of statues including World War One veteran Joseph Joffre. [1] Marc Jouvencel, “History of Ecole Militaire (Paris),” The Ecole Militaire in Paris (France): Headquarters of the High s National Defence Studies Institute: , accessed November 22, 2017. [2] “Ecole Militaire in Paris – History and Facts,” Come to Paris, , accessed November 22, 2017, https://www.cometoparis.com/paris-guide/paris-monuments/ecole-militaire-s954.

Selected bibliography

"Ecole Militaire in Paris – History and Facts." Come to Paris. Accessed November 23, 2017. https://www.cometoparis.com/paris-guide/paris-monuments/ecole-militaire-s954.

Jones, Colin. Paris: The Biography of a City. New York: Penguin Group, 2006.

Polnay, Peter De. Aspects of Paris. Edinburgh: T. & A. Constable Ltd, 1968.

"Ecole Militaire – Champs-de-Mars Military School." Napoleon.org. Accessed November 23, 2017. https://www.napoleon .org/en/magazine/places/ecole-militaire-champs-de-mars- military-school/.

Jouvencel, Marc. "History of Ecole Militaire (Paris)." The Ecole Militaire in Paris (France): Headquarters of the High s National Defence Studies Institute. Accessed November 23, 2017. http://www.academia.edu/12227990/History_of_Ecole-Militaire_Paris_.

Rowell, Diana. Paris: The 'New Rome' of Napoleon I. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2012.

Potofsky, Allan. Constructing Paris in the Age of Revolution. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2009.

'Ecole Militaire Historical Military School in Paris France." EUtouring.com. Accessed November 23, 2017. http://www.eutouring.com/ecole_militaire.html.

Why is this site important?

Towards the end of summer in 1940, retired World War I colonels Paul Hauet and Dutheil de la Rochère met near the École Militaire to observe a defaced statue of World War One General Mangin.[1] German soldiers had destroyed the statue and the two colonels were united under cause to refuse defeat and drive the Germans from French soil.[2] While they would come to work at one goal to create and distribute intelligence reports on German infantry, Hauet and Rochère achieved access to the Musée de l'Homme resistance clique due to an "unaffected,"[3] Germaine Tillion and her close contact with the organization.[4] Tillion was an anthropologist who had attended meeting and seminar locations on anti-Nazi propaganda at the Musée de l'Homme and she was acquainted with partners Anatole Lewitzky, Leo Kelley, Yvonne Oddon, Paul Rivet and Boris Vildé.[5] Using her "big brain with a big, brave heart,"[6] Tillion served as a bridge connecting Rochère and Hauet with the Musée de l'Homme until her arrest in August 1942.[7]

She was a prominent member "capable of resisting,"[8] who was devoted to her research as a culture analyst on African tribes in Algeria.[9] When the resistance failed with nineteen members arrested by 1941, Tillion continued to oppose German occupation with surviving faculty and tried to win clemency for her comrades from the Musée de l'Homme.[10] She procured the archbishop in Paris to send a letter to Adolf Hitler asking for leniency towards resistance members and operated hundreds of letters that were sent into Paris asking for forgiveness.[11] She underlined the betraying of secret Gestapo agent Albert Gaveau and condemned the pro-Nazi supporter Canon Tricot as he came to replace the secretary for the archbishop before trial.[12] Even though she was coerced to set up in the concentration camp Ravensbrück after being arrested and her mother died, Tillion called for and taught education to her fellow inmates and created a plan to reshape French education and curriculum after liberation.[13] She helped impose the Musée de l'Homme resistance and proceeded the concentration camp to publish an article on the occupation in 1958.[14] The École Militaire cues an important part for the Musée de l'Homme resistance because Hauet and Rochère were directed by Tillion to the Musée de l'Homme to strengthen opposition to German rule.[15]

[1] David Schoenbrun, Soldiers of the Night: The Story of the French Resistance (Scarborough: New American Library, 1980), 69.

[2] Schoenbrun, Soldiers of the Night, 70.: Lynne Taylor, Between Resistance and Collaboration: Popular Protest in Northern France, 1940-45 (Basingstoke: Macmillan Press Ltd, 2000), 63.

[3] Agnes Humbert, Resistance: Memoirs Of Occupied France, trans. Barbara Mellor (Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2008), 42.

[4]Schoenbrun, Soldiers of the Night, 70.: Alan Riding, And the Show Went On: Cultural Life in Nazi-Occupied Paris (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2010), 110.

[5] Schoenbrun, Soldiers of the Night, 70.

[6] Ibid., p. 71.

[7] Ibid., p. 75.: Riding, And the Show Went On, 115.

[8] Germaine Tillion, Germaine Tillion on the birth of the Resistance (From sisters in Resistance), In Agnes Humbert, Resistance: Memoirs Of Occupied France (Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2008), 309.

[9] Margaret Collins. Weitz, Sisters in the Resistance: How Women Fought to Free France 1940-1945 (New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. , 1995), 296.

[10] Riding, And the Show Went On, 113-115.: Schoenbrun, Soldiers of the Night, 121.

[11] Schoenbrun, Soldiers of the Night, 121-122.

[12] Ibid., p. 122.

[13] Ibid., p. 121.: Weitz, Sisters in the Resistance, 14-15.

[14] Schoenbrun, Soldiers of the Night, 121.: Humbert, Resistance, 284.

[15] Schoenbrun, Soldiers of the Night, 70.

This point of interest is one of many on the GuideTags app –
a free digital interpretive guide that features thematic tours, routes, and discovery sessions,
and automatically tells geolocated stories about the places that surround us.
Download the app today, and start exploring!
Contact us if you would like to create your own content.
Report an error or inappropriate content.