Dismissal of war minister Adolphe Messimy
- Category:
- Politics
- Date:
- 26 August 1914
- Author:
- Łukasz Skowroń
- Tags:
- France, René Viviani, Raymond Poincaré
On 26 August 1914 the French war minister Adolphe Messimy, who had headed the ministry since mid-June 1914, lost his post. That day Prime Minister René Viviani reshuffled his government, and the war ministry was taken over by Alexandre Millerand.
Minister of the first weeks of the war
Messimy was an officer by training. He had graduated from Saint-Cyr and served in the Chasseurs Alpins, but in 1899 he left the army, shaken by the Dreyfus affair. As a Radical deputy he dealt with military and colonial affairs. He had already been war minister in 1911–1912, and it was he who appointed Joseph Joffre Chief of the General Staff. He also tried, without success, to replace the traditional red trousers of the French infantry with a less conspicuous uniform.
In August 1914 he directed mobilisation and the switch of the country onto a war footing. The defeats of the Battle of the Frontiers, news of which the high command passed to the government reluctantly and late, undermined his position. Messimy’s last important decision was the appointment of General Gallieni as military governor of Paris.
A government of national unity
The change did not stem only from setbacks at the front. Viviani and President Raymond Poincaré wanted to broaden the government with the best-known politicians of various camps, to give real shape to the “sacred union” (union sacrée) proclaimed at the start of the war. The cabinet was joined by, among others, Aristide Briand as minister of justice and Alexandre Ribot as minister of finance, and, for the first time, by socialists: Jules Guesde as minister without portfolio and Marcel Sembat as minister of public works. The foreign ministry went to Théophile Delcassé.
Messimy, whom his colleagues considered too impetuous and outspoken, had to make way for Millerand. He was offered the post of minister without portfolio but refused, unwilling to take part in a purely political operation.
At the front
Messimy returned to the army as a reserve officer. He served at the front throughout the war, commanding in turn a battalion, a regiment and a brigade; he was twice wounded and many times decorated. Towards the end of the war, by then a general, he commanded the 162nd Infantry Division. After the war he became a senator. He died in 1935, and his memoirs were published posthumously.
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Related events
(04)The same battle, people or subject.
- 27 August 1914 · PoliticsAlexandre Millerand becomes French minister of warOn 27 August 1914 Alexandre Millerand was named minister of war. He replaced Messimy in Viviani's reshuffled government, a government of national unity.
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- 2 September 1914 · Western FrontFrench government moves to BordeauxOn the night of 2–3 September 1914 President Poincaré and Viviani's government left Paris, threatened by the Germans, and moved to Bordeaux.
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