Maurice Herzog
 Maurice Herzog    (mountaineer, politician) | ||||||||||||
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| Born | Maurice Herzog 15 January 1919 Lyon, France | |||||||||||
| Died | 13 December 2012 (Age 93) Neuilly-sur-Seine, France | |||||||||||
| Nationality | French | |||||||||||
| Alma mater | HEC Paris | |||||||||||
| Children | • Laurent • Felicité • Mathias • Sébastien | |||||||||||
| Spouse | Marie-Pierre de Cossé-Brissac | |||||||||||
| Party | Union pour la nouvelle République, Union des démocrates pour la Cinquième République | |||||||||||
Single Bilderberger French mountaineer and politician who attended the 1974 Bilderberg meeting, which was held close to Chamonix, where he was Mayor.
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Maurice André Raymond Herzog[1][2][3] was a French mountaineer and politician who was born in Lyon, France. He led the 1950 French Annapurna expedition that first climbed a peak over 8000m, Annapurna, in 1950, and reached the summit with Louis Lachenal. Upon his return, he wrote a best-selling book about the expedition.
His achievements were cast in doubt by a posthumously published book by Lachenal, and by a scathingly critical book by his own daughter.
Herzog went on to become the French Minister of Youth and Sport from 1958 to 1963, and mayor of the alpine town of Chamonix-Mont-Blanc. He was a member of the International Olympic Committee for 25 years from 1970, and has an honorary member after 1995. He was a Grand Officer of the Legion d'Honneur and holder of the Croix de Guerre for military service 1939–45.[4]
He attended the 1974 Bilderberg meeting, which was held close to Chamonix, where he was Mayor.
Contents
Education
Herzog was a 1944 graduate of the French business school HEC Paris.[5] During World War II, Herzog was a member of the Resistance, which operated in the Alps.[6]
Political career
He was High Commissioner, then Secretary of State for Youth and Sports from 1958 to 1966, and General de Gaulle's confidant in order to develop the practice of sport to train champions who would be the representatives of a strong France outside the borders. He was also the key figure in the rapid development of the network of youth and cultural centers in the 1960s and behind the creation of outdoor and leisure bases.[3]
He was Mayor of Chamonix (1968-1977), after having failed in 1965 to become mayor of Lyon, vice-president of the UDR party, member of parliament for the Rhône (1962), then of Haute-Savoie (1967-1978), he He was also chairman of the Mont-Blanc tunnel company (STMB, between 1981 and 1984) as well as chairman and member of the boards of directors of construction and petroleum products companies.
Maurice Herzog was a member of the International Olympic Committee from 1970 to 1994.
Annapurna dispute
His best-selling book has since caused controversy, and a different view of the events and Maurice Herzog's role can be read in the posthumously complete edition of Louis Lachenal's journal, Carnets du vertige (1956, then complete in 1996). According to Lachenal, Herzog had "a very limited sense of organization", but he was "an extraordinary leader" whose physical resistance and mountaineering technique surprised "the three professionals of the team" (Lachenal, Rébuffat and Terray)[7]. Lachenal wrote that he only continued the highly risky ascent because Herzog, who wanted to reach the summit at all costs, would have gone on alone, which would have meant certain death.[8]
Daughter's book
In a book published in 2012, Maurice Herzog's daughter, Félicité Herzog, questions the legendary figure of her father[9]. She shares her doubts about the ascent of Annapurna and suspects “an unavowable pact” between Herzog and Lachenal, “united for the worse in a roped lie, and the construction of what will become a national myth”.
She seeks in this affair and the behavior of her father (whom she considers megalomaniac, sexually obsessed, incestuous and anti-Semitic, close to Jean-Marie Le Pen) the explanations for the death of her brother Laurent, probably of heart trouble falling from the stairway in the family chateau, schizophrenic, "brought up in the cult of an idealized father"[10]. She declared a month after the first edition by Grasset that her book was only a fruit of her imagination[11]. It is nevertheless reissued in paperback, as is the custom a year later, maintaining the same facts and questions. According to Liberation, Maurice Herzog declared after having read it: “It was not my daughter who wrote it”.
Having spent his last years in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Herzog died three months after the publication of his daughter's book. His funeral took place on December 20, 2012 in Chamonix, a town of which he had been mayor.
Event Participated in
| Event | Start | End | Location(s) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bilderberg/1974 | 19 April 1974 | 21 April 1974 | France Hotel Mont d' Arbois Megève | The 23rd Bilderberg, held in France |
References
- ↑ http://www.ledauphine.com/france-monde/2012/12/14/mort-dfe-maurice-herzog
- ↑ L'alpiniste et ancien ministre Maurice Herzog est mort
- ↑ a b Maurice Herzog : la légende et ses failles
- ↑ Latorre Torres, Ferrán (2002). Conversaciones con Maurice Herzog. Paris, France: Ediciones Desnivel. ISBN 978-84-95760-36-4.
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20100102043427/http://www.hec.fr/Actualites/Les-rubriques-de-la-page-d-accueil/Un-diplome-a-la-Une/Maurice-Herzog-HEC-1944M
- ↑ Charlie Buffet, Maurice Herzog archive Le Monde 16-17 December 2012 p. 25
- ↑ Louis Lachenal, Carnets du Vertige, Chamonix, Guérin, 1996, p. 297.
- ↑ David Roberts, Annapurna, une affaire de cordée, éditions Guérin, mai 2000
- ↑ Félicité Herzog, Un héros Paris, éditions Grasset, 2012, 304 p.
- ↑ Pascale Nivelle, Félicité Herzog, chute de père archive, Libération.fr, 20 September 2012
- ↑ Félicité Herzog on the show La Grande Librairie - François Busnel, France 5, 27 September 2012
