Maurice Herzog

From Wikispooks
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Person.png Maurice Herzog  Rdf-entity.pngRdf-icon.png
(mountaineer, politician)
Maurice Herzog.jpg
BornMaurice Herzog
15 January 1919
Lyon, France
Died13 December 2012 (Age 93)
Neuilly-sur-Seine, France
NationalityFrench
Alma materHEC Paris
Children • Laurent
• Felicité
• Mathias
• Sébastien
SpouseMarie-Pierre de Cossé-Brissac
PartyUnion 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.

Employment.png Member of the French Parliament Wikipedia-icon.png

In office
6 December 1962 - 11 July 1963

Employment.png Member of the French Parliament Wikipedia-icon.png

In office
3 April 1967 - 2 April 1978
Preceded byDiomède Catroux
Succeeded byLaurent Fabius

Employment.png France/Minister/Youth and Sport

In office
1958 - 1966
also Minister for Youth

Employment.png Mayor of Chamonix

In office
1968 - 20 March 1977

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.

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

EventStartEndLocation(s)Description
Bilderberg/197419 April 197421 April 1974France
Hotel Mont d' Arbois
Megève
The 23rd Bilderberg, held in France
Many thanks to our Patrons who cover ~2/3 of our hosting bill. Please join them if you can.


References

  1. http://www.ledauphine.com/france-monde/2012/12/14/mort-dfe-maurice-herzog
  2. L'alpiniste et ancien ministre Maurice Herzog est mort
  3. a b Maurice Herzog : la légende et ses failles
  4. Latorre Torres, Ferrán (2002). Conversaciones con Maurice Herzog. Paris, France: Ediciones Desnivel. ISBN 978-84-95760-36-4.
  5. 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
  6. Charlie Buffet, Maurice Herzog archive Le Monde 16-17 December 2012 p. 25
  7. Louis Lachenal, Carnets du Vertige, Chamonix, Guérin, 1996, p. 297.
  8. David Roberts, Annapurna, une affaire de cordée, éditions Guérin, mai 2000
  9. Félicité Herzog, Un héros Paris, éditions Grasset, 2012, 304 p.
  10. Pascale Nivelle, Félicité Herzog, chute de père archive, Libération.fr, 20 September 2012
  11. Félicité Herzog on the show La Grande Librairie - François Busnel, France 5, 27 September 2012