Édouard Drumont

2025-10-11T22:23:06Z

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{{Short description|French antisemitic author and politician (1844–1917)}}
{{EngvarB|date=January 2020}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2020}}
[[File:Edouard Drumont BNF Gallica (cropped).jpg|thumb|Drumont in 1880]]

'''Édouard Adolphe Drumont''' (3 May 1844 – 5 February 1917) was a French journalist, author and politician, most often remembered for his [[antisemitic]] ideology and animus. He initiated the [[Antisemitic League of France]] in 1889, and was the founder and editor of the political newspaper ''[[La Libre Parole]]'' (founded in 1892). After spending years of research, he synthesised three major types of antisemitism. The first type was traditional Catholic attitudes toward the alien "[[Jewish deicide|Christ killers]]" augmented by vehement antipathy toward the [[French Revolution]]. The second type was [[Economic antisemitism|hostility toward capitalism]]. The third type was so-called [[scientific racism]], based on the argument that races have fixed characteristics, and asserting that Jews have [[Racial antisemitism|negative characteristics]].<ref>Richard S. Levy, ''Antisemitism: A historical encyclopedia of prejudice and persecution'' (2005) 1:191</ref> His work played a key role in catalyzing the [[Dreyfus Affair]].

Drumont's biographer, Grégoire Kauffmann, places Drumont within the [[counter-revolutionary]] tradition of [[Louis Veuillot]], [[Antoine Blanc de Saint-Bonnet]], and anti-modern Catholicism.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kauffmann |first1=Grégoire |title=Édouard Drumont |date=2008 |publisher=Perrin |page=425}}</ref> Socialist leader [[Jean Jaurès]] stated that "all the ideas and arguments of Drumont were taken from certain clerical opponents of the French Revolution.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hay |first1=Malcolm |title=Europe and the Jews: The Pressure of Christendom on the People of Israel for 1,900 Years |date=2005 |publisher=Chicago Review Press}}</ref>

==Early life==
Drumont was born in Paris in 1844 to a family of [[porcelain]] painters from [[Lille]]. His father died when he was seventeen, and he had to care for himself and earn his own livelihood from then onwards.<ref name="je">Deutsch, Gotthard, and A.M. Friedenberg. "[http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=496&letter=D DRUMONT, EDOUARD ADOLPHE], JewishEncyclopedia.com (accessed 9 November 2007).</ref> He attended high school at Lycée Charlemagne.

==Public career==
He first worked in government service and at one point became a police spy for [[Napoleon III]].<ref>{{cite journal| last=Anderson |first=Thomas P. |date=April 1967 |title= Édouard Drumont and the Origins of Modern Anti-Semitism |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25017912 |journal=The Catholic Historical Review |volume=53 |issue=1 |page=29|jstor=25017912 }}</ref> Later he became a contributor to the press and was the author of a number of works, of which ''[[Mon vieux Paris]]'' (1879) was honored by the [[Académie française]]. He also worked for [[Louis Veuillot]]'s ''L'Univers''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Arnoulin |first1=Stephane |title=M. Edouard Drumont et les Jesuites |date=1902 |publisher=Librairie des Deux-Mondes |pages=73–75}}</ref>
[[Image:18990910 Edouard Drumont and Libre Parole.jpg|thumb|Édouard Drumont, collage with the antisemitic newspaper he founded, ''La Libre Parole'' of 10 September 1899.<ref>the day after [[Resolution of the Dreyfus Affair#The verdict|Alfred Dreyfus had been convicted]] again on 9 September 1899 in Rennes</ref> The headlines read: "The Traitor Convicted, Ten Years of Detention and Degradation, Down with the Jews!"]]
Drumont's 1886 book, ''[[La France juive]]'' (''Jewish France''), attacked the role of [[Jew]]s in France and argued for their exclusion from society. In 1892, Drumont initiated the newspaper the ''[[La Libre Parole]]'' which became known for intense anti-semitism. [[Gaston Méry]] was soon made editor in chief due to his skill in exploiting scandalous affairs and his daring invective.

In 1893 he was convicted of defaming Deputy [[Auguste Burdeau]] by the Seine Court of Assizes, and sentenced to three months in [[Sainte-Pélagie Prison]] (3 November 1892–3 February 1893). In prison, he was put in the same area as [[Pierre Martinet (anarchist)|Pierre Martinet]], a founder of [[individualist anarchism]], and Lucien Pemjean, an anti-semite and future [[Vichy France|Nazi collaborator]].<ref name=":28">{{Cite news |last=Pemjean |first=Lucien |date=5 October 1941 |title=Edouard Drumont prisonnier des juifs |trans-title=Edouard Drumont prisoner of the Jews |work=Le Pays Réel |pages=1 |language=fr}}</ref> Upon his release, Drumont invited the anarchists, including Martinet, to a dinner at his home to celebrate his liberation, but they sang ''[[the Internationale]]'' and other anarchist songs, which displeased him — the two groups nearly came to blows.<ref name=":282">{{Cite news |last=Pemjean |first=Lucien |date=5 October 1941 |title=Edouard Drumont prisonnier des juifs |trans-title=Edouard Drumont prisoner of the Jews |work=Le Pays Réel |pages=1 |language=fr}}</ref> In 1898, Martinet posted a public notice criticizing Drumont’s conduct during their time in prison; he declared, for instance:<ref name=":29">{{Cite web |title=Anarchist Drumont - Wikisource, the free online library |url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Translation:Anarchist_Drumont |access-date=2025-04-12 |website=en.wikisource.org |language=en}}</ref>{{Citation bloc|text=As for me, I can say that there, I saved him from madness. His cell was above mine. Every night, he would knock on my ceiling with the handle of his broom, shouting to me:

— You, whose windows face the street, do you not see Jews coming to burn the jail?

— Rest assured, I replied, I see only the sentinel who watches over us.}}The newspaper took "France for the French" as its motto.<ref>{{citation|language=fr|journal=Loxias |volume=1 |year=2003 |last=Seillan|first=Jean-Marie |title=Nord contre Sud. Visages de l'antiméridionalisme dans la littérature française de la fin du XIXe siècle |url=http://revel.unice.fr/loxias/index.html?id=6|access-date=13 December 2017}}</ref>

The newspaper was skeptical of the anti-Catholic [[Taxil hoax]] before Taxil admitted it in 1897. It was the first paper to publish news of [[Alfred Dreyfus]]'s arrest, in an article titled "High Treason: The Jewish Traitor Alfred Dreyfus Arrested" in 1894.

Initially, Drumont was a supporter of [[Pope Leo XIII]] and his policy of ''[[ralliement]]'' in his [[encyclical]] of 1892, ''[[Au milieu des sollicitudes]]'' which called for French Catholics to embrace the Republic. He soon denounced this course and bitterly insulted the Pope, the Church, and any Catholic who supported it. In one editorial Drumont hoped for a "modern iron-fisted [[Guillaume de Nogaret|Nogaret]] for the modern [[Boniface VIII]]". In ''La Libre Parole'', Drumont's old friend Count [[Adrien Albert Marie de Mun]] and [[Apostolic Nunciature to France|Papal Nuncio]] Cardinal [[Domenico Ferrata]] were denounced like common criminals.<ref>{{cite journal| last=Byrnes | first=Robert F. |date= January 1949 |title=Antisemitism in France before the Dreyfus Affair |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4464787 |journal= Jewish Social Studies |volume=11 |issue=1 |page=64-65| jstor=4464787 }}</ref>

Drumont had many devotees.<ref>''[http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=28774 Drumont's Jewish disciple] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090209062949/http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=28774 |date=9 February 2009 }}'', 2 June 2008</ref> He exploited the [[Panama scandals|Panama Company scandal]]<ref>[[Arendt, Hannah]]. ''[[The Origins of Totalitarianism]]''. Harvest Books, 1973; {{ISBN|0-15-670153-7}}, pp. 95-99.</ref> and reached the maximum of his notoriety during the [[Dreyfus Affair]], in which he was the most strident accuser of [[Alfred Dreyfus]].<ref name=je/>

For his anti-Panama articles, Drumont was condemned to three months' imprisonment. In 1893, he was an unsuccessful candidate for [[Chamber of Deputies (France)|Deputy]] from [[Amiens]]; the next year he retired to [[Brussels]]. The Dreyfus affair helped him to regain popularity.

For the [[1898 French legislative election|French legislative election of May 1898]], the Anti-Jewish League of [[Max Régis]] endorsed Drumont as a candidate for Deputy from the first division of [[Algiers]].{{sfn|Benbassa|2001|p=145}} Drumont was elected triumphantly with 11,557 votes against 2,328 and 1,741 for his opponents.{{sfn|Bouveresse|2008|p=492}}
Of six [[French Algeria]]n Deputies elected, four were Anti-Jewish League.{{sfn|Zack|2005|p=594}}
Drumont represented Algiers in the Chamber of Deputies from 1898 to 1902. He was sued for accusing a Deputy of having accepted a bribe from the wealthy Jewish banker [[Édouard Alphonse de Rothschild]] to pass a piece of legislation the banker wanted.{{citation needed|date=July 2015}}

He was [[1902 French legislative election|defeated for re-election in April–May 1902]].<ref name=je/>

==Works==
* ''Mon vieux Paris'' (1878)
* ''Les Fêtes nationales à Paris'' (1878)
* ''Le Dernier des Trémolin'' (1879)
* ''Papiers inédits du Duc de Saint-Simon'' (1880)
* ''La Mort de Louis XIV'' (1880)
* ''La France juive'' ([[Jewish France]], 1886)
* ''La France Juive devant l'opinion'' (1886)
* ''La Fin d'un monde : Étude psychologique et sociale'' (1889)
* ''La Dernière Bataille'' (1890)
* ''Le Testament d'un antisémite'' (1891)
* ''Le Secret de Fourmies'' (1892)
* ''De l'or, de la boue, du sang : Du Panama à l'anarchie'' (1896)
* ''Mon vieux Paris. Deuxième série'' (1897)
* ''La Tyrannie maçonnique'' (1899)
* ''Les Juifs contre la France'' (1899)
* ''Les Tréteaux du succès. Figures de bronze ou statues de neige'' (1900)
* ''Les Tréteaux du succès. Les héros et les pitres'' (1900)
* ''Le Peuple juif'' (1900)
* ''Vieux portraits, vieux cadres'' (1903)
* ''Sur le chemin de la vie'' (1914)

==See also==
* [[Panama scandals]]
* [[Dreyfus Affair]]
* [[Jules Guérin]]
* [[Henry Coston]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
{{refbegin}}
*{{citation
|last=Benbassa|first=Esther|authorlink=Esther Benbassa|title=The Jews of France: A History from Antiquity to the Present
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G_00s10twe4C&pg=PA145|access-date=7 February 2016
|date=2 July 2001|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=1-4008-2314-5}}
*{{citation
|last=Bouveresse|first=Jacques|author-link=Jacques Bouveresse|title=Un parlement colonial: les délégations financières algériennes, 1898-1945
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bmVMk4-gPdUC&pg=PA492|access-date=7 February 2016
|year=2008|publisher=Publication Univ Rouen Havre|language=French|isbn=978-2-87775-876-5}}
*{{citation
|last=Zack|first=Lizabeth|title=Antisemitism: A Historical Encyclopedia of Prejudice and Persecution|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Tdn6FFZklkcC&pg=PA594|access-date=7 February 2016
|year=2005|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-85109-439-4|chapter=Regis, Max (1873-1950)}}
{{refend}}

==Further reading==
* Anderson, Thomas P. "Edouard Drumont and the Origins of Modern Anti-Semitism." ''Catholic Historical Review'' (1967): 28–42. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/25017912 in JSTOR]
* Busi, Frederick. ''The pope of antisemitism: the career and legacy of Edouard-Adolphe Drumont'' (University Press of America, 1986)
* Byrnes, R. F. "Edouard Drumont and La France Juive." ''Jewish Social Studies'' (1948): 165–184. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/4615301 in JSTOR]
* Isser, Natalie. ''Antisemitism during the French Second Empire'' (1991) [https://www.questia.com/library/1394665/antisemitism-during-the-french-second-empire online]
* Antonio Areddu, Vita e morte del marchese di Mores Antoine Manca (1858-1896), Cagliari, Condaghes, 2018

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Édouard Drumont |sopt=w}}
* [http://www.dreyfus.culture.fr/en/bio/bio-html-edouard-drumont.htm Dreyfus Rehabilitated] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130929190521/http://www.dreyfus.culture.fr/en/bio/bio-html-edouard-drumont.htm |date=29 September 2013 }}

{{French far right}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Drumont, Edouard}}
[[Category:1844 births]]
[[Category:1917 deaths]]
[[Category:Writers from Paris]]
[[Category:Members of the 7th Chamber of Deputies of the French Third Republic]]
[[Category:Members of Parliament for French Algeria]]
[[Category:Proto-fascists]]
[[Category:French far-right politicians]]
[[Category:French political writers]]
[[Category:French journalists]]
[[Category:French male non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:French conspiracy theorists]]
[[Category:Roman Catholic conspiracy theorists]]
[[Category:Far-right politics in France]]
[[Category:French duellists]]
[[Category:Late modern Christian antisemitism]]
[[Category:Antisemitism in France]]
[[Category:Antidreyfusards]]
[[Category:Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery]]

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Édouard Drumont