André Diethelm (3 July 1896 – 11 January 1954) was born in

Bourg-en-Bresse Bourg-en-Bresse (; frp, Bôrg) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Ain Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regions of France, region in Eastern France. Located northeast of Lyon, it is the capital of the ...

(

Ain Ain (, ; frp, En) is a department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in Eastern France. Named after the Ain river, it is bordered by the Saône and Rhône rivers. Ain is located on the country's eastern edge, on the Swiss border, where it ...

department) and was a

French Resistance The French Resistance (french: La Résistance) was a collection of organisations that fought the German occupation of France during World War II, Nazi occupation of France and the Collaborationism, collaborationist Vichy France, Vichy régim ...

fighter and politician. As an

Inspector General of Finance Inspector, also police inspector or inspector of police, is a police rank. The rank or position varies in seniority depending on the organization that uses it. Australia In Australian police forces, the rank of inspector is generally the ne ...

, he joined

General de Gaulle Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (; ; (commonly abbreviated as CDG) 22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French army officer and statesman who led Free France against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government ...

and

Free France Free France (french: France Libre) was a political entity that claimed to be the legitimate government of France following the dissolution of the Third Republic. Led by French general , Free France was established as a government-in-exile ...

during the Second World War, and presided over the

Rally of the French People The Rally of the French People (french: Rassemblement du Peuple Français, RPF) was a French political party, led by Charles de Gaulle. Foundation The RPF was founded by Charles de Gaulle in Strasbourg on 14 April 1947, one year after his resign ...

political party ( (RPF)) under the Fourth Republic.

Early life and education

He pursued a secondary education in

Foix Foix (; oc, Fois ; ca, Foix ) is a commune, the former capital of the County of Foix. It is the capital of the department of Ariège as it is the seat of the Préfecture of that department. Foix is located in the Occitanie region of southwe ...

. He was admitted to the prestigious

École normale supérieure École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Savoi ...

in Paris in 1914, but the war interrupted his studies just as they began.

Career

Diethelm fought in the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, in

Alsace Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it had ...

, on the Eastern front, and in Greece. After the war, he returned to the École normale supérieure but in 1919 he gave up taking the competitive civil service exam, preferring to go for the competitive exam for the Inspectorate General of Finances, in which he came in second. He was in charge of the finances of

Indochina Mainland Southeast Asia, also known as the Indochinese Peninsula or Indochina, is the continental portion of Southeast Asia. It lies east of the Indian subcontinent and south of Mainland China and is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the west an ...

, then became director of

Georges Mandel Georges Mandel (5 June 1885 – 7 July 1944) was a French journalist, politician, and French Resistance leader. Early life Born Louis George Rothschild in Chatou, Yvelines, he was the son of a tailor and his wife. His family was Jewish, originally ...

's cabinet from 1938 to 1940.

French Resistance

Joining Free France, he was appointed commissioner for the Interior, Labour and Information, by de Gaulle, then for Finance and Pensions, and finally for Finance, the Economy and the Merchant Navy under the

French National Committee The French National Committee (french: Comité national français, CNF) was the coordinating body created by General Charles de Gaulle which acted as the government in exile of Free France from 1941 to 1943. The committee was the successor of ...

in 1941–1943. He was the first director of the . Comité national français

In the government of Algiers (

French Committee of National Liberation The French Committee of National Liberation (french: Comité français de Libération nationale) was a provisional government of Free France formed by the French generals Henri Giraud and Charles de Gaulle to provide united leadership, organiz ...

, CFLN), he was commissioner for Production and Commerce, then for Supply and Production. On 4 April 1944, he became War Commissioner. And on 9 September 1944, Minister of War in the through 21 November 1945. Deputy of the

Vosges The Vosges ( , ; german: Vogesen ; Franconian and gsw, Vogese) are a range of low mountains in Eastern France, near its border with Germany. Together with the Palatine Forest to the north on the German side of the border, they form a single ...

in the , he then sat on the Council of the Republic from 1948 to 1951. Then he was deputy for the

Seine-et-Oise Seine-et-Oise () was the former department of France encompassing the western, northern and southern parts of the metropolitan area of Paris.Jacques Soustelle Jacques Soustelle (3 February 1912 – 6 August 1990) was an important and early figure of the Free French Forces, a politician who served in the French National Assembly and at one time served as Governor General of Algeria, an anthropologist s ...

as President of the

(RPF) faction in the National Assembly, then chaired the (URAS). Sickness forced him to give up his post, which was taken over by

Jacques Chaban-Delmas Jacques Chaban-Delmas (; 7 March 1915 – 10 November 2000) was a French Gaullist politician. He served as Prime Minister under Georges Pompidou from 1969 to 1972. He was the Mayor of Bordeaux from 1947 to 1995 and a deputy for the Gironde ''d� ...

. President

Vincent Auriol Vincent Jules Auriol (; 27 August 1884 – 1 January 1966) was a French politician who served as President of France from 1947 to 1954. Early life and politics Auriol was born in Revel, Haute-Garonne, as the only child of Jacques Antoine Aurio ...

asked him to form a government on 24 May 1953, but he refused.

Death

Diethelm died on 11 January 1954 in Paris.

References

Works cited

External links

National Library of France

2004046071 VIAF

(LCNAF) {{DEFAULTSORT:Diethelm, Andre 1896 births 1954 deaths Politicians from Bourg-en-Bresse Rally of the French People politicians National Centre of Social Republicans politicians French Ministers of Finance Members of the Constituent Assembly of France (1945) French senators of the Fourth Republic Deputies of the 2nd National Assembly of the French Fourth Republic French nationalists Inspection générale des finances (France) École Normale Supérieure alumni French Army officers French military personnel of World War I World War II political leaders