Auguste Alburt Prudent Detœuf (6 August 1883 – 11 April 1947) was a French economist, essayist, and industrialist.

Biography

Early life and education

Auguste Detœuf studied at Polytechnique University (class of 1902), then became a general engineer for roads and bridges.

Career

He began working in 1908 at the hydraulic works of the navy in

Cherbourg Cherbourg (; , , ), nrf, Chèrbourg, ) is a former commune and subprefecture located at the northern end of the Cotentin peninsula in the northwestern French department of Manche. It was merged into the commune of Cherbourg-Octeville on 28 Feb ...

. He was then appointed to Le Havre in 1912. He became interested in the problems of port operations and implemented his ideas during the First World War. He was then assigned to the technical commission for navigable waterways. From director of the port of

Strasbourg Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...

, he became general manager of Thomson-Houston. From 1928 to 1940, he was the first chairman of

Alstom Alstom SA is a French multinational rolling stock manufacturer operating worldwide in rail transport markets, active in the fields of passenger transportation, signalling, and locomotives, with products including the AGV, TGV, Eurostar, Avelia ...

. Involved in the upheavals of his time, Detœuf gave a famous speech in 1936 to the X-Crise group entitled "The end of liberalism". In 1938, he took part in the Walter Lippmann colloquium where, on certain themes, he opposed Ludwig von Mises. He is also one of the founders of the magazine Nouveaux Cahiers, which campaigns for the rapprochement of employers with trade unions. Under the Occupation, Detœuf was president of one of the "organizing committees" created by the Vichy regime, that of the electrical construction industries. He is also a member of the Economic Studies Council, which meets twice a month with the Minister of the Economy in Vichy. 1883 births 1947 deaths 20th-century French economists École Polytechnique alumni French industrialists People of the French Third Republic French male essayists 20th-century French essayists 20th-century French male writers {{France-academic-bio-stub