Alphonse Van Bredenbeck de Châteaubriant (; 25 March 1877 – 2 May 1951) was a French
writer
A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles, genres and techniques to communicate ideas, to inspire feelings and emotions, or to entertain. Writers may develop different forms of writing such as novels, short sto ...
who won the
Prix Goncourt
The Prix Goncourt ( , "The Goncourt Prize") is a prize in French literature, given by the académie Goncourt to the author of "the best and most imaginative prose work of the year". The prize carries a symbolic reward of only 10 euros, but resul ...
in 1911 for his novel ''Monsieur de Lourdines'' and
Grand prix du roman de l'Académie française for ''
La Brière'' in 1923.
After a visit to Germany in 1935 he became an enthusiastic advocate for
Nazism
Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During Hitler's rise to power, it was fre ...
.
Along with other
Breton nationalists he supported
fascist
Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural soci ...
and
anti-semitic ideas in opposition to the French state. In 1940 he founded the pro-Nazi weekly newspaper
La Gerbe and served as President of the
Groupe Collaboration.
[David Littlejohn, '' The Patriotic Traitors'', Heinemann, 1972, p. 222] During World War II, he was a member of the central committee of the ''
Légion des Volontaires Français contre le Bolchévisme'', an organisation founded in 1941 by
Fernand de Brinon
Fernand de Brinon, Marquis de Brinon (; 26 August 1885 – 15 April 1947) was a French lawyer and journalist who was one of the architects of French collaboration with the Nazism, Nazis during World War II. He claimed to have had five private tal ...
and
Jacques Doriot to recruit volunteers to fight alongside the Germans
in the USSR. In 1945 he fled to
Austria
Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...
, where he lived under the alias Dr. Alfred Wolf until his death at a monastery in
Kitzbühel.
Works
* 1908: ''Le Baron de Puydreau'' (novella)
* 1909: ''Monsieur de Buysse'' (novella)
* 1911: ''
Monsieur des Lourdines'' (novel -
Prix Goncourt
The Prix Goncourt ( , "The Goncourt Prize") is a prize in French literature, given by the académie Goncourt to the author of "the best and most imaginative prose work of the year". The prize carries a symbolic reward of only 10 euros, but resul ...
)
* 1923: ''
La Brière'' (novel -
Grand prix du roman de l'Académie française)
* 1927: ''La Meute''
* 1928: ''Locronan''
* 1933: ''La Réponse du Seigneur''
* 1937: ''La Gerbe des forces''
* 1937: ''Le bouquet fané''
* 1938: ''Les pas ont chanté''
* 1953: ''...Des saisons et des jours... Journal de l'auteur, 1911-1924''
* 2004: ''Fragments d'une confession – La sainteté''
References
External links
*
1877 births
1951 deaths
Writers from Rennes
French Roman Catholics
Groupe Collaboration members
French fascists
Christian fascists
20th-century French writers
20th-century French male writers
Catholicism and far-right politics
Prix Goncourt winners
Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française winners
People convicted of indignité nationale
{{France-nonfiction-writer-stub
Nazis sentenced to death in absentia by France