Raymond Poincaré

Biography

Raymond Poincaré was born in Bar-le-Duc in Lorraine in 1860, the son of a senior civil servant and a cousin of the mathematician Henri Poincaré. He studied law in Paris, was called to the Paris bar, and became known as a lawyer and law editor; among his cases he defended Jules Verne against a libel suit. In 1887, aged 26, he was elected deputy for the Meuse, and he built a reputation as a financial expert on the Chamber's budget committees.

He was minister of education in 1893 and again in 1895, minister of finance in 1894-1895 and in 1906, and in 1902 helped found the Democratic Republican Alliance, the main centre-right party of the Third Republic. Becoming prime minister and foreign minister in January 1912, he worked to strengthen the alliance with Russia against Germany and visited Saint Petersburg that summer.

Elected President of the Republic in 1913, he tried to give the office real influence in foreign policy. He was returning from a state visit to Russia when the July Crisis broke in 1914, and when Germany declared war he called for a 'sacred union' of all parties. After Georges Clemenceau, his long-standing rival, became prime minister in 1917 his influence declined; at the peace conference he argued for Allied control of the Rhineland.

Poincaré returned as prime minister in 1922. Frustrated by Germany's failure to pay reparations, he ordered the occupation of the Ruhr in January 1923, and his government lost the 1924 elections. Recalled during a financial crisis in 1926, he served as prime minister and finance minister, stabilised the franc and returned it to the gold standard, before ill health forced his resignation in July 1929. He died in Paris in 1934.