Auguste Burdeau, born very poor in Lyon in 1851, was placed at ten with a silk weaver. He taught himself, in the evenings, and the École normale supérieure admitted him in 1870. Having become a professor of philosophy, he was elected deputy, budget rapporteur, Minister of the Navy and then of Finance, and raised on 5 July 1894 to the presidency of the Chamber. He died five months later, at forty-three.
The story
Born in Lyons on 10 September 1851 into a very poor family, Auguste Burdeau was put out at ten as an apprentice silk weaver. He taught himself in the evenings and entered the École normale supérieure in 1870: the infant Republic had just opened that road.
A professor of philosophy and a disciple of Kant, whom he translated, he taught at Nancy, where the young Maurice Barrès sat in his class — and later drew him, under the name Bouteiller, as the savage portrait of the Kantian civil servant in Les Déracinés.
Elected deputy for the Rhône in 1885, he became one of the great budget rapporteurs, then Navy Minister in 1892-1893 and Finance Minister in 1893-1894.
On 5 July 1894 he was elected President of the Chamber of Deputies: the former weaver's apprentice now presided over the assembly that made and unmade governments.
He died five months later, on 12 December 1894, at forty-three. He rests in Division 65, avenue Circulaire, first row, beneath a bronze by Alfred Boucher in which Fame, the allegory of renown, stands at the foot of the stele and carves his name into it.
The grave
A monument in two stages: a bust signed Alfred Boucher and dated 1901, seven years after the death, and a life-size bronze statue depicting Fame in the act of inscribing the deceased's name on the stele. The inscription lists the career: “Auguste BURDEAU, 1851-1894. Deputy for the Rhône, Minister of the Navy 1892, Minister of Finance 1893, President of the Chamber of Deputies 1894.” Four lines for nine years of public life.
On site, do not miss
The bronze statue: a woman engraves the dead man's name on the stone. Fame at work — a monument that stages itself in the act of making the memory it celebrates.
Visitors' questions
Where is Auguste Burdeau's grave?
In Division 65, avenue Circulaire, first row. You know it by its life-size bronze statue: a woman, Fame, carving the dead man's name on the stele. The bust is by Alfred Boucher, 1901.
Jean de BrunhoffWhat offices did Auguste Burdeau hold?
Deputy for the Rhône from 1885, Minister of the Navy in 1892-1893, Minister of Finance in 1893-1894, then President of the Chamber of Deputies on 5 July 1894 — five months before his death, at forty-three.
Pierre TirardWas Burdeau really apprenticed as a weaver?
Yes, put to work at ten in the Lyon silk trade, in a family that had nothing. He taught himself and entered the École Normale Supérieure in 1870: his rise is the textbook case of nineteenth-century republican meritocracy.
Louis BlancWhat was his connection with Maurice Barrès?
Barrès had been his pupil at Nancy. The writer later drew from him, under the name Bouteiller, the savage portrait of the uprooted Kantian schoolmaster in Les Déracinés: the disciple turned his master into a character built for the prosecution.
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