Léo Lagrange
Encyclopedia
Léo Lagrange was a French Under-Secretary of State for Sports and for the Organisation of Leisure during the Popular Front
(1936-1938). A member of the Éclaireurs de France scouting association during his youth, he joined the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO, socialist party) after the split at the Tours party congress in 1920 and wrote articles in Populaire
(Popular), the press organ of the SFIO. Elected official appointed in 1932 at the time of the second Coalition of the left
, he was then named under-secretary of State in the Popular Front government of Léon Blum
. He participated in the organisation of the People's Olympiad
in Barcelona, organized to counter the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin which were used as a propaganda instrument of Nazism
.
(December 1920), he joined the SFIO, directed by Paul Faure, Jean Longuet
and Léon Blum
and joined the Socialist students' organisation.
Having obtained his law degree, he registered in 1922 at the bar of Paris. Affected by the horrors of World War I, he reserved in particular his services to victims of tuberculosis
, of lung diseases and of poison gas
. He married Madeleine Veiller in 1925. The following year, he met André Malraux
and Jean Prévost
. Léo Lagrange mixed then with the intellectual movement of the 1930s, being linked with a number of writers, historians, artists and scientists. He became a writer with the newspaper Le Populaire, the press organ of the SFIO, and held there a chronique on legal topics.
He stood in the legislative elections in 1928
, in the XIe district of Paris but was defeated. At the time of the elections of May 1932, he was designated as a socialist candidate looking to win back the first district of Avesnes-sur-Helpe
, in the Nord. At the public meetings, he stressed the need, for the working class, to be informed and organized if it wanted to lead one day. After the February 6, 1934 riots organised by far-right leagues, the Cartel des gauches
was toppled. For the first time in the history of the Third Republic
(1871-1940), threats of a right-wing coup d'état had been enough to overthrow a democratically elected government. Following this event, many people on the left believed in a fascist conspiracy to topple the Republic. Thus, they started organising in anti-fascist groups, preparing in advance the Comintern
's Popular Front
strategy.
Following the victory of the Popular Front at the 1936 legislative elections, Léo Lagrange was then named under-secretary of State for Sport and given responsibility for the organisation of Leisure, under the authority of the Minister for Public Health Henri Sellier.
It was the first time that France had such a state secretary, and the Popular Front enacted the first paid holidays
(2 weeks), among other social reforms.
His mandate was not addressed exclusively to youth but to all of society. He was focused nevertheless on the young because they constituted the future of society. Léo Lagrange strongly opposed the fascist model of sport, which transformed it into a substitute for belligerent activities and instrumentalized it in a militarist manner. To the contrary, Léo Lagrange advocated a conception of sports based on anti-militarism and on the fulfillment of individual personality:
He dedicated himself in developing sporting, tourist and cultural leisure, but he opposed the professionalisation of sports, creating an elitist
caste of sportsmen, and was against their development in France. He was at the origin of the creation of the popular leisure pass which grants 40% of reduction on rail-bound transports, while he encouraged and impelled the movement of youth hostels. 1936 in France was witness, under the Popular Front, to the first departures towards snow resorts with special trains and reduced fares on the cable cars; popular cruises were also later introduced.
Léo Lagrange also played a major role in the co-organisation of the People's Olympiad
in Barcelona with the Spanish Second Republic. Nazi Germany
had managed to gain the right to organise the Olympic Games in Berlin, against Barcelona, but anti-fascists refused to participate in these Games and went on with their own project. The trials for these popular Olympiads proceeded on July 4, 1936 in the Pershing stadium in Paris, which had been built in June 1919. Léo Lagrange chaired these days in person, along with Minister of Transport Pierre Cot
, André Malraux
, who later fought in the International Brigades
, and other figures of the Popular Front. Through their club, the FSGT, or individually, 1.200 French athletes were registered with these anti-fascist Olympiads.
But Blum finally decided not to vote for the funds to pay the athletes' expenses. A communist deputy declared: "Going to Berlin, is making oneself am accomplice of the torturers...." Nevertheless, on July 9, when the whole of the French right voted “for” the participation of France in the Olympic Games of Berlin, whilst the left (French Communist Party
included) abstained itself — with the particularly notable exception of Pierre Mendès France, who would become Prime Minister under the Fourth Republic
and negotiate the peace agreements
with the Viet-minh in Indochina
in 1954. The Communist Party had been, before this vote, a main supporter of the People's Olympiad.
Nevertheless, several French sportsmen decided to boycott the Berlin OG anyway, and go to Barcelona where the People's Olympiads were scheduled to begin on 19 July 1936. Each stop in the train stations were the occasion of popular and joyful demonstrations, with people singing The Internationale
. However, on the eve of the opening ceremony, General Franco
's military pronunciamento, declared from Spanish Morocco
, started the Spanish Civil War
(1936-1939).
After having left the under-secretary's department, Léo Lagrante then became president of the laic Committee of the youth hostels. With the 1939 declaration of war, although a deputy, he voluntarily joined the military command, before being killed on June 9, 1940 in Évergnicourt
by shrapnel.
Léo Lagrange, who was opposed to professional sports and was against their development in France, had been:
was instrumentalizing sports for a militarist end, while the SFIO had denounced it as a "bourgeois" and "reactionary
" activity. That is, until the Popular Front, when it began to use it as a military and patriotic preparation, in anticipation of a conflict with Nazi Germany. Some SFIO members were not immune to the scientific racism
discourse of the times. Thus, Georges Barthélémy, SFIO deputy, could declare that sport contributes to the "improvement of relations between capital and labour, henceforth to the elimination of the concept of class struggle
," in a perfect corporatist conception. Barthélémy also considered sport as a "mean to prevent the moral and physical degeneration
of the race." In this light, as well as in the modern professionalisation and mediatization of sports, Léo Lagrange's conception takes all its sense, both in opposition to his times and in its modernity.
Popular Front (France)
The Popular Front was an alliance of left-wing movements, including the French Communist Party , the French Section of the Workers' International and the Radical and Socialist Party, during the interwar period...
(1936-1938). A member of the Éclaireurs de France scouting association during his youth, he joined the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO, socialist party) after the split at the Tours party congress in 1920 and wrote articles in Populaire
Populaire
Le Populaire was the press organ of the French Section of the Workers' International party.The Populaire was a French automobile manufactured only in 1899. A light rear-engined voiturette, it featured three-seater bodywork....
(Popular), the press organ of the SFIO. Elected official appointed in 1932 at the time of the second Coalition of the left
Cartel des Gauches
The Cartel des gauches was the name of the governmental alliance between the Radical-Socialist Party and the socialist French Section of the Workers' International after World War I , which lasted until the end of the Popular Front . The Cartel des gauches twice won general elections, in 1924 and...
, he was then named under-secretary of State in the Popular Front government of Léon Blum
Léon Blum
André Léon Blum was a French politician, usually identified with the moderate left, and three times the Prime Minister of France.-First political experiences:...
. He participated in the organisation of the People's Olympiad
People's Olympiad
The People's Olympiad was a planned international multi-sport event that was intended to take place in Barcelona, the capital of the autonomous region of Catalonia within the Spanish Republic...
in Barcelona, organized to counter the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin which were used as a propaganda instrument of Nazism
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
.
Biography
As a child, he was registered with the Éclaireurs de France, a scouting movement which had no religious affiliation. At the end of his studies at the Lycée Henri-IV, in August 1917, he joined the army. On his return, he was registered in the Faculty of Law and at the Institute of political sciences. Shortly after the Tours CongressTours Congress
The Tours Congress was the 18th National Congress of the French Section of the Workers' International, or SFIO, which took place in Tours on 25—30 December 1920...
(December 1920), he joined the SFIO, directed by Paul Faure, Jean Longuet
Jean Longuet
Jean-Laurent-Frederick Longuet was a French socialist and Karl Marx's grandson.Son of Charles and Jenny Longuet. French lawyer and Socialist who in the First World War held a pacifist position but invariably voted for war credits. Founder and editor of the newspaper Le Populaire...
and Léon Blum
Léon Blum
André Léon Blum was a French politician, usually identified with the moderate left, and three times the Prime Minister of France.-First political experiences:...
and joined the Socialist students' organisation.
Having obtained his law degree, he registered in 1922 at the bar of Paris. Affected by the horrors of World War I, he reserved in particular his services to victims of tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
, of lung diseases and of poison gas
Poison gas in World War I
The use of chemical weapons in World War I ranged from disabling chemicals, such as tear gas and the severe mustard gas, to lethal agents like phosgene and chlorine. This chemical warfare was a major component of the first global war and first total war of the 20th century. The killing capacity of...
. He married Madeleine Veiller in 1925. The following year, he met André Malraux
André Malraux
André Malraux DSO was a French adventurer, award-winning author, and statesman. Having traveled extensively in Indochina and China, Malraux was noted especially for his novel entitled La Condition Humaine , which won the Prix Goncourt...
and Jean Prévost
Jean Prévost
Jean Prévost was a French writer , journalist, and Resistance fighter.Born in Saint-Pierre-lès-Nemours, Prévost was educated at the primary school in Montivilliers. near Rouen, where his father was principal. In 1911, he moved to the prestidigious Lycée Pierre Corneille in Rouen...
. Léo Lagrange mixed then with the intellectual movement of the 1930s, being linked with a number of writers, historians, artists and scientists. He became a writer with the newspaper Le Populaire, the press organ of the SFIO, and held there a chronique on legal topics.
He stood in the legislative elections in 1928
French legislative election, 1928
Legislative elections in France to elect the 14th legislature of the French Third Republic were held on 22 and 29 April 1928.-Popular Vote:-Parliamentary Groups:...
, in the XIe district of Paris but was defeated. At the time of the elections of May 1932, he was designated as a socialist candidate looking to win back the first district of Avesnes-sur-Helpe
Avesnes-sur-Helpe
Avesnes-sur-Helpe is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department Nord-Pas Calais. Avesnes-sur-Helpe is known as "the little Switzerland of the north." This region is filled with spacious country parks areas and leisure facilities, including Val...
, in the Nord. At the public meetings, he stressed the need, for the working class, to be informed and organized if it wanted to lead one day. After the February 6, 1934 riots organised by far-right leagues, the Cartel des gauches
Cartel des Gauches
The Cartel des gauches was the name of the governmental alliance between the Radical-Socialist Party and the socialist French Section of the Workers' International after World War I , which lasted until the end of the Popular Front . The Cartel des gauches twice won general elections, in 1924 and...
was toppled. For the first time in the history of the Third Republic
French Third Republic
The French Third Republic was the republican government of France from 1870, when the Second French Empire collapsed due to the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, to 1940, when France was overrun by Nazi Germany during World War II, resulting in the German and Italian occupations of France...
(1871-1940), threats of a right-wing coup d'état had been enough to overthrow a democratically elected government. Following this event, many people on the left believed in a fascist conspiracy to topple the Republic. Thus, they started organising in anti-fascist groups, preparing in advance the Comintern
Comintern
The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern, also known as the Third International, was an international communist organization initiated in Moscow during March 1919...
's Popular Front
Popular front
A popular front is a broad coalition of different political groupings, often made up of leftists and centrists. Being very broad, they can sometimes include centrist and liberal forces as well as socialist and communist groups...
strategy.
Following the victory of the Popular Front at the 1936 legislative elections, Léo Lagrange was then named under-secretary of State for Sport and given responsibility for the organisation of Leisure, under the authority of the Minister for Public Health Henri Sellier.
It was the first time that France had such a state secretary, and the Popular Front enacted the first paid holidays
Labour and employment law
Labour law is the body of laws, administrative rulings, and precedents which address the legal rights of, and restrictions on, working people and their organizations. As such, it mediates many aspects of the relationship between trade unions, employers and employees...
(2 weeks), among other social reforms.
His mandate was not addressed exclusively to youth but to all of society. He was focused nevertheless on the young because they constituted the future of society. Léo Lagrange strongly opposed the fascist model of sport, which transformed it into a substitute for belligerent activities and instrumentalized it in a militarist manner. To the contrary, Léo Lagrange advocated a conception of sports based on anti-militarism and on the fulfillment of individual personality:
“… It cannot be a question in a democratic country of militarizing the distractions and the pleasures of the masses and of transforming the joy skillfully distributed into a means of not thinking.”
He dedicated himself in developing sporting, tourist and cultural leisure, but he opposed the professionalisation of sports, creating an elitist
Elitism
Elitism is the belief or attitude that some individuals, who form an elite — a select group of people with intellect, wealth, specialized training or experience, or other distinctive attributes — are those whose views on a matter are to be taken the most seriously or carry the most...
caste of sportsmen, and was against their development in France. He was at the origin of the creation of the popular leisure pass which grants 40% of reduction on rail-bound transports, while he encouraged and impelled the movement of youth hostels. 1936 in France was witness, under the Popular Front, to the first departures towards snow resorts with special trains and reduced fares on the cable cars; popular cruises were also later introduced.
Léo Lagrange also played a major role in the co-organisation of the People's Olympiad
People's Olympiad
The People's Olympiad was a planned international multi-sport event that was intended to take place in Barcelona, the capital of the autonomous region of Catalonia within the Spanish Republic...
in Barcelona with the Spanish Second Republic. Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
had managed to gain the right to organise the Olympic Games in Berlin, against Barcelona, but anti-fascists refused to participate in these Games and went on with their own project. The trials for these popular Olympiads proceeded on July 4, 1936 in the Pershing stadium in Paris, which had been built in June 1919. Léo Lagrange chaired these days in person, along with Minister of Transport Pierre Cot
Pierre Cot
.Pierre Cot , French politician, was a leading figure in the Popular Front government of the 1930s...
, André Malraux
André Malraux
André Malraux DSO was a French adventurer, award-winning author, and statesman. Having traveled extensively in Indochina and China, Malraux was noted especially for his novel entitled La Condition Humaine , which won the Prix Goncourt...
, who later fought in the International Brigades
International Brigades
The International Brigades were military units made up of volunteers from different countries, who traveled to Spain to defend the Second Spanish Republic in the Spanish Civil War between 1936 and 1939....
, and other figures of the Popular Front. Through their club, the FSGT, or individually, 1.200 French athletes were registered with these anti-fascist Olympiads.
But Blum finally decided not to vote for the funds to pay the athletes' expenses. A communist deputy declared: "Going to Berlin, is making oneself am accomplice of the torturers...." Nevertheless, on July 9, when the whole of the French right voted “for” the participation of France in the Olympic Games of Berlin, whilst the left (French Communist Party
French Communist Party
The French Communist Party is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism.Although its electoral support has declined in recent decades, the PCF retains a large membership, behind only that of the Union for a Popular Movement , and considerable influence in French...
included) abstained itself — with the particularly notable exception of Pierre Mendès France, who would become Prime Minister under the Fourth Republic
French Fourth Republic
The French Fourth Republic was the republican government of France between 1946 and 1958, governed by the fourth republican constitution. It was in many ways a revival of the Third Republic, which was in place before World War II, and suffered many of the same problems...
and negotiate the peace agreements
Geneva Conference (1954)
The Geneva Conference was a conference which took place in Geneva, Switzerland, whose purpose was to attempt to find a way to unify Korea and discuss the possibility of restoring peace in Indochina...
with the Viet-minh in Indochina
First Indochina War
The First Indochina War was fought in French Indochina from December 19, 1946, until August 1, 1954, between the French Union's French Far East...
in 1954. The Communist Party had been, before this vote, a main supporter of the People's Olympiad.
Nevertheless, several French sportsmen decided to boycott the Berlin OG anyway, and go to Barcelona where the People's Olympiads were scheduled to begin on 19 July 1936. Each stop in the train stations were the occasion of popular and joyful demonstrations, with people singing The Internationale
The Internationale
The Internationale is a famous socialist, communist, social-democratic and anarchist anthem.The Internationale became the anthem of international socialism, and gained particular fame under the Soviet Union from 1922 to 1944, when it was that communist state's de facto central anthem...
. However, on the eve of the opening ceremony, General Franco
Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...
's military pronunciamento, declared from Spanish Morocco
Spanish Morocco
The Spanish protectorate of Morocco was the area of Morocco under colonial rule by the Spanish Empire, established by the Treaty of Fez in 1912 and ending in 1956, when both France and Spain recognized Moroccan independence.-Territorial borders:...
, started the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
(1936-1939).
After having left the under-secretary's department, Léo Lagrante then became president of the laic Committee of the youth hostels. With the 1939 declaration of war, although a deputy, he voluntarily joined the military command, before being killed on June 9, 1940 in Évergnicourt
Évergnicourt
Évergnicourt is a commune in the Aisne department in Picardy in northern France.-References:*...
by shrapnel.
- “He died in courage, in search of the truth and dignity. He was a man whom we loved.”
- André MalrauxAndré MalrauxAndré Malraux DSO was a French adventurer, award-winning author, and statesman. Having traveled extensively in Indochina and China, Malraux was noted especially for his novel entitled La Condition Humaine , which won the Prix Goncourt...
Léo Lagrange, who was opposed to professional sports and was against their development in France, had been:
- Under Secretary of State for Youth and Leisure, 4 June 1936 to 22 June 1937 in the 1st Léon Blum government,
- Under-Secretary of State for Sport, Leisure and Physical Education -i.e. Minister for Sports-, 23 June 1937 to 14 January 1938 in the 3rd Camille ChautempsCamille ChautempsCamille Chautemps was a French Radical politician of the Third Republic, three times President of the Council .-Career:Described as "intellectually bereft", Chautemps nevertheless entered politics and became Mayor of Tours in 1912, and a Radical deputy in 1919...
government, - Under-Secretary of State for Sports, Leisure and Physical Education -i.e. Minister for Sports-, 14 March 1938 to 10 April 1938 in the 2nd Léon Blum government.
Mass and professional sport
Quotation from some of Léo Lagrange's speeches:- “ In sport, we must choose between two conceptions:
- the first is summarized as sport as a spectacle and a practice restricted to a relatively small number of privileged people,
- according to the second design, while not neglecting the spectacular aspect and the creation of champions, it is on the side of the great masses on which we have to carry out the main effort.
We want the worker, the peasant and the unemployed person to find in leisure the joy of living and the feeling of their dignity ”.
(Léo Lagrange, speech of 10 June 1936.) - " Our simple and human goal, is to allow to the masses of French youths to find in the practice of sport, joy and health and to build an organization of leisure activities so that the workers can find relaxation and a reward to their hard labour. "
(Léo Lagrange, Under Secretary of State to Youth and at the Leisures, 1936.) - " Our concern is less to create champions and to lead into the Stadium 22 players in front of 40,000 or 100,000 spectators, than to invite the youths of our country to regularly go and enter onto the pitch of the stadiums, of the playing fields, to the swimming pool ".
(Léo Lagrange, discussion of the budget in the French National Assembly, 1937, quoted by J.P.Callède, ibid) - " If we have to make a joint effort in the sporting field, like in numerous others, it is a moral effort. I listened with a great interest to Mr. Temple who revealed the frightening dangers of the development of professional sport. Alas! when it is accepted that a human gesture which, by its nature has to be disinterested, becomes the source of important profits, the right measurement is very difficult to determine.
I believe that the day when it has been admitted that play in the stadiums can be the source of important profits, we will have strongly destroyed the morality of sport.
Also, with all my force and whatever the criticism, sometimes severe, of my action, I will oppose myself to the development of professional sport in our country. I hold in Parliament the responsibility to act in the interest of all the French youth, and not to create a new circus spectacle"
(Léo Lagrange, Under-Secretary of State for Sport, Leisure and Physical Education -i.e. Minister for the Sport-, defines and specifies his policy, 3 December 1937, in front of the French National Assembly.)
Sports and the SFIO
At the same time, FascismFascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
was instrumentalizing sports for a militarist end, while the SFIO had denounced it as a "bourgeois" and "reactionary
Reactionary
The term reactionary refers to viewpoints that seek to return to a previous state in a society. The term is meant to describe one end of a political spectrum whose opposite pole is "radical". While it has not been generally considered a term of praise it has been adopted as a self-description by...
" activity. That is, until the Popular Front, when it began to use it as a military and patriotic preparation, in anticipation of a conflict with Nazi Germany. Some SFIO members were not immune to the scientific racism
Scientific racism
Scientific racism is the use of scientific techniques and hypotheses to sanction the belief in racial superiority or racism.This is not the same as using scientific findings and the scientific method to investigate differences among the humans and argue that there are races...
discourse of the times. Thus, Georges Barthélémy, SFIO deputy, could declare that sport contributes to the "improvement of relations between capital and labour, henceforth to the elimination of the concept of class struggle
Class struggle
Class struggle is the active expression of a class conflict looked at from any kind of socialist perspective. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote "The [written] history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle"....
," in a perfect corporatist conception. Barthélémy also considered sport as a "mean to prevent the moral and physical degeneration
Degeneration
The idea of degeneration had significant influence on science, art and politics from the 1850s to the 1950s. The social theory developed consequently from Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution...
of the race." In this light, as well as in the modern professionalisation and mediatization of sports, Léo Lagrange's conception takes all its sense, both in opposition to his times and in its modernity.
Posthumous homage
- The Socialist PartySocialist Party (France)The Socialist Party is a social-democratic political party in France and the largest party of the French centre-left. It is one of the two major contemporary political parties in France, along with the center-right Union for a Popular Movement...
created a popular association of education bearing its name: National Federation Léo Lagrange. - The Paris MetroParis MétroThe Paris Métro or Métropolitain is the rapid transit metro system in Paris, France. It has become a symbol of the city, noted for its density within the city limits and its uniform architecture influenced by Art Nouveau. The network's sixteen lines are mostly underground and run to 214 km ...
station Villejuif - Léo LagrangeVillejuif - Léo Lagrange (Paris Metro)Villejuif – Léo Lagrange is a station of the Paris Métro, located on Line 7. It serves the commune of Villejuif. It was opened when Line 7 was extended from Le Kremlin-Bicêtre to Villejuif – Louis Aragon on 28 February 1985...
is named for him.
Sources
- First draft: La Vie Rémoise, sport documents, parliamentary documents
- Main source for Lagrange and the People's Olympiad: "Le 9 juillet 1936, le Front populaire choisit les Jeux Olympiques d'Hitler plutôt que les Olympiades populaires de Barcelone", Le Monde libertaire, Summer 2006 (available here with photos, etc.)