Claude-Marius Vaïsse

France state institutions 1799–1864 ○ Natural causes

Interior minister of the Petit ministère of 1851, later prefect of the Rhône known as the Haussmann of Lyon

Born at Marseille in 1799, he studied law and practised as an avoué, showing liberal views under the Restoration. After the July Revolution he became secretary general of the prefecture of the Bouches-du-Rhône, director of civil affairs in Algiers and sub-prefect of Saint-Quentin, and was prefect of the Pyrénées-Orientales from 1842 to 1848. Dismissed after the February Revolution, he sided with Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte and became prefect of the Nord in December 1848. He was minister of the interior in the Petit ministère from 24 January to 10 April 1851, was elected deputy for the Nord in July and backed the December coup. Under the Second Empire he sat on the Council of State and in the Senate, and from 1854 ran the Rhône and Lyon, cutting new streets and building the Exchange and the Parc de la Tête d'Or, which earned him the name Haussmann of Lyon. He died at Lyon in 1864.