Georges-Eugène Haussmann

France state institutions Monarchy and royalism 1809–1891 ○ Natural causes

Prefect of the Seine who rebuilt Paris with boulevards and parks for Napoleon III over seventeen years

Born in Paris in 1809 to a family of Alsatian origin, he studied law, served as sub-prefect in several departments from 1832 and was prefect of the Var, the Yonne and the Gironde. On 22 June 1853 Napoleon III appointed him prefect of the Seine with the task to "aerate, unify and embellish" Paris. He cleared narrow central streets and built boulevards, sewers and water mains, gas lighting and parks, and in 1860 the annexation of the suburbs enlarged Paris to twenty arrondissements. He was made a senator in 1857. His financing of the works with vouchers issued without parliamentary approval was attacked by Jules Ferry and others, and on 5 January 1870 he was dismissed at the demand of the Ollivier ministry. In 1877 he became Bonapartist deputy for Ajaccio.

Also known as: Baron Haussmann