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Jacques-René Hébert
The successful journalist Jacques-René Hébert saw himself as Marat’s successor. And he lived up to his idol’s legacy. The vulgarities in his gutter rag Père Duchesne knew no bounds. It was teeming with crude curses and calls for massacre. For Hébert, the Terror government of the Committee of Public Safety was too lenient. He demanded the relentless use of the guillotine against all enemies of the Revolution. These included, in particular, merchants—from stock market speculators to simple bakers. In the end, he himself fell victim to the execution machine, and he did not cut a fine figure on the guillotine. He had to be dragged to the scaffold.
1757 - 1794
- November 15, 1757 · Born in Alençon.
- November 1790 · Publication of the first issue of Père Duchesne.
- June 2, 1793 · Arrest of leading Girondins, whom Hébert had regularly attacked in Père Duchesne.
- August 1793 · Hébert’s journal reaches a circulation of over half a million after the Committee of Public Safety mandates it as required reading for the armies.
- October 15, 1793 · Hébert testifies at the trial of Marie Antoinette and accuses the defendant of sexually abusing her son.
- November 10, 1793 · Hébert is a co-organizer of the Festival of Reason at Notre-Dame in Paris. Through this support of atheism, he makes an enemy of Robespierre.
- March 13, 1794 · Hébert is arrested on the orders of the Committee of Public Safety.
- March 24, 1794 · Execution on the Place of the Revolution in Paris.
Quotes
If a successor to Marat is needed, if a second victim is required, it is already prepared and resigned to its fate: here stands that victim!
Hébert, July 1793
The fatherland, the fatherland, damn it! Merchants have none.
Hébert
Shouts of
Long live the Republic!
and applause rang out repeatedly. These signs of deep indignation against men who had so gravely endangered the welfare of the fatherland […] were further proof of the citizens’ love for the Republic, saved by the punishment of these great culprits.
Newspaper report on Hébert’s execution, March 25, 1794
Le Moniteur
Quintidi, 5 Germinal, l'an 2 de la République Française une et indivisible
Le Père Duchesne
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Jan Knupper 2025 | CCXXXIV
