11 Facts About Albert Lebrun

Albert Lebrun was the last president of the Third Republic.

Albert Lebrun was a member of the centre-right Democratic Republican Alliance.

Albert Lebrun then became a mining engineer in Vesoul and Nancy, but left that profession at the age of 29 to enter politics.

Albert Lebrun was president of that body from 1931 to 1932.

Albert Lebrun was elected President of France by the newly elected Chamber of Deputies following the assassination of President Paul Doumer by Pavel Gurgulov on 6 May 1932.

On 10 July 1940, Albert Lebrun enacted the Constitutional Law of 10 July 1940, which the National Assembly had voted for by 569 votes to 80, allowing Prime Minister Philippe Petain to promulgate a new constitution.

Albert Lebrun fled to Vizille on 15 July, but was captured on 27 August 1943, when the Germans moved into the region.

Albert Lebrun was then sent into captivity at the Itter Castle in Tyrol.

On 11 October 1944, Albert Lebrun met with Charles de Gaulle and acknowledged the General's leadership.

Conveniently forgetting the new Constitutional Law he had enacted in 1940, Albert Lebrun said that he had not formally resigned as president because the dissolution of the National Assembly had left nobody to accept his resignation.

Albert Lebrun died of pneumonia in Paris on 6 March 1950 after a protracted illness.