Assassination of Jean Jaurès
| Assassination of Jean Jaurès | |
|---|---|
Front page of the Newspaper Le Matin, where an illustrator re-enacted the assassination of deputy Jean Jaurès. | |
| Location | Paris, France |
| Coordinates | 48°52′09″N 2°20′36″E / 48.86917°N 2.34333°E |
| Date | July 31, 1914 Around 21:40 |
Attack type | Assassination |
| Weapon | S&W .32 Safety Hammerless |
| Deaths | 1 |
| Perpetrator | Raoul Villain |
| Convictions | Revanchism Nationalism |
The assassination of Jean Jaurès occurred on Friday 31 July 1914. Jean Jaurès was a French deputy for the department of Tarn, a Socialist politician, a prominent antimilitarist, and editor of the newspaper L'Humanité. He was attacked by Raoul Villain at 9:40 pm while he dined at the Café du Croissant on rue Montmartre in Paris's 2nd arrondissement, close to the newspaper's headquarters. Jaurès was hit by two gunshots: one bullet pierced his skull and killed him almost instantly.
Committed three days before France's entry into World War I, the murder ended Jaurès' campaign to prevent war in Europe in the aftermath of the assassination of Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo. Following the death of Jaurès, the majority of the French political left rallied to the Sacred Union, including many socialists and trade unionists who had previously refused to support the war. The Sacred Union ceased to exist in 1919 when Villain was acquitted of murder. The transfer of Jaurès's ashes to the Panthéon in 1924 contributed to another political split within the Left, between communists and socialists.