Auguste Scheurer-Kestner

Auguste Scheurer-Kestner (11 February 1833 in Mulhouse (Haut Rhin) – 19 September 1899 in Bagnères-de-Luchon (Haute Garonne)) was a chemist, industrialist, a Protestant and an Alsatian politician. He was the uncle by marriage of the wife of Jules Ferry.

He was a Republican and opposed the Empire of Napoleon III. He was elected member of for Haut Rhin on 2 July 1871 and became senator for life on 15 September 1875. Twenty years later, he was the last representative of the Alsace French Parliament. A close friend of Georges Clemenceau and Léon Gambetta, he provided the greater part of the funds for the publication of The French Republic newspaper that ran from 1879 to 1884. In 1894, Auguste Scheurer-Kestner as Senior Vice-President of the Senate was considered a moral authority in politics.

His brother, Julius Scheurer, stayed in Alsace under German occupation. He was Senator for the Haut Rhin department from 1920 to 1927.

Born in Mulhouse on 11 February 1833 as Auguste Scheurer, his father was a Republican industrialist. Auguste attended school at first in Strasbourg then from 1852 in Paris where he was a pupil of Mr Wurtz at the School of Medicine.

In 1856 he married one of the daughters of Mr. Charles Kestner - a manufacturer of chemical products in Thann. He became manager of Mr Kestner's plant at Thann but continued with his scientific research in chemicals.

In 1866 he founded an independent cooperative society where workers could spend their earnings in properly run shops. This institution became very prosperous.

Political life was to a certain extent imposed on Mr. Scheurer-Kestner by events and the Republican ideas inspired by his family. His father-in-law Mr Kestner had previously been a representative of the people in 1848 but the "coup d'Etat" forced him to flee to Belgium.

Although he could not have been considered a danger to the Empire despite his Republican views, he was arrested in 1862 and arbitrarily detained for a month in prison before being convicted for three months for internal espionage.

In 1863 and the years following, despite the danger to his family and friends, Mr. Scheurer-Kestner did not hesitate to publish a series of revelations of the manner in which the State safeguarded its secrets under the Empire. He wrote in Le Temps and Le Reveil about the existence of a black cabinet which he called the "Office of Lateness".

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