Paul Painlevé | |
|---|---|
 Paul Painlevé in 1923 | |
| Prime Minister of France | |
| In office 17 April 1925 – 28 November 1925 | |
| President | Gaston Doumergue |
| Preceded by | Édouard Herriot |
| Succeeded by | Aristide Briand |
| In office 12 September 1917 – 16 November 1917 | |
| President | Raymond Poincaré |
| Preceded by | Alexandre Ribot |
| Succeeded by | Georges Clemenceau |
| Minister of Air | |
| In office 3 June 1932 – 29 January 1933 | |
| Prime Minister | Édouard Herriot Joseph Paul-Boncour |
| Preceded by | Jacques-Louis Dumesnil |
| Succeeded by | Pierre Cot |
| Minister of Finance | |
| In office 29 October 1925 – 28 November 1925 | |
| Prime Minister | Himself |
| Preceded by | Joseph Caillaux |
| Succeeded by | Louis Loucheur |
| Minister of War | |
| In office 17 April 1925 – 29 October 1925 | |
| Prime Minister | Himself |
| Preceded by | Charles Nollet |
| Succeeded by | André Maginot |
| In office 20 March 1917 – 13 November 1917 | |
| Prime Minister | Alexandre Ribot Himself |
| Preceded by | Lucien Lacaze |
| Succeeded by | Georges Clemenceau |
| President of the Chamber of Deputies | |
| In office 9 June 1924 – 21 April 1925 | |
| Preceded by | Raoul Péret |
| Succeeded by | Édouard Herriot |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 5 December 1863 Paris |
| Died | 29 October 1933(1933-10-29) (aged 69) Paris |
| Political party | PRS |
Paul Painlevé (French:[pɔlpɛ̃ləve]; 5 December 1863 – 29 October 1933) was a French mathematician and statesman. He served twice asPrime Minister of theThird Republic: 12 September – 13 November 1917 and 17 April – 22 November 1925. His entry into politics came in 1906 after a professorship at the Sorbonne that began in 1892.
His first term as prime minister lasted only nine weeks but dealt with weighty issues, such as the Russian Revolution, the American entry into the war, the failure of theNivelle Offensive, quelling theFrench Army Mutinies and relations with the British. In the 1920s as Minister of War he was a key figure in building theMaginot Line.[1] In his second term as prime minister he dealt with the outbreak of rebellion in Syria's Jabal Druze in July 1925 which had excited public and parliamentary anxiety over the general crisis of France's empire.[2]
Painlevé was born in Paris.[3] Brought up within a family of skilled artisans (his father and grandfather werelithographicdraughtsmen)[4] Painlevé showed early promise across the range of elementary studies and was initially attracted by either an engineering or political career. However, he finally entered theÉcole Normale Supérieure in 1883 to study mathematics, receiving his doctorate in 1887 following a period of study atGöttingen, Germany withFelix Klein andHermann Amandus Schwarz. Intending an academic career he became professor atUniversité de Lille, returning to Paris in 1892 to teach at theSorbonne,École Polytechnique and later at theCollège de France and theÉcole Normale Supérieure. He was elected a member of theAcadémie des Sciences in 1900.[3]
He married Marguerite Petit de Villeneuve in 1901. She died during the birth of their sonJean Painlevé in the following year.[3]
Painlevé's mathematical work ondifferential equations led him to encounter their application to the theory of flight and, as ever, his broad interest in engineering topics fostered an enthusiasm for the emerging field of aviation. In 1908, he becameWilbur Wright's first airplane passenger in France and in 1909 created the first university course inaeronautics.[3]
Somedifferential equations can be solved using elementary algebraic operations that involve thetrigonometric andexponential functions (sometimes calledelementary functions). Many interestingspecial functions arise as solutions of linear secondorderordinary differential equations. Around the turn of the century, Painlevé,É. Picard, and B. Gambier showed thatof the class ofnonlinear second order ordinary differential equations withpolynomialcoefficients, those that possess a certain desirable technical property, shared by the linear equations (nowadays commonly referred to as the 'Painlevé property') can always be transformed into one of fifty canonical forms. Of these fifty equations, just six require 'new' transcendental functions for their solution.[5] These newtranscendental functions, solving the remaining six equations, are called thePainlevé transcendents, and interest in them has revived recently due to their appearance in modern geometry, integrable systems[6] andstatistical mechanics.[7][8][9]
In 1895 he gave a series of lectures atStockholm University on differential equations, at the end stating thePainlevé conjecture about singularities of then-body problem.[10] In the same year he published work on thePainlevé paradox, an apparent contradiction in simple models offriction.[11]
In the 1920s, Painlevé briefly turned his attention to the new theory of gravitation,general relativity, which had recently been introduced byAlbert Einstein. In 1921, Painlevé proposed theGullstrand–Painlevé coordinates for theSchwarzschild metric. The modification in the coordinate system was the first to reveal clearly that theSchwarzschild radius is a merecoordinate singularity (with however, profound global significance: it represents theevent horizon of ablack hole). This essential point was not generally appreciated by physicists until around 1963.[citation needed] In his diary,Harry Graf Kessler recorded that during a later visit to Berlin, Painlevé discussedpacifistinternational politics with Einstein, but there is no reference to discussions concerning the significance of the Schwarzschild radius.[12]
Between 1915 and 1917, Painlevé served as French Minister for Public Instruction and Inventions. In December 1915, he requested a scientific exchange agreement between France and Britain, resulting in Anglo-French collaboration that ultimately led to the parallel development byPaul Langevin in France andRobert Boyle in Britain of the first activesonar.[13] He also established theDirectorate of Inventions for National Defense, the predecessor of theFrench National Centre for Scientific Research.
Painlevé took his aviation interests, along with those in naval and military matters, with him when he became, in 1906, Deputy for Paris's5th arrondissement, the so-calledLatin Quarter. By 1910, he had vacated his academic posts and World War I led to his active participation in military committees, joiningAristide Briand's cabinet in 1915 as Minister for Public Instruction and Inventions.[3]
On his appointment as War Minister in March 1917 he was immediately called upon to give his approval, albeit with some misgivings, toRobert Georges Nivelle's wildly optimistic plans for a breakthrough offensive inChampagne. Painlevé reacted to the disastrous public failure of the plan by dismissingNivelle and controversially replacing him withHenri Philippe Pétain.[14] He was also responsible for isolating theRussian Expeditionary Force in France in theLa Courtine camp, located in a remote spot on the plateau ofMillevaches.[15]
On 7 September 1917, Prime MinisterAlexandre Ribot lost the support of the Socialists and Painlevé was called upon to form a new government.[3]
Painlevé was a leading voice at theRapallo conference that led to the establishment of theSupreme Allied Council, a consultative body ofAllied powers that anticipated the unified Allied command finally established in the following year. He appointedFerdinand Foch as French representative knowing that he was the natural Allied commander. On Painlevé's return to Paris he was defeated and resigned on 13 November 1917 to be succeeded byGeorges Clemenceau.Foch was finally named Alliedgeneralissimo in March 1918, eventually becoming commander-in-chief of all Allied armies on the Western and Italian fronts.[3][14][16]
Painlevé then played little active role in politics until the election of November 1919 when he emerged as a leftist critic of the right-wingBloc National. By the time the next election approached in May 1924 his collaboration withÉdouard Herriot, a fellow member of Briand's 1915 cabinet, had led to the formation of theCartel des Gauches. Winning the election, Herriot became Prime Minister in June, while Painlevé became President of the Chamber of Deputies. Though Painlevé ran forPresident of France in 1924 he was defeated byGaston Doumergue. Herriot's administration publicly recognised the Soviet Union, accepted theDawes Plan and agreed toevacuate the Ruhr. However, a financial crisis arose from the ensuing devaluation of thefranc and in April 1925, Herriot fell and Painlevé became Prime Minister for a second time on 17 April. Unfortunately, he was unable to offer convincing remedies for the financial problems and was forced to resign on 21 November.[3][14][17]
Following Painlevé's resignation, Briand formed a new government with Painlevé as Minister for War. Though Briand was defeated byRaymond Poincaré in 1926, Painlevé continued in office. Poincaré stabilised the franc with a return to thegold standard, but ultimately acceded power to Briand.[3] During his tenure as Minister of War, Painlevé was instrumental in the creation of theMaginot Line. This line of military fortifications along France's Eastern border was largely designed by Painlevé, yet named forAndré Maginot, owing to Maginot's championing of public support and funding.[citation needed] Painlevé remained in office as Minister for War until July 1929.[3]
From 1925 to 1933, Painlevé represented France in theInternational Committee on Intellectual Cooperation of theLeague of Nations (he replacedHenri Bergson and was himself replaced byÉdouard Herriot).[18]
Though he was proposed forPresident of France in 1932, Painlevé withdrew before the election. He became Minister of Air later that year, making proposals for an international treaty to ban the manufacture of bomber aircraft and to establish an international air force to enforce global peace. On the fall of the government in January 1933, his political career ended.[3]
Painlevé died in Paris in October of the same year.[14] On 4 November, after a eulogy by Prime MinisterAlbert Sarraut, he was interred in thePanthéon.[19]
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| Preceded by | Prime Minister of France 1917 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Prime Minister of France 1925 | Succeeded by |
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