Georges Pompidou

Georges Pompidou (1911-1974), second president (1969-1974) of the Fifth French Republic. He was born on July 5, 1911, in Montboudif and educated at the École Normale Supérieure and the École Libre des Sciences Politiques, Paris. He taught literature in Marseille and Paris until 1939, when he joined the French army. After France capitulated to Germany in 1940, he served in the French Resistance. From 1944 until 1946 he was a member of the staff of General Charles de Gaulle, head of the provisional government of France. During de Gaulle's retirement, beginning in 1946, Pompidou served first on the council of state, the highest judicial body of France, and later as a director of the Rothschild Frères bank. Upon de Gaulle's return to power in 1958, Pompidou was for one year chief of his Cabinet. In 1962 de Gaulle, as president, named Pompidou premier; Pompidou held the office for six years, resigning in 1968. In the following year de Gaulle himself resigned and Pompidou was elected to succeed him. In general, he continued his predecessor's policies, but he personally helped in the negotiations leading to Great Britain's entry into the European Community (now called the European Union) in 1973, something to which de Gaulle had strongly objected. Pompidou died in Paris on April 2, 1974.