page_title: Palais Bourbon
section_title: World War II, and the Fourth and Fifth Republics
hierarchical_section_title: Palais Bourbon / History / World War II, and the Fourth and Fifth Republics
caption_attribution_description: Title: Paris, deutsche Besatzung, Bourbon-Palast For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. Factual corrections and alternative descriptions are encouraged separately from the original description. Additionally errors can be reported at this page to inform the Bundesarchiv. Alemannisch&#160;| Boarisch&#160;| Беларуская&#160;| Беларуская (тарашкевіца)‎&#160;| Català&#160;| Česky&#160;| Deutsch&#160;| English&#160;| Esperanto&#160;| Español&#160;| Suomi&#160;| Français&#160;| हिन्दी&#160;| Hrvatski&#160;| Magyar&#160;| Italiano&#160;| 한국어&#160;| Македонски&#160;| Plattdüütsch&#160;| Polski&#160;| Português&#160;| Română&#160;| Русский&#160;| Slovenčina&#160;| Slovenščina&#160;| Svenska&#160;| Українська&#160;| 中文（简体）&#160;| 中文（繁體）&#160;| +/− Original historic description:&#160; Buchstabe "V" und Banner mit der Parole "Deutschland siegt an allen Fronten" am Bourbon Palast, Paris, Frankreich. (Abgeordnetenkammer) Français&#160;: Le "V" Symbolique. Aujourd´hui dans toute l`Europe en lutte pour l´ordre nouveau la lettre "V" est apparue sur les murs. Cette lettre victoire les armées ayant la mission de défendre l´Europe contre les forces du mal (notamment contre le bolchevisme et le judaisme, diabolisé par la machine de propagande nazie) Voici la lettre "V" sur la facade de la Chambre des Deputés. [Text nur in französischer Sprache vermerkt]
context_page_description: The Palais Bourbon serves as a meeting place of the French National Assembly, the lower legislative chamber of the French government. It is located in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, on the left bank of the Seine, across from the Place de la Concorde.
  The Palace was originally built beginning in 1722 for Louise Françoise de Bourbon, the duchesse de Bourbon, the legitimized daughter of Louis XIV and the Marquise de Montespan. Four successive architects, Lorenzo Giardini, Pierre Cailleteau, Jean Aubert and Jacques Gabriel completed the house in 1728. It was nationalized during the French Revolution, and from 1795 to 1799, during the Directory, it was the meeting place of the Council of Five Hundred, which chose the government leaders. Beginning in 1806, during Napoleon's First French Empire, Bernard poyet's Neoclassical facade was added to mirror that of Church of the Madeleine, facing it across the Seine and the Place de la Concorde.
  The Palace complex today has a floor area of 124,000m², with over 9500 rooms, in which 3000 people work.
context_section_description: In June 1940, as the German army approached the capital, the government and Assembly abandoned Paris and moved first to Tours, then to Bordeaux, and then, under the Pétain Government, to Vichy. The Germans used the Palais Bourbon as the military court for the Luftwaffe, and it also housed the offices of the French bureau which sent French workers to factories in Germany. German propaganda banners decorated the Seine facade of the Palace. During the liberation of Paris in August 1944, parts of the Palace were badly damaged. A fire in the library started by the fighting destroyed twenty thousand books. Philippe de Gaulle, the son of Charles de Gaulle was sent from Montparnasse Station on 25 August 1944 with orders for the Germans troops entrenched within National Assembly at the Palais Bourbon to surrender. Despite the risk of being killed, alone and unarmed, he negotiated their surrender.
  The Fourth Republic was founded by the adoption of a new Constitution in 1946, and brought new technology to the Palais Bourbon, including the first microphones for speakers, but featured a large number of political parties and unstable coalitions which frequently collapsed.  The Algerian Crisis of 1956 brought an end to the Fourth Republic, the approval of a new Constitution, and the adoption of the Fifth Republic, still in existence today.
caption: A German victory banner on the Palais Bourbon in July 1941. It reads "Germany is victorious on all fronts".
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