Georges Ernest Boulanger Georges Ernest Jean - Marie Boulanger ( April 29 , 1837 – September 30 , 1891 ) was a French general and politician who seemed at the apogee of his popularity in January 1889 to pose the threat of a coup d ' état and the establishment of a dictatorship . With his base of support in working districts of Paris and other cities , he promoted an aggressive nationalism aimed against Germany . Until recently it was considered a proto - fascist right - wing movement . However scholars in recent decades have argued that the Boulangist movement more often represented elements of the radical left rather than the extreme Right . As Jacques Néré says , " Boulangism was first and foremost a popular movement of the extreme left " . Irvine says he had some royalist support but that , " Boulangism is better understood as the coalescence of the fragmented forces of the Left . " This interpretation is part of a consensus that France ' s radical Right was formed in part during the Dreyfus era by men who had been Boulangist partisans of the radical Left a decade earlier . Early life and career . Born in Rennes , Boulanger graduated from Saint - Cyr and entered regular service in the French Army in 1856 . He fought in the Austro - Sardinian War ( he was wounded at Robecchetto con Induno , where he received the " Légion d ' honneur " ) , and in the occupation of Cochin China , after which he became a captain and instructor at Saint - Cyr . During the Franco - Prussian War , Georges Boulanger was noted for his bravery , and soon promoted to " chef de bataillon " ; he was again wounded while fighting at Champigny - sur - Marne ( during the Siege of Paris ) . Subsequently , Boulanger was among the Third Republic military leaders who crushed the Paris Commune in April – May 1871 . He was wounded a third time as he led troops to the siege of the Panthéon , and was promoted " commandeur " of the " Légion d ' honneur " by Patrice Mac - Mahon . However , he was soon demoted ( as his position was considered provisional ) , and his resignation in protest was rejected . With backing from his direct superior , Henri d ' Orléans , duc d ' Aumale ( incidentally , one of the sons of former king Louis - Philippe ) , Boulanger was made a brigadier - general in 1880 , and in 1882 War Minister Jean - Baptiste Billot appointed him director of infantry at the war office , enabling him to make a name as a military reformer ( he took measures to improve morale and efficiency ) . In 1884 he was appointed to command the army occupying Tunis , but was recalled owing to his differences of opinion with Pierre - Paul Cambon , the political resident . He returned to Paris , and began to take part in politics under the aegis of Georges Clemenceau and the Radicals . In January 1886 , when Charles de Freycinet was brought into power , Clemenceau used his influence to secure Boulanger ' s appointment as War Minister ( replacing Jean - Baptiste Campenon ) . Clemenceau assumed Boulanger was a republican , because he was known not to attend Mass . However Boulanger would soon prove himself a conservative and monarchist . Minister . It was in the capacity of War Minister that Boulanger gained most popularity . He introduced reforms for the benefit of soldiers ( such as allowing soldiers to grow beards ) and appealed to the French desire for revenge against Imperial Germany — in doing so , he came to be regarded as the man destined to serve that revenge ( nicknamed " Général Revanche " ) . He also managed to quell the major workers ' strike in Decazeville . A minor scandal arose when Philippe , comte de Paris , the nominal inheritor of the French throne in the eyes of Orléanist monarchists , married his daughter Amélie to Portugal ' s Carlos I , in a lavish wedding that provoked fears of anti - Republican ambitions . The French Parliament hastily passed a law expelling all possible claimants to the crown from French territories . Boulanger communicated to d ' Aumale his expulsion from the armed forces . He received the adulation of the public and the press after the Sino - French War , when France ' s victory added Tonkin to its colonial empire . He also vigorously pressed for the accelerated adoption , in 1886 , of the new and technically revolutionary Lebel rifle which introduced for the first time smokeless powder high - velocity ammunition . On Freycinet ' s defeat in December of the same year , Boulanger was retained by René Goblet at the war office . Confident of political support , the general began provoking the Germans : he ordered military facilities to be built in the border region of Belfort , forbade the export of horses to German markets , and even instigated a ban on representations of " Lohengrin " . Germany responded by calling to arms more than 70 , 000 reservist s in February 1887 ; after the Schnaebele incident ( April 1887 ) , war was averted , but Boulanger was perceived by his supporters as coming out on top against Bismarck . For the Goblet government , Boulanger was an embarrassment and risk , and became engaged in a dispute with Foreign Minister Émile Flourens . On May 17 , Goblet was voted out of office and replaced by Maurice Rouvier . The latter sacked Boulanger , and replaced him with on May 30 . The rise of " Boulangisme " . The government was astonished by the revelation that Boulanger had received around 100 , 000 votes for the partial election in Seine , without him even being a candidate . He was removed from the Paris region and sent to the provinces , appointed commander of the troops stationed in Clermont - Ferrand . Upon his departure on July 8 , a crowd of ten thousand took the Gare de Lyon by storm , covering his train with posters titled " Il reviendra " ( " He will come back " ) , and blocking the railway , but he was smuggled out . The general decided to gather support for his own movement , an eclectic one that capitalized on the frustrations of French conservatism , advocating the three principles of " Revanche " ( Revenge on Germany ) , " Révision " ( Revision of the Constitution ) , " Restoration " ( the return to monarchy ) . The common reference to it has become " Boulangisme " , a term used by its partisans and adversaries alike . Immediately , the option was backed by notable conservative figures such as Count Arthur Dillon , Alfred Joseph Naquet , ( Duchess of Uzès , who financed him with immense sums ) , Arthur Meyer , Paul Déroulède ( and his " Ligue des Patriotes " ) . After the political corruption scandal surrounding the President ' s son - in - law Daniel Wilson , who was secretly selling Legion of Honor medals to anyone who wanted one , the Republican government was brought into disrepute and Boulanger ' s popular appeal rose in contrast . His position became essential after President Jules Grévy was forced to resign due to the scandal : in January 1888 , the " boulangistes " promised to back any candidate for the presidency that would in turn offer his support to Boulanger for the post of War Minister ( France was a parliamentary republic ) . The crisis was cut short by the election of Marie François Sadi Carnot and the appointment of Pierre Tirard as Prime Minister — Tirard refused to include Boulanger in his cabinet . During the period , Boulanger was in Switzerland , where he met with Jérôme Napoleon Bonaparte II , technically a Bonapartist , who offered his full support to the cause . The Bonapartists had attached themselves to the general , and even the Comte de Paris encouraged his followers to support him . Once seen as a republican , Boulanger showed his true colors in the camp of the conservative monarchists . On March 26 , 1888 he was expelled from the army . The day after , Daniel Wilson had his imprisonment repealed . It seemed to the French people that honorable generals were punished while corrupt politicians were spared , further increasing Boulanger ' s popularity . Although he was not in fact a legal candidate for the French Chamber of Deputies ( since he was a military man ) , Boulanger ran with Bonapartist backing in seven separate " départements " during the remainder of 1888 . " Boulangiste " candidates were present in every " département " . Consequently , he and many of his supporters were voted to the Chamber , and accompanied by a large crowd on July 12 , the day of their swearing in — the general himself was elected in the constituency of Nord . The " boulangistes " were , nonetheless , a minority in the Chamber . Since Boulanger could not pass legislation , his actions were directed to maintaining his public image . Neither his failure as an orator nor his defeat in a duel with Charles Thomas Floquet , then an elderly civilian and the minister of the interior , reduced the enthusiasm of his popular following . During 1888 his personality was the dominating feature of French politics , and , when he resigned his seat as a protest against the reception given by the Chamber to his proposals , constituencies vied with one another in selecting him as their representative . His name was the theme of the popular song " C ' est Boulanger qu ' il nous faut " ( " Boulanger is the One We Need " ) , he and his black horse became the idol of the Parisian population , and he was urged to run for the presidency . The general agreed , but his personal ambitions soon alienated his republican supporters , who recognised in him a potential military dictator . Numerous monarchists continued to give him financial aid , even though Boulanger saw himself as a leader rather than a restorer of kings . Decline . In January 1889 , he ran as a deputy for Paris , and , after an intense campaign , took the seat with 244 , 000 votes against the 160 , 000 of his main adversary . A " coup d ' état " seemed probable and desirable among his supporters . Boulanger had now become a threat to the parliamentary Republic . Had he immediately placed himself at the head of a revolt he might have affected the coup which many of his partisans had worked for , and might even have governed France ; but the opportunity passed with his procrastination on January 27 . According to Lady Randolph Churchill " [ a ] ll his thoughts were centered in and controlled by her who was the mainspring of his life . After the plebiscite . . . he rushed off to Madame Bonnemain ' s house and could not be found " . Boulanger decided that it would be better to contest the general election and take power legally . This , however , gave his enemies the time they needed to strike back . Ernest Constans , the Minister of the Interior , decided to investigate the matter , and attacked the " Ligue des Patriotes " using the law banning the activities of secret societies . Shortly afterward the French government issued a warrant for Boulanger ' s arrest for conspiracy and treasonable activity . To the astonishment of his supporters , on April 1 he fled Paris before it could be executed , going first to Brussels and then to London . On April 4 , the Parliament stripped him of his immunity from prosecution ; the French Senate condemned him and his supporters , Rochefort , and Count Dillon for treason , sentencing all three to deportation and confinement . Death . After his flight , support for him dwindled , and the Boulangists were defeated in the general elections of July 1889 ( after the government forbade Boulanger from running ) . Boulanger himself went to live in Jersey before returning to the Ixelles Cemetery in Brussels in September 1891 to commit suicide by a bullet to the head on the grave of his mistress , Madame de Bonnemains ( née Marguerite Crouzet ) who had died in his arms the preceding July . He was buried in the same grave . Several incidents followed Boulanger ' s death , including an armed attack carried out by a " boulangiste " against the Republican politician Jules Ferry in December of the same year . Although largely discredited , the trend started by Boulanger was still visible inside the far right ( the " anti - Dreyfusards " ) during France ' s next major scandal , the Dreyfus Affair . Israeli historian Zeev Sternhell mentions " boulangisme " as a major influence on Fascism , alongside Anarcho - syndicalism and the Cercle Proudhon . In popular culture . Général Boulanger inspired the Jean Renoir movie " Elena and Her Men " , a musical fantasy loosely based on the end of his political career . The role of " Général François Rollan " , a Boulanger - like character , was played by Jean Marais . IMDB notes that there was also a French television programme about Boulanger in the early 1980s , " La Nuit du général Boulanger " where Boulanger is played by Maurice Ronet . He is quoted as the one who authorised the institution of the " Suicide Bureau " in Guy de Maupassant ' s short story " The Magic Couch " , reportedly " the only good thing he did " . Maurice Leblanc also mentions him in his 1924 novel " The Countess of Cagliostro . "