Transforming Paris: The Life and Labors of Baron Haussmann

by David P. Jordan

The Paris we know today, with its grand boulevards, its bridges and parks, its monumental beauty, was essentially built in only seventeen years, in the middle of the nineteenth century. In this brief period, whole neighborhoods of medieval and revolutionary Pais - overcrowded, dangerous, and filthy - were razed, and from the rubble a modern city of light and air emerged. This triumphant rebuilding was chiefly the work of one man, Baron Georges Haussmann, Napoleon III's Prefect of the Seine.
It was Haussmann's task to assert, in stone, the power and permanence of Paris, to show the world that it was the seat of an empire of mythic proportions. To this end, he imposed grand visual perspectives, as when he transformed Napoleon I's Arc de Triomphe into a magnificent twelve-armed star from which radiated the broadest boulevards of Europe. Below ground, his modern sewer system became one of the wonders of the civilized world, eagerly toured by royalty and commoners alike.
Haussmann's mandate was not only to create an impression of grandeur, but to secure the city for better control by government. By creating formal spaces where there had previously been a maze of chaotic streets, Haussmann opened Paris to effective police control and thwarted the recurrent demonstration of its well-known revolutionary fervor. The determined and autocratic Haussmann imprinted rational order and bourgeois civility on the unruly city which had for so long simmered with riot and insurrection.

Genres: History, France, Biography, Nonfiction, Cities, Architecture

455 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

David P. Jordan received his Ph.D. from Yale University, USA. He is the Distinguished Professor of French History, Emeritus, at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Reviews

[Lauren Albert · Rating 3 out of 5]

If Haussmann could have grovelled at his own feet, I do believe he would have. A distinctly unlikeable man. His memoirs and letters bespeak a man whose arrogance is so great he feels no need to hide it. "In the twenty-two years that I have been in departmental administration," he wrote, "I have never seen a prefect greeted as I came to be greeted..."

Jordan writes of him, "Haussmann might inspire respect, but he rarely engendered friendship...He had no instinct for personal affection; he generated no warmth."

I have difficulty visualizing complex descriptions so Jordan's discussions of the changes Haussmann made were mostly lost on me. His comparison of Haussmann to Robert Moses made sense to me--it was one of the first things I thought when reading about the way he pushed through neighborhoods without concern for those who lived in them.

[Helynne · Rating 5 out of 5]

During the 18th and early 19th centuries, there were two Parises: One magnificent, one squalid. David P. Jordan offers a thorough description of how Paris underwent a major urban change in 1853-70 to become a more healthy, airy, and beautiful place thanks to the rather iron-fisted leadership of Georges-Eugène Haussmann. Some 100 years earlier, the philosopher Voltaire had abhorred the filth and disarray of what he knew should have been beautiful in Paris. He wrote a pamphlet pleading for cleaning of the city’s classical and historical areas and lamenting the lack of public markets, fountains, regular intersections, and theaters. He called for widening the “narrow and infected streets” for uncovering the beauties languishing beneath Gothic sprawl and squalor. The philosopher ended his pamphlet with a prayer for a genius who could beautify the city (14-15). Voltaire’s wish would take another century to be realized, but his plea was prophetic. Although Napoléon Bonaparte made plans in the early 19th century for renovations in the capital city, he ultimately spent too much money on military campaigns to be able to effect any positive changes in Paris (40). It would not be until 1852, when Bonaparte’s nephew Louis-Napoleon proclaimed himself Napoleon III, and established France’s Second Empire (which thrived until the Franco-Prussian War in 1870-71) that the task of rebuilding, renovating, revitalizing, and beautifying Paris would begin in earnest. And to head up the project, the emperor chose Georges-Eugène Haussmann, whose name would engender a new noun—haussmanization—that henceforth has connoted the process of “drastic, centralized, violent, urban renewal” (10). Haussmann who had distinguished himself previously in urban planning in Bordeaux and other regions of France, later gave himself the title of Baron, although he had no legal right to it. In keeping with this attitude, more specifics of haussmannization have come to mean “. . . integrating all the parts, great and small, into a single organism, the predominance of transportation, the importance of parks, administrative genius, contempt for democratic procedures, and a penchant for bullying” (11). Haussmann’s sickly childhood in the Alsace and a boyhood trip to Paris during which he was sickened by the four air portended his later obsession with cleanliness and passion for sewers and clean water. He hated the chaotic nature of Parisian streets that were filthy, impassable, and crowded with dark houses, many of which clustered around the Louvre and throughout the Ile de la Cité. The once-elegant island in the Seine had become so eclectic and chaotic that it no longer defined Paris. In short, the Paris Haussmann inherited in 1853 was essentially a medieval city with a decaying core. The best qualities Haussmann imposed on Paris were grandeur, rational order, progress, and cleanliness. Not surprisingly, his ruthless demolition sparked criticism at every turn. His first step in transformation was condemnation and razing of unhealthy areas. “Haussmannization at its extreme (was) urban renewal by demolition. Some 15,000 homes were destroyed, the Île de la Cité gutted, leaving the lovely classical areas intact. The city was then bound together with the Grande Croisée (crossing the Ile de la Cité) with the goal of more free movement. The most obvious physical and visible characteristics of hausmannization were his wide boulevards—particularly on the Right Bank—with their uniformity of scale and similarity of design that proclaimed orderliness ease of movement (unfortunately, at the expense of many residents whose homes were demolished to allow for the widening. Many fled to continued poverty in the city’s outskirts). “Haussmann neglected building up areas for the less privileged; drove them from Old Paris; made the city marvelous for those who could afford it” (248). He added seven streets to the Place de l’Etoile to make 12 for perfect symmetry. The most complex of Haussmann’s urban centers was the Quartier de l’Opéra with its six new major streets, new gare, and a new concept—grands magasins. Charles Garnier was chosen to design the opulent new opera building. Haussmann enlarged parks and gardens and celebrated the achievements of industry with new grates, benches, grillwork lamps and railings. Though it took the urban planner 10 years of disputes before he could get water reforms going, the resulting sewers and water supply of Paris were the only universally praised aspects of haussmannization (267). His sewers were so clean and successful that they became one of the wonders of new Paris—and the world. At the 1867 Expo, tours of sewers attracted royalty. (At this point, the author gives readers much more detail about the new sewer system that we really need to know). “Haussmann was considered a careerist, an opportunist, a man bereft of culture or taste,” Jordan states, “yet his life’s work, the transformation of Paris, is a great and enduring accomplishment.”

[Kitty · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was one of the resources for my research into the Paris Commune, 1871. Not only does this book provide wonderful information about the layout of Paris as we know it today, the author helped me understand the social stucture of the time. In addition, plans and actions detailed by the author dovetailed nicely with the subsequent rationale of the Communards.

By itself, this book is very informative; as background information for a researcher, Jordan's volumn is crucial.

[Phil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Extremely detailed bio of the man who brought us the beautiful city we know today. Like New York's Robert Moses, he steamrollered over any opposition to build the boulevards (and the sewers) of Paris in the mid 19th century. A bit more reading than I needed to get the picture, it's well researched and documented. One small point - the author is very proud of the 19th century map used in the endpieces, but the print is to small to read. If you're familiar with Paris and really want to know how he connected all the streets, keep a good current map handy.

[amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Time for yet another paper on Haussmannization. When will they end? Maybe when I stop going back to architecture school. Anyway, this is a solid overview of Baron Haussmann's role in the overhaul of Paris c. 1850-1870. Insufficient attention is paid to the sewers, but I guess a girl can't have it all.

[Jack · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun read...the Robert Moses of the Second Empire.