Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Monument aux Mères


Paris will always surprise me... Today I came across the most unusual monument I've ever seen in my city: a monument dedicated to French mothers. And the weirdest is that I have been unable to find anything about it on Google. Anyway, all I can say is that it looks like it was designed in Soviet Union (see more photos here) and that there are several quotes engraved on it, one being by Albert Lebrun, who was the President of the Republic between 1932 and 1940. I Suppose this is roughly when this monument was built. If anyone knows more, please enlighten us! Update: here is - courtesy of Tomate Farcie - more info.

25 comments:

  1. a bit scary I think... the mother in the middle seems so grumpy!

    I'm sure somebody here knows more about this monument. You didn't mention where it is located?

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  2. So far, I have "inaugurated in 1938 (apparently, when women still didn't have the right to vote), located in Paris 13." Not much more than that.

    A couple of people have quoted the Monument in their doctorat papers, but very briefly and as far as I can tell only with regard to what it means rather than who built it, when, what for.

    I also found that Christel Sniter gave a presentation as follows: "La République nataliste. Le monument au mères françaises comme outil de propagande."

    Last but not least, if you want to see a little video of a few people dropping a bouquet of flowers in front of the momument circa 1940, cut and paste this in your browser:

    http://www.ina.fr/archivespourtous/index.php?vue=notice&id_notice=AFE85000528


    Hey, where is Haxo ?!!

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  3. Wow Tomate I am totally impressed! Where did you find that. I don't know where Haxo has gone?! Last time he told me he had computer problems, but that must have been fixed since then...

    Are you up to replace him ;) ?

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  4. It looks like an old statue...interesting.

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  5. It is my assumption that the historical period was not particularly kind to many groups of people. Your other photos also include children. Long suffering, to me.

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  6. Replacing Haxo?!!! I should think NOT!!! :) I'm definitely NOT up to it!!! By the way I came across this VERY INTERESTING document trying to list all the major holidays and their origin... I wasn't sure I liked the looks of that monument, but now , listen to this (in French): I apologize for the length of the quote, by the way.

    Your "Monument Aux Meres" is mentioned under the paragraph:

    "F-FÊTES DES MÈRES: UNE ORIGINE POLITIQUE " (emphasis added)

    "...A l'inverse, l'après-guerre est ouvertement hostile au travail féminin, maintenant qu'il faut reclasser les anciens soldats.

    Voilà pourquoi se suivent de si près la loi du 24 avril 1920, instituant la Fête des Mères, et celle du 26 mai instaurant une décoration pour les mères de famille nombreuse. Durant l'entre-deux-guerres, cette fête, marquée par la remise des décorations, est clairement la fête des mères de famille nombreuse, ce qui freine son succès. En effet, avec ses médailles, son parrainage officiel et son inspiration anti-progressiste, elle eut de la peine à s'implanter, victime entre autres de la fête des Femmes, journée de gauche instaurée en 1919 par Lénine et reprise par le mouvement ouvrier dans les autres pays. Elle se fêtait le 8 mars; c'était une toute autre image de la femme que l'on proposait là: engagée dans la vie professionnelle et sociale, pas nécessairement mariée, ni mère. Fête des Mères et Fête de la Femme se concurrençaient et se dévalorisaient l'une l'autre.

    Souvent, les messages officiels à l'occasion de la Fête des Mères en déploraient le peu de succès. Il faut attendre les années 30 pour que les manifestations, au moins parisiennes, à cette occasion aient un certain éclat. Peut-être est-ce dû à l'exemple allemand où la Fête des Mères est un événement majeur dès l'arrivée des Nazis au pouvoir. En tout cas, la France érige en 1938 à Paris, boulevard Kellermann, un monument aux "Mères sublimes", modeste pendant au monstrueux monument élevé à Berlin dès 1934: 18 mètres de haut en granit rose.

    La France de Vichy va s'employer à donner à la Fête des Mères un tout autre éclat que la IIIe République. L'exemple allemand est plus étroitement suivi et Vichy est un régime réactionnaire soucieux de envoyer les femmes à la maison non pas seulement à cause du marché de l'emploi, mais par principe. La natalité est certes un des soucis du régime, mais l'idéalisation de la famille est encore plus forte. La mère et donc exaltée quel que soit le nombre de ses enfants: sa fête n'est plus celle de la mère prolifique, mais de la mère au foyer.

    L'administration organise d'ailleurs des cérémonies publiques sciemment réglées et encourage la fête privée au foyer. C'est Vichy qui a fait de la Fête des Mères, en France, une fête de famille concernant l'ensemble des mères et en a assuré le succès durable. Paradoxalement, l'idéologie antipathique de Vichy a donc donné du charme à cette fête: il ne s'agissait plus de sortir de chez soi pour voir de hauts fonctionnaires remettre des médailles à des mères de huit ou dix enfants, comme sous la IIIe République, mais de se retrouver en famille pour en célébrer la réussite et en reconnaître le mérite à la mère.

    Vichy aime les fêtes, occasion de slogan et de mobilisation nationale. La Fête des Mères, dès 1941, est une fête majeure d'un régime qui a pour slogan "Travail, Famille, Patrie". Elle est fixée le dernier dimanche de mai. Le régime y prépare par la diffusion de millions d'affiches et de cartes postales; dans les écoles, les enfants préparent des lettres et des cadeaux à leur mère. Le jour venu, le Maréchal prononce une allocution. Toute une littérature vient donner son sens à l'événement et les Editions sociales françaises publient un "Petit Guide de la journée des mères". "


    (from this website:)

    http://www.courant-d-idees.com/TempsB.htm

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  7. Very stoic mothers! I'd not want to be sitting on the other side of a poker table with them.

    Tomate: Very impressive research on this one!

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  8. I can't read all Tomate's French text, so I am going to suggest that it is a monument to a pilgrimage of mothers who visited France from the United States inthe early 1930s....mothers who lost sons in the Great War.

    I will pursue that line a little...

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  9. Either that, or maybe something by Picasso commemorating the loss of mothers from the Spanish Civil War.

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  10. Sally, guys, sorry about that. Hey, try this website to help you translate some of the French (or anything else). It really does "funny" translations, but at least you'll get the general idea:

    http://babelfish.altavista.com/

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  11. Wow, what an unhappy lot and stoned to boot. Guess what??? I managed to get Picasa to post for me on Johnnysarc. After months of trying, it works again. I haven't mastered a good technique and I am open for help and suggestions when you visit me. We took over 1000 photos during our five week trip to France in the Spring of 2007. Some that I post might be of interest to you.

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  12. It looks good and moters are very important. Where is it exactly ?
    On découvre toujours de nouvelles choses dans nos villes et c'est plaisant.
    Justin

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  13. Well done Tomate...I gave a look but can't find anything...

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  14. What an interesting monument. Thanks for stopping by Eric. Yes we had one of our seasonal dust storms. I can't believe it made the news. It was really quite mild compared to what we usually have. We were happy for the rain after that.

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  15. Oh my. That one in the middle has that look of disappointment like her kid just did something really wrong. You know, the only thing that could truly make a child ashamed of being bad. Either that or it's a look of grief. But I suppose disapointment can be a form of grief. Anyway, very fascinating.

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  16. I love "discovering" monuments like this and little parks where I live. They've been there for decades, but I never saw them before. I found one the other day in a park: a plaque to a solitary Italian exploreer named Beltrami, who discovered the source of the Mississippi River, according to the plaque.

    Shouldn't every city have a monument to mothers? Mon Dieu, the things she endured raising me!

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  17. It does look vaguely Soviet, doesn't it? Something about the gray & the stoic expressions.

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  18. Bonjour:

    A comment on the lighting.
    Very nice moment to document the monument. Really emphasizes the texture of the material (cement?) and the three dimensional features of each head.
    Merci & Kudos to Eric, who I am sure is delighting in using his new SLR digcam.

    Steve, in humid Chicago

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  19. I think they are all mothers of teenage girls! That would explain their grim expressions. They're all thinking " 3 more years then she's out on her ear" They certainly don't look the way we picture French women.

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  20. Hmmm - so it was a glorification of Mothers Day, at the expense of International Women's Day (March 8) - ie women in their "rightful" place, rather than the more political movement of IWD (which originated from New York and the seamstresses' union strike in 1908) ?

    Is that the sense I am getting from the text, tomate (Babelfish did a really crap job on it!)

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  21. Sally, got your message, thanks. I think you pretty much got it (although I got nothing about the union strike in NY in my document). I did a translation but I'm not sure if it's gonna fit in here. I could just try or I could just stick it in the forum instead, don'tknow if there is a limit to the number of characters you can post.

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  22. Sally:

    I posted the translation in the PDP forum under "French Politics" I have no idea how you can link directly to the post, though, but it's there, you should find it.

    Here is the beginning:

    "...A l'inverse, l'après-guerre est ouvertement hostile au travail féminin, maintenant qu'il faut reclasser les anciens soldats.

    ... The after-war era is openly hostile to women in the work force now that all the former soldiers need to find jobs.

    Voilà pourquoi se suivent de si près la loi du 24 avril 1920, instituant la Fête des Mères, et celle du 26 mai instaurant une décoration pour les mères de famille nombreuse. Durant l'entre-deux-guerres, cette fête, marquée par la remise des décorations, est clairement la fête des mères de famille nombreuse, ce qui freine son succès. En effet, avec ses médailles, son parrainage officiel et son inspiration anti-progressiste, elle eut de la peine à s'implanter, victime entre autres de la fête des Femmes, journée de gauche instaurée en 1919 par Lénine et reprise par le mouvement ouvrier dans les autres pays. Elle se fêtait le 8 mars; c'était une toute autre image de la femme que l'on proposait là: engagée dans la vie professionnelle et sociale, pas nécessairement mariée, ni mère. Fête des Mères et Fête de la Femme se concurrençaient et se dévalorisaient l'une l'autre.

    That is why you have back to back the laws of April 1920 and May 1920, from which originated respectively 1) “Mothers Day” and 2) the Award to those mothers of families “with a certain number of children”. [note from TF: currently to be considered a “famille nombreuse, there must be 3 children in the family. I don’t know what the standards were in 1920, though]. Between WW1 and WW2, Mother’s Day clearly addresses the mothers who have a number of children, and that is why it is not successful. Indeed, with all its medals, official sponsorship and its anti-progressive root, Mother’s Day had a difficult start, especially in light of the fact that it was in direct competition with “Women’s Day” an initiative from the left established in 1919 by Lenin and adopted by the labor party of other countries. “Women’s Day” was held on March 8 and celebrated a completely different woman, a professionally and socially accomplished one, not necessarily married, or a mother. “Mother’s Day” and “Woman’s Day” were in direct competition and ran each other down.

    (the rest is in the PDP forum under "French Politics) Hope that helps.

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  23. As a mother myself, my instant reaction is - well - horror (has the middle one got a beard?. Am I going to look like this after another 7 years' childrearing?)
    -badaude
    www.badaude.typepad.com

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  24. Sur le site de l'Ina, à cette adresse on peut se rendre compte de ce que ça donnait, la fête des mères, pendant le régime de Vichy ! Avec en guest star, le fameux monument…

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