Rue Jules Siegfried

Jules Siegfried, born in Mulhouse on February 12, 1837 and died in Le Havre on September 26, 1922, was a French entrepreneur and politician. Jules Siegfried interrupted his studies at the age of thirteen to enter his father's business as an apprentice, which he joined before leaving for the United States. Returning to France in 1862, he and his brother Jacques Siegfried founded the Siegfried Frères company in Le Havre and Mulhouse, which specialized in cotton trading. It became the Compagnie Cotonnière around 1870. In the autumn of 1862, the company had a branch in Bombay. The Siegfried brothers soon became millionaires. Still with his brother, he was behind the creation of the Ecole Supérieure de Commerce in Mulhouse. This school was closed in July 1872, due to the annexation of Alsace. The Siegfried brothers then left Alsace to settle in Normandy, where they founded the École supérieure de commerce de Rouen and the École supérieure de commerce du Havre, which still exist today. Jules Siegfried married Julie Puaux-Siegfried (1848-1922) on February 2, 1869, in Alès (Gard). Julie Siegfried is a feminist, president or founder of numerous assistance and wartime charities, which enable her to be decorated with the Legion of Honour in 1919, on the basis of a quota from the Ministry of the Interior. Jules Siegfried shared his wife's fight for women's suffrage: he chaired the "women's rights group", created in the Chamber of Deputies in 1918. Siegfried was first deputy, then mayor of Le Havre (1870-1873 and 1878-1886), deputy and general councillor for the Seine-Inférieure (1886-1897 and 1902-1922), senator (1897-1900), then minister of Commerce, Industry and the Colonies, from 6 December 1892 to 30 March 1893, in the 1st and 2nd Ribot cabinets. In the Chamber, he dealt competently with commercial, maritime, financial and social issues. Concerned about the fate of the poorest and seeking the prosperity of his country, he sought to promote social housing. Thus, the "Siegfried Law" of 30 November 1894 encouraged the creation of low-cost housing organizations.