La Dépêche du Midi
Encyclopedia
La Dépêche du Midi is a regional daily newspaper published in Toulouse
in south-west France
, with 17 editions for different areas of the Midi-Pyrénées
region.
The paper first appeared on 2 October 1870, when it was called La Dépêche de Toulouse. Publication was prompted by workers at the Sirven print works in Toulouse, which established the paper's left-leaning politics.It was at La Dépêche that the socialist politician Jean Jaurès
wrote his first articles. The paper also published Georges Clémenceau
. In the big issue of the day, the Dreyfus affair
, the paper first insisted Alfred Dreyfus
had given army secrets to the Germans but then came out in his support.
The paper fell under German control after the occupation of 1940. Like other newspapers which had collaborated during the war, La Dépêche de Toulouse was closed by the post-war government in 1944. It reappeared under its current name in 1947.
Toulouse
Toulouse is a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern FranceIt lies on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea...
in south-west France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, with 17 editions for different areas of the Midi-Pyrénées
Midi-Pyrénées
Midi-Pyrénées is the largest region of metropolitan France by area, larger than the Netherlands or Denmark.Midi-Pyrénées has no historical or geographical unity...
region.
The paper first appeared on 2 October 1870, when it was called La Dépêche de Toulouse. Publication was prompted by workers at the Sirven print works in Toulouse, which established the paper's left-leaning politics.It was at La Dépêche that the socialist politician Jean Jaurès
Jean Jaurès
Jean Léon Jaurès was a French Socialist leader. Initially an Opportunist Republican, he evolved into one of the first social democrats, becoming the leader, in 1902, of the French Socialist Party, which opposed Jules Guesde's revolutionary Socialist Party of France. Both parties merged in 1905 in...
wrote his first articles. The paper also published Georges Clémenceau
Georges Clemenceau
Georges Benjamin Clemenceau was a French statesman, physician and journalist. He served as the Prime Minister of France from 1906 to 1909, and again from 1917 to 1920. For nearly the final year of World War I he led France, and was one of the major voices behind the Treaty of Versailles at the...
. In the big issue of the day, the Dreyfus affair
Dreyfus Affair
The Dreyfus affair was a political scandal that divided France in the 1890s and the early 1900s. It involved the conviction for treason in November 1894 of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a young French artillery officer of Alsatian Jewish descent...
, the paper first insisted Alfred Dreyfus
Alfred Dreyfus
Alfred Dreyfus was a French artillery officer of Jewish background whose trial and conviction in 1894 on charges of treason became one of the most tense political dramas in modern French and European history...
had given army secrets to the Germans but then came out in his support.
The paper fell under German control after the occupation of 1940. Like other newspapers which had collaborated during the war, La Dépêche de Toulouse was closed by the post-war government in 1944. It reappeared under its current name in 1947.