The statue of Marshal Gallieni was created in 1921 by the Parisian sculptor Auguste Maillard.
It is the monument to the dead of Saint-Béat-Lez in a composition of grey St-Béat marble for the pedestal and white Carrara marble for the statue itself.
Joseph Gallieni was born in Saint-Béat on 24 April 1849 and died on 27 May 1916 in Versailles. He was Military Governor of Paris in 1914 and Minister of War in 1915.
He was posthumously awarded the distinction of Marshal of France for having, according to the national narrative, kept the German offensive out of Paris in 1914 thanks to the episode of the Marne taxis. He ordered the requisition of 630 taxis to attack one of the German armies during the 1st Battle of the Marne, hence Clémenceau’s nickname of “Saviour of Paris”.
However, the requisitioning of taxis did not have the desired effect, as they were wounded and exhausted soldiers returning from the battlefield. According to Alexandre Lafon, a historian interviewed in an article in La Dépêche, the results would have been almost nil.
This would have served to promote a “French-style, empirical and effective” success story.
Gallieni did indeed organise the preparation of Paris for the German offensive, but it was Marshals Joffre and Foch and their soldiers who kept the Germans at the front. The Germans then withdrew of their own accord, making victory possible.
Marshal Gallieni is also known for having developed and disseminated colonial administration methods for the French Empire throughout his life. He used political power and the manipulation/collaboration of populations for the benefit of colonial domination, and militarily repressed the revolts of resistance fighters. It intervened in many countries: Senegal, Tonkin (now northern Vietnam), Sudan, Martinique and Réunion.
In Madagascar, at the height of his civil and military power, he applied the “race policy” put in place a few years earlier by other colonialists in Sudan and Tonkin: “It consists, on the basis of an in-depth knowledge of the country and its inhabitants, of relying on certain ethnic groups – by providing them with arms and support – in order to neutralise the resistance of groups hostile to colonial domination”.
In particular, he used photography to “map” and “classify” the different “races” by attributing behaviour, physical characteristics and cultural practices to them in order to better understand and dominate them. He spent most of his time in Madagascar.
