Georges-Eugène Haussmann

Georges-Eugène Haussmann, commonly known as Baron Haussmann (French pronunciation: ​[ʒɔʁʒ øʒɛn (ba.ʁɔ̃) os.man], 27 March 1809 – 11 January 1891), was the Prefect of the Seine Department in France, who was chosen by the Emperor Napoleon III to carry out a massive program of new boulevards, parks and public works in Paris, commonly called Haussmann's renovation of Paris. Critics forced his resignation for extravagance, but his vision of the city still dominates Central Paris.

Life

Origins and early career

Haussmann was born in Paris on 27 March 1809, at 55 rue du Faubourg-du-Roule, in the neighborhood called Beaujon, in a house which he later demolished during his renovation of the city. Haussmann's family originated from Alsace. He was the son of Nicolas-Valentin Haussmann (1787–1876), a senior official in the military establishment of Napoleon Bonaparte, and of Ève-Marie-Henriette-Caroline Dentzel, the daughter of a general and a deputy of French National Convention, Georges Frédéric Dentzel, a baron of Napoleon’s First Empire. He was the grandson of Nicolas Haussmann (1759–1847), a deputy of the Legislative Assembly and of the National Convention, an administrator of the Department of Seine-et-Oise, and a commissioner to the army.