Michel Debré

Michel Debré (1912 to 1996) was the first Prime Minister of the French Fifth Republic, serving under President Charles de Gaulle from 1959 to 1962, and he is considered the father of the current Constitution of France. Born in Paris, the son of the pediatrician Robert Debré, he studied at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand and the École Libre des Sciences Politiques, took a doctorate in law at the University of Paris and in 1934 became a member of the Conseil d'État. Taken prisoner in June 1940, he escaped, and in 1943 he joined the French Resistance. In 1944 de Gaulle made him Commissaire de la République for Angers, and in 1945 he was charged with reforming the French civil service.