The day a dismissal triggers a tempest

On July 11, 1789, the King of France fires his finance minister, the Swissborn Jacques Necker. For Louis XVI, this is merely a minor personnel decision— a pebble he throws into the river of history. But the small ripples generated by this act become a flood that inundates the whole of Europe— which washes away Louis XVI. In this moment the monarch misjudges the dismissal’s symbolic power for his subjects. For months bread has been scarce and what little food is available is totally overpriced. The people believe the extravagence of the noble classes is responsible for this. Paris is a powder keg that could ignite at any time. The people cling to one man— someone who speaks for them, the only one who denounces the Bourbon king’s policy for managing debt: Jacques Necker. “Necker’s dismissal is the alarm bell for the massacre of the patriots,” lawyer Camille Desmoulins said at the time. He fears that the king will now want to put a violent end to all efforts toward freedom. “Only one option remains for us now: to take up arms!” This is the spark that ignites the French Revolution, which begins on July 14 with the Storming of the Bastille. The people reach out for power. On August 26, 1789, the new French government announces the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. This is followed by years of terror and, eventually, Napoleon Bonaparte. “The French Revolution became the laboratory for many different forms of constitution,” says historian Hans- Ulrich Thamer. But the greatest legacy of this event is three words: liberty, equality, fraternity— three essential, glorious words born of a man being fired.