Jacques Decour - English

Jacques Decour, born Daniel Decourdemanche on February 21, 1910, in Paris, was an outstanding student who defied the professional expectations of his stockbroker father. After briefly studying law, he devoted himself to German studies and published his first story in 1930 under the pseudonym Jacques Decour. His critical view on the emerging National Socialism during a teaching exchange in Magdeburg led to the publication of the book "Philisterburg". 

Politically aligned with the Communist Party of France (KPF), Jacques Decour worked as a journalist and translator, and became a member of the Resistance after the German invasion of France in 1940. As co-editor of underground journals, he played a significant role in the intellectual resistance against the Nazis. Despite his imprisonment, he continued his resistance, but was arrested and executed in May 1942 along with his comrades-in-arms Georges Politzer and Jacques Solomon. 

Decour only became known in Germany decades after his death, in particular through the German translation of his book "Philisterburg" in 2014 and the attention of a group of students from the Jacques-Decour-Lycée in Paris during their visit to Magdeburg in 2013.