Pierre-Henri Teitgen

French attorney, educator and resistance fighter. Teitgen held the law chair in 1939 when the war broke out. Arrested in June 1940, he escaped in August and fled to the south zone where he taught law at the University of Montpellier. When the Germans occupied the free zone, he co-founded Combat, a resistance group. Outlawed by the government of Vichy, he went underground using ‘’Tristan’’ as pseudonym.

Arrested by the Gestapo in June 1944, Teitgen was jailed in Fresnes Prison, but escaped. After the war he became Minister of Information in De Gaulle’s government. He served many times as a minister under the 4th Republic, and in 1976 was named a Judge at the European Human Rights Court. He was decorated with the Légion of Honour, the War Cross and the ‘’rosette’’of the Resistance.

Teitgen married on 24 July 1934; seven children. He died on 6 April 1997, Paris.