Gilbert Grandval

Gilbert Grandval (born Gilbert Hirsch, subsequently Gilbert Hirsch-Ollendorff; 12 February 1904 – 29 November 1981) was a French Resistance activist who went on to become the military governor of the Saarland in 1945. He remained in post for a decade, although the nature of the job evolved and there were changes of title in 1948 and again in 1952 when he became, formally, the French ambassador to the Saarland. Subsequently, he became a government minister during the early years of the Fifth Republic.

Gilbert Grandval was the alias Hirsch-Ollendorff used from approximately 1943 while working with the Resistance. Subsequently, he was authorized permanently to substitute the Grandval name for the family name with which he had been born, both on his own account and on behalf of his father. The authorization came from a decree signed on 25 February 1946 by the President of the postwar provisional government, and officially transcribed at the appropriate town hall on 12 March 1948.

Life Provenance and early years Yves Gilbert Edmond Hirsch was born at his parents' home along the Rue La Boétie in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. Edmond Hirsch (1873-), his father, was a book dealer who expanded the family business to include a publisher of school books. Gilbert's grandfather, Henri Hirsch (1829-) had also been a book dealer. The Hirsch family traced their origins back to Strasbourg, but after the frontier changes of 1871 they were given and took up the option of retaining French citizenship, which meant leaving Alsace. Gilbert Grandval, like many of his generation, retained a deep personal and political loyalty towards Général de Gaulle, who during this period returned to power and inaugurated the "Fifth Republic". Grandval saw himself as a "lefwing Gaullist" and was a founder member of a new political party, the Democratic Labour Union (Union démocratique du travail / UDT) which was a slightly incongruous (and, as an independent party, short-lived) alternative to the mainstream Gaullist Union for the New Republic (" L'Union pour la nouvelle République" / UNR) party.

On 14 April 1962 he was appointed Secretary of state (junior minister) for Overseas Trade in the new government under Prime Minister Georges Pompidou. That appointment was of short duration, however, since on 15 May 1962 he entered Pompidou's cabinet, taking over from Paul Bacon as Minister of Labour. A new government took over on 8 January 1966, putting an end to Grandval's ministerial career. There now came a return to the private section in July 1966 when he became president of the venerable Messageries Maritimes shipping company. He retired from the position in 1972.