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The images of Trump supporters storming the Capitol in Washington recall the time when the vision that parliaments would represent the will of the people became a reality.
This idea is one of the two secular revolutions that laid the foundations of western-style democracy in North America and France at the end of the enlightened 18th century.
But the National Convention in Paris immediately experienced the downsides: on June 2, 1793, the masses stormed the meeting in the Théâtre des Tuileries.
There had also been popular uprisings in the Ancien Régime.
"Anything can lead to an uproar among these townspeople: even a slight increase in the price of food, the levying of a special tax, poor treatment of a favorite of the people," noted a contemporary.
Louis XVI
of France, it was to cost its power and ultimately its head too.
On July 14, 1789, angry Parisians stormed the Bastille prison.
Three years later, in August 1792, the royal family was only able to save themselves from the attack by tens of thousands in the session room of the National Assembly, which, not least under the pressure of the street, tried the ruler.
It cost him his head to see how the massacre in the Tuileries had put an end to the Swiss Guard.
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At the same time, these uprisings made it clear to the bourgeois politicians of the revolution that the sans-culottes, as the petty bourgeoisie, tradesmen and workers in the Paris suburbs were called, had little to do with the principle of representation.
In May 1793, too, there were a few unknown popular leaders who knew a way out of the smoldering anger over the crisis.
Envoys from 33 of the 48 Paris Sections met on the 29th and formulated far-reaching demands.
The city administration should be dissolved and reorganized immediately.
Former customs officer François Hanriot was appointed commander of the National Guard.
On the 31st, armed sans-culottes marched in front of the National Convention and loudly demanded, among other things, the arrest of 22 moderate Girondins who had pleaded for moderation in the trial against the king, as well as the formation of a sans-culottes army.
Parliament contented itself with removing the Committee of Twelve, which was supposed to control the city administration.
The masses withdrew dissatisfied.
"You have to part with your mandate": Georges Danton (1759–1794), leading Jacobin
Source: Getty Images
Georges Danton, one of the leaders of the radical mountain party (Jacobins), recognized the gravity of the situation: “When all the laws are broken, when despotism has reached its height, when good faith and shame are trampled underfoot, then the people must rise .
And that moment has now come. "But his conclusion was a thoroughly parliamentary one:" I urge all MPs of the Mountain Party to unite and fight against the aristocracy ... or they have to part with their mandate. "
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Such rules of the game left the sans-culottes cold.
On June 2, demonstrators again moved to the Théâtre des Tuileries.
Since it was a Sunday, many more people joined the uprising;
in the end it should have been 80,000.
Armed men surrounded the building.
The 150 cannons they had brought with them were placed in the front line.
Reliable battalions took command there.
One witness described the effect on the MPs: “There was a kind of anesthesia over the meeting.
Even we, the MPs of the Mountain Party, experienced not without pain how the popular uprising threatened the only body that could save the fatherland at all.
Nobody asked to speak, no consultation just wanted to start. "
"To the guns": François Hanriot (1761–1794), Commander of the National Guard
Source: Getty Images
When the Jacobin Bertrand Barère made preparations to oppose the rebels unarmed with the overwhelming majority of parliamentarians, Hanriot gave his guards the brief order: "Gunner, to the guns." carry paralyzed Georges Couthon to the lectern.
From there he applied for 29 members of the Gironde to be placed under house arrest and thus to satisfy the demands of the street.
That was accepted by acclamation.
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"June 2nd dealt the parliamentary system the fatal blow," said the French historian Denis Richet.
Three months later it was to be seen that the process amounted to a dam breach.
After it became known on September 2nd that the important port of Toulon had fallen into the hands of the English, two days later armed men stormed the streets and surrounded the convent again on the 5th.
Thousands of people were crammed into the Paris prisons waiting for their death
Source: picture-alliance / Mary Evans Pi
This time, in addition to bread, the arrest of all suspects was demanded as well as the purge of the revolutionary (government) committees: “Legislators!
Put terror on the agenda! ”Was the slogan.
But this time the most important committee put itself at the head of the movement and wrested the initiative from it.
The Welfare Committee, under the political leadership of Maximilien Robespierre, drove the funds for a "controlled civil war" through the impotent convention.
Massive restrictions on basic rights marked the beginning of the reign of terror.
Trials could be completed after three days if the jury found "their conscience sufficiently enlightened".
Judges could give their vote orally.
In the rebellious regions, special commissioners and tribunals used rapid proceedings and mass executions against “suspects” and “traitors”.
The death lists show that the terror was directed not only against enemies of the revolution, but also and above all against opponents of the Jacobins.
With the execution of the moderate Girondins as well as the group around Danton and the radicals around Jacques-René Hébert, old bills were settled and opponents were eliminated.
"Death has become a general sanction for political conflicts," wrote the revolutionary specialist François Furet.
The increase was not long in coming.
In June 1794, the Welfare Committee put the "Great Terror" on the agenda.
In Paris alone, people fell victim to Robespierre's fall on July 24, 1794.
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