ARISTIDE BRIAND. - French political figure, b. March 28, 1862 at Nantes, d. March 7, 1932 at Paris. After having engaged for several years in journalistic activity, collaborating with *Démocratie de l'Ouest*, *La Lanterne* and other newspapers, and joining the socialist party, he was elected deputy in 1902. In 1905 he was the rapporteur of the persecutory and sectarian draft law on the separation of Church and State, a law which was passed according to B.'s ideas. He then served several times as minister and as prime minister. As minister of Foreign Affairs in 1927, he initiated a world pact to make war impossible, the well-known Briand-Kellogg Pact, to which 44 nations adhered. In 1930 he envisaged the establishment of a European federal union.
BRIAND, ARISTIDE
Bibl.: A. Aubert, B., Paris 1928; V. LE NOBLETZ, MARGUERITE, A. B., ibid. 1932; G. Suarez, B. Sa vie, son oeuvre, avec son Joumal et de nombreux documents inédits, ibid. 1938 ff.