Daniel Dolejší The causes of continuing existence of the French Foreign Legion 2015 Abstract The core theme of this diploma thesis is the French Foreign Legion that is examined from the point of view of national interests and strategic culture of France. It is very unusual in developed countries to have foreigners as a part of national army. Goal of the thesis is to discover and describe the causes of continuing existence of the French Foreign Legion. First of all, the author defines national interests and strategic culture of France for certain periods, and then he assesses the contribution of the Legion to fulfillment of goals connected to the national interests and the strategic culture. To the main conclusions of this work belongs that the first hypothesis was confirmed, the French Foreign Legion helped to reach goals based on national interests in certain periods. On the other hand, the second hypothesis was not completely confirmed. The author expected that the strategic culture always stabilizes and supports the role of the Legion, but he found out the opposite for the interwar period. The author supposes higher importance of the Legion in the area of peacekeeping operations under a mandate of the UN or NATO because the EU currently lacks troops prepared to be deployed abroad.

Cette recherche porte sur l’acquisition du français à la Légion étrangère. La Légion regroupe environ 140 nationalités et se charge elle-même de l’enseignement du français aux futurs légionnaires, principalement pendant une période de quatre mois au centre d’instruction de Castelnaudary. L’hypothèse principale de cette thèse est que ce mode d’acquisition rapide, en contexte plurilingue, et orienté vers une langue de travail concise et codifiée (le langage militaire), produit une variété linguistique reconnaissable, que nous nommons légiolecte. Nous nous interrogeons sur la corrélation entre le type même d’enseignement et la langue produite. Pour répondre à ces hypothèses, nous avons étudié les énoncés de légionnaires russes, serbes et polonais, car notre connaissance de ces langues nous permettait de neutraliser les marques transcodiques pour ne faire émerger que le légiolecte. / This research focuses on the acquisition of French language in the Foreign Legion. The Legion includes about 40 different nationalities and takes care itself of the teaching of French to the future legionnaires, mainly during the four-month training period at the Castelnaudary Instruction Centre. The main hypothesis of this work is that this fast acquisition in a multilingual context, and oriented towards a concise and codified working language (the military language), produces a recognizable linguistic variety, which we call ‘legiolect’. We wonder about the correlation between the type of teaching and the produced language. To answer these questions, we studied the statements of Russian, Serbian and Polish legionnaires, because our knowledge of these languages allowed us to neutralize the transcodic marks to bring out only the legiolect.

Le sujet de cette thèse, traite des engagements du général Koenig (1898-1970) en tant que militaire, homme politique et militant pour la cause israélienne et l‟amitié avec le peuple juif. Natif de Caen, Pierre Koenig eut dès son enfance une vocation affirmée pour la carrière militaire. Engagé volontaire pendant la première guerre mondiale, il servit ensuite en Silésie, en Allemagne et pendant une longue période au Maroc dans la Légion étrangère. Au début de la 2e guerre mondiale, il participa en 1940 à la campagne de Norvège et se rallia en juin au général de Gaulle dont il fut un des plus fidèles compagnons. Sa carrière se poursuivit en Afrique : Gabon, Levant, Libye et Tunisie. C‟est en Libye en juin 1942 à Bir-Hakeim que Koenig et ses troupes en résistant pendant plus de dix jours aux forces germano-italiennes du maréchal Rommel, ont signé un des plus grands succès des armes françaises pendant la deuxième guerre mondiale. Après la campagne de Tunisie, Koenig fut appelé par le général de Gaulle à occuper des postes importants faisant appel à ses qualités de diplomate et de négociateur : état-major d‟Alger, représentant du Gouvernement provisoire de la République Française auprès du commandement interallié et chef des Forces Françaises de l‟intérieur. Á la Libération, il fut nommé Gouverneur militaire de Paris et ensuite commandant de la zone d‟occupation française en Allemagne avec les pouvoirs civils et militaires. [etc.] / This thesis deals with the engagements carried out general Koenig (1898-1970) as a soldier, a politician and a fighter for the Israeli cause and friendship with the Jewish people. Pierre Koenig was born in Caen (France). Since childhood he had inclined always strongly to a military career. He was a volunteer during the First World War, then he served in Silesia, in Germany and in the Foreign Legion in Morocco for a long period of time. When the Second world war began, he took part in the Norway campaign early in 1940, then in June he joined General de Gaulle and became one of his most faithful companions. His career went on in Africa : Gaboon, the Levant, Libya, Tunisia. In Bir-Hakeim in Libya in June 1942, Koenig and his troops held out against Marshal Rommel‟s German and Italian forces for over ten days, thus achieving one of the greatest successes for french arms during the Second world war. After the Tunisia campaign, Koenig was called by General de Gaulle to high appointments summoning his qualities as a diplomat and negotiator. Posted first at the Algiers Headquarters, he was then the Representative of the provisional government of the French Republic next to the S.H.A.E.F. and later on chief of the Home French Forces. After the liberation of France he was appointed as “Military governor” in Paris, and afterwards commander-in-chief for the French occupation zone in Germany with civilian and military powers [etc.]