# Pierre De Geyter

> Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Pierre_De_Geyter
> Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Pierre_De_Geyter.md
> Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_De_Geyter
> Source revision: 1355044286
> License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)

Belgian socialist and composer (1848–1932)

This article relies largely or entirely on a single source. Please help improve this article by citing more sources. Find sources: "Pierre De Geyter" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (October 2021)

Pierre Chrétien De Geyter Native name Pierre Chrétien Degeyter Born (1848-10-08)8 October 1848 Ghent, Belgium Died 26 September 1932(1932-09-26) (aged 83) Saint-Denis, French Third Republic Language French Nationality French Literary movement Socialism

**Pierre Chrétien De Geyter** (French: [\[pjɛʁ kʁetjɛ̃ də ɡetɛʁ\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA/French); Flemish: [\[də ˈɣɛitər\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA/Dutch); 8 October 1848 – 26 September 1932) was a Belgian-French [socialist](/source/Socialism) and a [composer](/source/Composer), known for writing the music of "[The Internationale](/source/The_Internationale)."

## Early life

De Geyter was born in [Ghent](/source/Ghent), [Belgium](/source/Belgium), where his parents, originally from the [French Flanders](/source/French_Flanders), had moved to work in the [textile](/source/Textile) factories. When he was seven, the family, who already counted five children, returned to [France](/source/France) and settled in [Lille](/source/Lille). Pierre worked there as a thread maker and learned how to read and write at workers' evening classes. At age sixteen, he enrolled at the Lille Academy where he first took drawing classes, which allowed him to find a job as a [woodcarver](/source/Woodcarver). He later took music classes, and joined the workers' choir "La Lyre des Travailleurs", founded by the [socialist](/source/French_Workers'_Party) leader of Lille, Gustave Delory.

## *The Internationale*

"The Internationale" (instrumental)

On 15 July 1888, Delory contacted De Geyter to compose music for several *"Chants révolutionnaires"* that were often sung at popular events with Lille socialists. Among these was a song that was to become the [International Workingmen's Association](/source/International_Workingmen's_Association) anthem, *[The Internationale](/source/The_Internationale)*. The lyrics had been written by [Eugène Edine Pottier](/source/Eug%C3%A8ne_Edine_Pottier) during the *[semaine sanglante](/source/Semaine_sanglante)* (the "bloody week", May 22–28, 1871) marking the end and the severe repression of the [Paris Commune](/source/Paris_Commune) of 1871. Until then, the song had usually been sung to the tune of the *[Marseillaise](/source/Marseillaise)*.

It took Pierre one Sunday morning to compose his music on a [harmonium](/source/Pump_organ). According to one source, he then asked his brother Adolphe to play it on the [bugle](/source/Bugle_(instrument)), and subsequently made some minor changes to the music. The new composition was first played by the Lyre des Travailleurs at the yearly fête of the Lille trade union of newspaper sellers in July 1888. Six thousand leaflets were printed at Pierre's favorite printing firm, Boldoduc, and sold to raise money for the socialist party in Lille. To protect his job, only "De Geyter" was named as the composer but Pierre was dismissed regardless and was subsequently blacklisted by Lille employers. He was soon reduced to performing odd jobs, such as making coffins. In 1902, he left Lille with his wife and daughter and moved to [Saint-Denis](/source/Saint-Denis%2C_Seine-Saint-Denis), near [Paris](/source/Paris).

In fact, Pierre De Geyter had neglected to secure copyright. As the song became ever more popular, his brother Adolphe De Geyter claimed copyright in 1901 and began to collect royalties on it. Pierre had become estranged from the socialist establishment of Lille by siding with the left-wing opponents of the Bloc National government of 1902, and with the Marxist war opponents influenced by [Bolshevism](/source/Bolshevik), who would later form the [communist party](/source/French_Communist_Party). In 1904, Pierre started court proceedings against Adolphe, but Gustave Delory (mayor of Lille by then) supported Adolphe's claim (though in an 1888 meeting with the Ghent socialist leader [Edward Anseele](/source/Edward_Anseele) he had identified Pierre Degeyter as the author) and, as a result, Pierre was unable to prove his authorship. He lost the case in 1914. At the beginning of 1916, however, during the [First World War](/source/World_War_I), Adolphe De Geyter hanged himself, leaving a note for his brother in which he acknowledged his fraud and asserted that he had been pressured by others to make the claim. Pierre, who was in unoccupied France at the time, received the letter only after the war. In 1922, the copyright verdict was reversed.

## Later life

In 1927, leaders of the [Soviet Union](/source/Soviet_Union) discovered that the real author of *The Internationale*, which was then the Soviet Union's national anthem, was still alive. Pierre was invited to [Moscow](/source/Moscow) for the celebration of the 10th anniversary of the [October Revolution](/source/October_Revolution) and was in the stands of the honorary guests, with the German sculptor [Käthe Kollwitz](/source/K%C3%A4the_Kollwitz) at his side. [Joseph Stalin](/source/Joseph_Stalin) awarded him a Soviet Union state pension (according to some sources as a compensation for his copyright). As this was Pierre's only income, apart from modest fees collected on music for the other Pottier poems (particularly *L'Insurgé* and *En avant la Classe Ouvrière*) and on popular tunes he had also composed, and although the left-wing town administration of [Saint-Denis](/source/Saint-Denis%2C_Seine-Saint-Denis) granted him a free apartment, Pierre De Geyter spent the last years of his life in precarity. After his death at Saint-Denis in 1932, more than fifty thousand people attended his funeral.

## In popular culture

After his death, even in France, his name mainly came up during [copyright litigation](/source/The_Internationale#Copyright) cases. French courts ruled his compositions, including *The Internationale*, copyrighted until October 2017.[*[citation needed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed)*]

There is a Pierre De Geyter street in Ghent and there are Pierre De Geyter squares both in Lille (in Fives, the suburb where he used to live) and in Saint-Denis. Lille also named a [procession giant](/source/Processional_giants_and_dragons_in_Belgium_and_France) after him. In Sofia (Bulgaria) there is a street Пиер Дегейтър. A bronze monument to Pierre De Geyter has adorned the Ghent MIAT (Museum of Industry, Labour and Textiles) since 1998.

A documentary film on Pierre De Geyter and the story of *The Internationale* was produced in 1978.[1]

## Notes

1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** [De Geyter - Geschichte eines Liedes, DEFA, 1978 (documentary film in German)](http://www.defa.de/DesktopDefault.aspx?TabID=412&FilmID=Q6UJ9A00314N)[*[dead link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Link_rot)*]

## References

- "Gij zijt kanalje! heeft men ons verweten", (pages 350–353) by Jaap van der Merwe (Utrecht, 1974), [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [90-229-7191-0](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/90-229-7191-0)

## External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to [Pierre De Geyter](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Pierre_De_Geyter).

- [Pierre's early life in Lille. Version blaming Delory for the copyright fraud](http://www.petitesbelgiques.be/fr/en_fives.htm) [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20120208132827/http://www.petitesbelgiques.be/fr/en_fives.htm) 8 February 2012 at the [Wayback Machine](/source/Wayback_Machine) (in French)

- [*New York Times* article on the suicide of his brother, still claiming Adolphe was the author](https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1919/09/21/96338178.pdf)

- [The International//Guardian, Australia, 1998](https://web.archive.org/web/19991012032546/http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/7078/inter.txt)

Authority control databases International ISNI VIAF GND FAST WorldCat National United States France BnF data Italy 2 Czech Republic Spain Netherlands Latvia Sweden Poland Israel Finland Belgium Academics CiNii Artists MusicBrainz 2 Discography of American Historical Recordings FID People Trove Deutsche Biographie DDB Other IdRef SNAC RISM

---
Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Pierre De Geyter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_De_Geyter) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_De_Geyter?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.