Wendel

"The curator of the exhibition has done things in a very educational manner. The panels explain how, from 1840, a private railway line connected Hayange and Moyeuvre to the ports of the Moselle. Then, how the family took a stake in the Paris-Strasbourg Railway Company, which in turn invested in the Stiring blast furnaces, on the German border. Like Le Creusot, it was then a hamlet in the making. The Wendels were going to make it a workers’ town in their own image."

"Jean-Martin is an exceptional entrepreneur. When he dies, he leaves a fine inheritance to his children, as well as a noble title he purchased and had registered in 1727. This evening at the Musée d’Orsay is, of course, dedicated to him. The Wendels know that if for three centuries the name of their clan resounds in the ears of the French, it is first and foremost thanks to the genius of their common ancestor."

"The idea of “paternalism from baptism to the grave” was, long before him, the work of great French industrial families, of Protestant belief, such as the Schneider and Wendel, or Catholic, like Peugeot and Michelin, who relied on Christian faith to practice an active social policy. Boussac’s social work takes a different path, in the sense that it is not inspired by religious ethics, but solely by the generosity of the boss."