
Effects of Haussmannization
Bourgeoisification of the City Center
In 1864 Haussmann expressed his hatred for the rootless population of the great city in a speech in the Assembly. This population kept increasing as a result of his works. The increase of rents drove the proletariat into the suburbs. Haussmann did relieve Paris of vulnerability to urban insurrection, but Paris lost much of its original population and thus much of its original character. To Haussmann, his work was a success, in his memoir he declares that in less than five years he gutted old central Paris’s neighborhoods of uprisings and barricades, only those who could afford to stay the expensive new housing remained and the rest were forced out. [1] Haussmann carried his work with such conviction that he even gave himself the name, artiste démolisseur. [7]
Parisians were excited for the reconstruction of Paris and the 19th century modernization it would bring, such as the sewer system and efficient circulation; however, what came unexpected was that these modernizations would come, but at the benefit of the elite and to the dismay of the socioeconomically vulnerable. Paris was infrastructurally upgraded but lost much of its character to Haussmann’s uniformity in building facades and wide boulevards. [1]

Figure XIV: Artiste démolisseur [VII]
Resources
1. Jordan, David P. "The City: Baron Haussmann and Modern Paris." The American Scholar 61, no. 1 (1992): 99-106. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41211982.
7. Benjamin, Walter. "Paris: Capital of the Nineteenth Century." Perspecta 12 (1969): 165-72. doi:10.2307/1566965.
Images
VII. Wettlaufer, Alexandra. "Haussmann's Paris Architecture." 19th Century France: A Visual Resource. Accessed July 30, 2018. https://www.laits.utexas.edu/wettlaufer/architecture/