Emile Henry

Emile Henry (1872 – May 21, 1894) was a French Anarchist, who on February 12, 1894 detonated a bomb at the Café Terminusin the Parisian Gare Saint-Lazare killing one person and wounding twenty. Though his activity in the Anarchist movement was limited, he garnered much attention as a result of his crimes and of his age. He was also seen as one of the first people of a growing group of revolutionaries (largely anarchist) who subscribed to the mantra of "Propaganda of the deed", which would later take the life of many governmental figures. Henry had grown up in an extremely liberal aristocratic environment. His father who was a communard (or early communist) was exiled for some time for his beliefs. His brother was another key person in the French anarchistic circles. Emile, who was angered over another Anarchists' execution for the destruction of a government building, that hurt no one, took it upon himself to strike back to avenge his fellow revolutionaries death. He saw the Cafe as a representation of the bourgeois itself and his intent was to kill as many people as possible in the bombing. When brought to trial for these acts, he was asked by the courts why he had needlessly harmed so many innocent people, to which he replied, "..there are no innocent bourgeois." Ironically (and unintentionally) a line of designer bakeware currently bare the name of this anti-bourgeois insurgent.