Biography
Jack Mathieu Émile Lang (born 2 September 1939) is a French politician affiliated with the Socialist Party. He held the position of Minister of Culture from 1981 to 1986 and again from 1988 to 1993, and served as Minister of National Education between 1992 and 1993, and later from 2000 to 2002.
Lang was also the Mayor of Blois from 1989 until his resignation in 2000. He is widely recognized for creating the Fête de la Musique in 1982 during his tenure as Culture Minister—an annual all-day public music festival celebrated on 21 June in France and worldwide. Since 2013, he has served as president of the Arab World Institute in Paris.
Born in Mirecourt, Vosges, Jack Lang is the son of Roger Lang and Marie-Luce Bouchet. His paternal family, based in Nancy, were a secular, assimilated, affluent Jewish family. Roger Lang managed the family business founded by Jack's grandfather, Albert; both Roger and Albert were Freemasons. His mother, Marie-Luce Bouchet, a Catholic born in 1919, was the daughter of Emile Bouchet (died 1926) and Berthe Boulanger, a nurse and also a Freemason.
In 1938, anticipating war with Germany, Albert and Roger sent their wives to Vichy. Following the German invasion, Albert Lang and his wife relocated to Brive-la-Gaillarde in Corrèze. Young Jack and his mother stayed with his great-grandmother (Berthe Boulanger’s mother) in Cholet before moving to Bordeaux. Roger Lang was initially mobilized in Lunéville, then joined his parents and brother-in-law Luc Bouchet in Brive. After the bombing of Bordeaux, Jack and his mother also moved to Brive. Roger Lang was convicted by the Brive court for not reporting his children as Jews but was later acquitted by the Court of Appeal since the children’s mother was Catholic. He had acted on advice from Brive’s rabbi, David Feuerwerker. Despite this, Roger Lang was placed under house arrest. In April 1942, Berthe Bouchet (Boulanger) visited the Lang family when her daughter was about to have her third child, Marianne. In 1943, Berthe was arrested by the Gestapo in Nancy for involvement in resistance activities, deported to Ravensbrück, and died in spring 1945.
Jack Lang pursued political science at the Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris and earned a postgraduate degree in public law. His career combined teaching with cultural and artistic endeavors. He founded and produced the Festival du Monde in Nancy, directed the Nancy University Theatre from 1963 to 1972, and led the Théâtre national de Chaillot from 1972 to 1974. Simultaneously, he was a professor of international law at Nancy University (1971–1981) and Paris Nanterre University. He married Monique Buczynski in 1961, and they have two daughters.
In 1997, Lang served as President of the Jury at the 47th Berlin International Film Festival.
Lang began his political career as a Socialist member of the French National Assembly representing Paris in 1977. He is most notable for his terms as Minister of Culture (22 May 1981 – 19 March 1986 and 13 May 1988 – 29 March 1993) and Minister of Education (3 April 1992 – 29 March 1993 and 27 March 2000 – 5 May 2002).
