People · French consul-general
Émile Kraetzer
恺自迩Kǎizìěr · 1839–1887
French consul-general in Shanghai in 1885–87 who opened a free French-language school in the French Concession and laid water pipes for residents.
Émile Kraetzer (恺自迩, Kǎizìěr) was French consul-general in Shanghai from 1885 until he left on leave in 1887. Trained in law, he had been a judge in Kiel, Hamburg and Yokohama and had served as consul in Italy and India before coming to the city.
Two things from his short term are recorded in the gazetteer. In February 1886, at the request of the French Municipal Council (公董局), he approved a French-language school in the concession: Chinese and French teachers, free French textbooks and no fees. It opened with about a hundred pupils and later had over three hundred. He also had water pipes laid in the French Concession, and residents were not charged for the water. In June 1886 he was sent to Beijing to act as minister and was back in September. He went home on leave in 1887, the year the gazetteer gives for his death.