Chapter 12. Grothendieck's Family I

Chapter 12.
Grothendieck's Family I
In this biographical account, we have until now almost completely left out any
mention of the lives of Grothendieck's wife and children. Although discretion is
appropriate, this essential part of his life must be taken into account. Let us now
catch up on the most important elements, giving more detail in a later chapter.
Grothendieck's wife, Mireille Dufour, was a few years older than hw was, and
originally came from Normandy. She had received secretarial training, and
worked occasionally as an accountant. Lorenz G. said of her that she was a
“person without a home”, not anchored in the bourgeois world; Ebba P.
experienced her as a strong and determined woman. As early as the fifties she
must have spent time in Spain; she spoke Spanish very well, and apparently had
contacts with Spanish anarchist networks. Presumably at some time around
1956, she met her future husband and his mother Hanka in these circles. In
Volume I of this biography (Anarchy), an account is given of how Alexander
was obliged to promise his mother on her deathbed to break off his relationship
with Aline Driquert and marry Mireille. The marriage cannot have been a really
happy one – at least not in the conventional sense. Grothendieck had sexual
relations with other women, including domestic employees, and he brought his
lovers to the family apartment and occasionally let them live there. Things went
so far that in one case Mireille made a “pact” with one of these women in order
to fend of the advances of a third one.
After Grothendieck's “turning point”, his relationship with Mireille became
not only tense, but hostile, at least on his side. At first he refused to pay any
alimony, and took to addressing his ex-wife with the formal “vous”. Around
1972 Mireille could not bear living in the house in Massy anymore, and instead
found herself an apartment in the dreary apartment blocks of the Paris suburbs.
She was forced to start working again, and for twelve hours a day her two sons
(then around eleven and seven years old) were left to their own devices. The
relationship improved only after Grothendieck’s meeting with the Japanese
monks in the middle of the seventies. A casual remark in a letter by
Grothendieck indicates that the divorce did not officially take place until 1981.
In spite of everything, Mireille never completely broke off from her former
husband. In 1978, some time after his move to Villecun, she also moved to the
region, the main reason being that their two sons should be near their father.
The same thing happened when Grothendieck later moved to Mormoiron.
In Anarchy, it is also recounted that Serge Grothendieck was the son of

Grothendieck and Aline (Marcelle) Driquert, a woman much older than him,
with whom he had a passing affair. The issue of custody led to severe disputes
between the parents, which in 1962 escalated to legal proceedings. Serge grew
up with his mother, spending the first thirteen years of his life in Nancy. In the
spring of 1967, his mother moved with him to Nice. Serge attended high school,
but did not take the baccalaureate exams. Later he went to the art academy in
Paris for two years, but again without graduating. He says that all in all he spent
most of his time in Nice. He kept his head above water with temporary jobs, and
eventually gained expertise in the art of woodworking.
Around 1970, he began to come increasingly under the influence of his
father; as already stated, he joined the group Survivre and helped his father in a
few campaigns as a supporter. During this period he, too, became a breakaway.
According to his own words his life, measured against the usual criteria, is “the
grandiose career of a total loser”.
Serge never lived for long periods in the commune of Olmet or in
Villecun, but he belonged to the circle of the members of these communes. He
came to know the P.s and other commune members there, particularly Jean-
Claude Durand, and he also met the Buddhist monks there. He became a fervent
disciple of the guru Maharaj (Prem Rawat); in a letter dating from Christmas
1979, his father even goes so far as to call him a “Guru-Maharaj-freak”.
Johanna Grothendieck was born on 16 February 1959 in Boston, but spent

only seventeen days of her life in the United States. Her mother returned to
France after having been in the USA for about half a year. Johanna's parents
were not yet married at that time, a fact that was quite a headache for the
conservative community of Harvard. (How should one introduce Mireille
Dufour to a colleague?) Johanna spent the last two years of primary school at a
private school - her father had probably already grown skeptical of all public
institutions.
In 1969, Johanna was sent to spend a year in Hamburg - not with the
Heydorn family as one might suppose, but with the family of Hans Vollmer and
his wife, who lived in the same street. However, she did visit the Heydorns
almost every week. Her parents had brought her to Hamburg, and on this
occasion they themselves also naturally visited with the Heydorn family.
Johanna remembers “Aunt Dagmar” very fondly and affectionately.
According to her own recollections, by the age of thirteen she felt school to
be “a prison”. She failed her first entrance exam for sixth grade (because of
mathematics, of all things), but succeeded on the second try, and spent a further
two and a half years in school, leaving definitively in the middle of the year at
the age of fourteen. Her father wrote letters to the school administration in order
to be allowed to remove her from school. He claimed to be teaching her himself,
but in fact he never did so, not even one lesson. In fact he was of the opinion
that school was superfluous, perhaps even harmful, and that everyone must find
his or her own way.
Left to her own devices, Johanna found her own way, with the
corresponding experiences. Sometimes she lived with her mother, sometimes
with her father in the commune, and sometimes alone there. Around that time,
at the age of fourteen, she fell in love with a boy with whom she stayed together
for about four years. Later her situation became more stable, as will be
described in a later chapter.
The sons Alexandre (born on 18 July 1961) and Matthieu (born on 23 April
1965) lived with their mother after the separation, and became self-sufficient
very early. Alexandre attended school until the age of seventeen, Matthieu only
until fourteen, and neither of them graduated. Alexandre learned the profession
of electrician, but only worked sporadically, and later turned to making and
selling kalimbas.
As this chapter deals with Grothendieck's family, it is appropriate to also

mention Grothendieck's half-sister Maidi, who was discussed in detail in
Anarchy. As far as the author knows, after leaving for the U.S., Maidi returned
to Europe only once, in the fall of 1978. Grothendieck first received a visit from
Maidi's daughter Diana (then eighteen years old) and then from Maidi herself.
He wrote about this meeting in a letter to Dagmar Heydorn dated November 27,
1978:
I was very pleased to have news of you again, on the occasion of Maidi's visit to you. Yes,
Maidi roared through Europe like a rushing wind - so strongly, she says, is she drawn back
into the so-called bosom of her family. But she so wanted, just one last time before the end of
the world, to salute the older (and probably crumbling) branches of her existence, as a
farewell, so to speak. The reunion with her was amicable - almost a rediscovery. That
probably comes with the well-known serenity of age - I am now already half a century old
and feel correspondingly wise. Even a woman hardly tempts me out of the chimney corner -
that's how wise I am now, just imagine, Dagmar!
At the beginning of September Diana was at my place for a couple of days too, Maidi's
second daughter. She is a very alert young person, and loves Maidi with all her heart. She
understands quite a bit, and her love for her mother is quite poignant.
One might not even quote these rather banal lines if Diana's memory of the
visit1 were not been completely different:
Concerning my visit to Shurik in 1978, this was very pleasant for me, but for Maidi it ended
in disaster. I spent a crazy time in Villecun. He was very nice to me. Naturally he was
condescending, but at eighteen years old I was too sure of myself to feel that. I met some of
his friends. I would have thought of these as lovely memories, but after speaking with Y. in
2007 I realized how ignorant and immature I was. […]
Once Shurik longed for Maidi so much that he sent her money for a visit. At first she
hesitated, also because it was his money, but then she gave in. The first two days were fine,
but then he left Maidi alone in his house, not with permission, but with the explicit request to
read his letters. When he later came back he had a meltdown. He threw her out of the house,
1
Email to the author
suitcase and all. He accused her of invading his private sphere, etc. From that moment on I
can't remember a single sane moment. We still exchanged a couple of letters later on, but
they got worse and worse. I didn't keep all of his letters because they were so horrible and
contrary to the facts. Also Maidi received a few letters which she immediately threw away. I
remember one that she didn't even open. She threw it straight into the garbage.
The rest of this letter will be quoted in Volume 4 of this biography. This visit
and these letters marked the end of Grothendieck's relationship with his sister
and her daughter.

Chapter 12. Grothendieck's Family I

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Chapter 12. Grothendieck's Family I

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Chapter 12.

In Anarchy, it is also recounted that Serge Grothendieck was the son of

Johanna Grothendieck was born on 16 February 1959 in Boston, but spent

As this chapter deals with Grothendieck's family, it is appropriate to also

You might also like