Michel Jean-Pierre Debré was born on 15 January 1912 in Paris to Jeanne-Marguerite Debat-Ponsan and Robert Debré, a renowned professor of medicine who is considered the founder of modern pediatrics. His maternal grandfather was the academic painter Édouard Debat-Ponsan, and his father was Jewish, while his grandfather was a rabbi. Debré himself was Roman Catholic.
Debré studied at the Lycée Montaigne and then at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand, obtaining a diploma from the École Libre des Sciences Politiques and a PhD in Law from the University of Paris. He became a Professor of Law at the University of Paris and joined the École des Officiers de Réserve de la Cavalerie in Saumur.
In 1934, at the age of twenty-two, Debré passed the entrance exam and became a member of the Conseil d'État. He joined the staff of the Economy Minister Paul Reynaud in 1938.
During World War II, Debré was enlisted as a cavalry officer and was taken prisoner in Artenay in June 1940. He managed to escape in September and returned to the Conseil d'État, which was now under the administration of the Vichy regime. He was sworn in by Marshal Philippe Pétain.
In 1942, Debré was promoted to maître des requêtes by the Minister of Justice. After the German invasion of the free zone in November 1942, Debré's political Pétainism disappeared, and in February 1943, he became involved in the French Resistance by joining the network Ceux de la Résistance.
Debré's involvement in the French Resistance led to him being given the task by General Charles de Gaulle of making a list of prefects who would replace those of the Vichy regime after the Liberation. He was made Commissaire de la République for Angers in August 1944 and was charged with the task of reforming the French Civil Service in 1945.
Under the Fourth Republic, Debré initially supported the Democratic and Socialist Union of the Resistance but defected to the Radical-Socialist Party on the advice of de Gaulle. He then joined the Rally of the French People and was elected senator of Indre-et-Loire, a position he held from 1948 to 1958.
In 1957, Debré founded Le Courrier de la colère, a newspaper that fiercely defended French Algeria and called for the return to power of de Gaulle. He served as the first Prime Minister of the French Fifth Republic from 1959 to 1962 and is considered the "father" of the current Constitution of France.
