Buisson was a professor at what became the
University of Neuchâtel. Beginning in 1867, he attended three international conferences of the
League of Peace and Freedom. At the last congress in
Lausanne in 1869, he read a speech. Meanwhile, he tried to put in place a liberal Protestant church, calling pastors
Jules Steeg and
Felix Pécaut. After the announcement of the proclamation of the Republic, he returned to France and was actively involved in political and social initiatives of the municipality of 17th arrondissement. In December 1870, he became head of the 17th arrondissement municipal
orphanage, the first secular orphanage, which later became the Seine orphanage. Refusing to teach philosophy because he was more willing to work for the poorest children, it was thanks to his friendship with the Minister of Public Instruction, Jules Simon, that he was appointed director of the Paris schools. Concerned about the future of the children in the orphanage, he connected with the
philanthropist Joseph Gabriel Prevost and placed the children in his
Prévost orphanage in
Cempuis. In 1880, he appointed Paul Robin director of the orphanage. From 1879 to 1896, Buisson was called by
Jules Ferry, the successor of Jules Simon, the Directorate of Primary Education. In 1890, he became professor of education at the
Sorbonne. He supervised the work of writing and designing the laws of secularism. In 1905, he was the chairman of the parliamentary committee that wrote the text of the law of
separation of church and state. In 1898, as a supporter of
Alfred Dreyfus, Buisson participated in the creation of the
French League for Human Rights, which he was president from 1913 to 1926. Deputy of the Seine from 1902 to 1914, then from 1919 to 1924, he was a particularly strong advocate of
vocational education and compulsory
voting rights for women. Buisson was sympathetic to women's suffrage, unlike most Radicals, and was rapporteur of the committee that examined the proposal of
Paul Dussaussoy for limited women's suffrage. He was elected again from 1919 to 1924, and worked for Franco-German reconciliation, especially after the occupation of the
Ruhr in 1923. An early supporter of the League of Nations, he invited German pacifists to Paris and travels to
Berlin. Ferdinand Buisson was also the prime contractor for a remarkable editorial project, the ''Dictionnaire de pédagogie et d'instruction primaire'', for the writing of which he surrounded himself with more than 350 collaborators, and more particularly with
James Guillaume who became its editor-in-chief. The first edition was published by Hachette between 1882 and 1887. A new edition was published in 1911. Not limited to the role of editorial responsibility, Buisson wrote entries such as Secularism, Intuition, and Prayer. His dictionary is considered the "Bible" of the secular, republican school system, and introduced the concept of a secular religious replacement. The Minister of Education,
Vincent Peillon, was one of his disciples. A supporter from the beginning of the
League of Nations, Buisson then devoted himself to Franco-German rapprochement, especially after the occupation of the Ruhr in 1923, inviting German pacifists to Paris and traveling to Berlin. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1927 with the German professor
Ludwig Quidde. == Tributes and distinctions ==