He inherited the leadership of a major steel manufacturer in Lorraine at a time when it was part of Germany, and in Meurthe-et-Moselle in France to the west.

His position as a deputy and also as head of the largest industrial enterprise in France inevitably led to accusations that he was manipulating policy in favor of his business empire.

[5] François de Wendel left Lorraine in 1891 to avoid German military service, and finished his secondary education in a Jesuit lycée in Paris.

Between 1908 and 1913 he built the new Pâtural plant at Hayange using American concepts such as blast furnaces with armoured shafts and skip chargers.

[8] In his youth, François de Wendel was a proponent of Capitaine Dreyfus's innocence, which put him at odds with his aristocratic milieu.

In 1906 he ran for deputy for the Briey district against the incumbent, Albert François Lebrun, at a time when the separation of church and state was a central issue.

[10] He downplayed relations with the church, made it clear he was a republican, and was helped by Aristide Briand and Alexandre Millerand of the Democratic Left Party, but was defeated again, although this time by a narrow margin.

[12] François de Wendel was attacked over his role in World War I, his opposition to the Cartel des Gauches led by Édouard Herriot in 1924–26 and his support of the nationalist and conservative Raymond Poincaré.

He assisted refugees and prisoners from Alsace-Lorraine, and formed a study group on Lorraine with Canon Collin and Ambassador Bompard.

[17] Due to this involvement, there were allegations that the Wendels used their positions to further their interests, but their Lorraine steelworks were behind German lines throughout the war and earned them no benefits.

[11] François de Wendel was elected a senator for Meurthe-et-Moselle on 16 October 1932 in place of Albert Lebrun, who was appointed President of the Republic.

Several times de Wendel sent teams of engineers to the US and Canada to observe the experiments with new processes for continuous strip rolling, and the solutions that were eventually adopted.

[8] After the war, de Wendel installed an electric bloom-preheating oven at Moyeuvre-Grande, followed by a powerful continuous billet train, and began a complete overhaul of the blast furnaces along the lines of the successful model at Hayange, but with a more powerful type of blast furnace that processed 400 tons daily of minette.

[11] François de Wendel, Théodore Laurent and Eugène Schneider formed a triumvirate that dominated French steel-making in the inter-war period.

[21] In 1929 François de Wendel was quietly involved in purchase of the moderate and neutral Le Temps, but never had exclusive control of that newspaper.

[22] Confédération générale de la production française President René-Paul Duchemin signed on behalf of French employers.

[11] In December 1918 the Comité des forges created the Comptoir sidérurgique de France, which allocated quotas to members of the steel cartel.

After the war the Comité des forges president François de Wendel asked that this function be transferred to a consortium organized by the committee.

[30] In June 1940 François de Wendel refrained from going to Vichy to vote full powers to Marshal Philippe Pétain, in a gesture of “discreet disapproval”.

[33] It was replaced by the Comité d'organisation de la sidérurgie (CORSID – Organizing Committee for the Iron and Steel Industry).

[26] After World War II (1939–45) François de Wendel put his energy into rebuilding the Meurthe-et-Moselle metallurgical factories, and was also interested in the coal industry of Limburg in the Netherlands.

I would strive, by reducing to a minimum the modifications brought to the previous construction, to build this furnace as quickly and as economically as possible.

But it is important to remember that our projects will have to be approved by the Professional Office of the Steel Industry and that if we do not adopt a crucible diameter of 5.250 meters, we risk being considered retrogressives.

"[35] In January 1947 François de Wendel told the president of the Nancy Chamber of Commerce that proposals to undertake a major expansion of the steel industry were "both dishonest and foolish.

"[35] In 1947 Konrad Adenauer and Robert Pferdmenges proposed to invite French companies to take controlling interests in major Ruhr steel producers.