History of the Flemish Movement

Dit artikel is een antwoord op een opinieartikel van Stefan Grondelaers ("De kwaal van de standaardtaal", De Standaard, 22-02-2019). Grondelaers schreef onder andere dat het Vlaamse denken over standaardtaal 'genezen' en 'gedeïdeologiseerd' moet worden. Er moet een 'grote schoonmaak' gehouden worden. Vlamingen hebben ‘verlammende ideeën’ over taal. En het wordt tijd dat die ideeën ‘uit de voegen loskomen’. Daartegenover stel ik dat de Nederlandse standaardtaal in het Vlaamse onderwijs na jaren van verwaarlozing juist geherwaardeerd moet worden. En dat kan samengaan met waardering voor taalvariatie en registervariatie.

The "Stichting Noord-Nederland-Vlaanderen" was een fairly succesfull organisation within the Greater Netherlands movement between both world wars. Although it did allign itself with fascist or national-socialist parties, it's members surely did. By analyzing the leadership, their affiliations and the articles in its magazine I tried to critisize the former neutral position in the Greater Netherlands movement in the historiography.

Mechelen heeft als de 'katholieke hoofdstad' van België een complexe politieke geschiedenis. In 1830 stonden de orangisten – de voorstanders van de Nederlandse vorst Willem I en zijn regering – er opvallend sterk. Nadien werd de breuklijn tussen katholieken en liberalen allesoverheersend. Al in 1863 brak er een schoolstrijd uit en dat was vijftien jaar vroeger dan in de nationale politiek. Het geschil over de controle op het officieel onderwijs mobiliseerde de massa gelovigen, net als de katholieke congressen van 1863, 1864 en 1867 die in Mechelen plaatsvonden. De Mechelse BWP-afdeling was op aansturen en onder leiding van die van Gent gesticht. De Vlaamse kwestie kwam pas vanaf ca. 1907 op de politieke agenda. Een coalitie van progressieve, Vlaamsgezinde katholieken, socialisten en liberalen kwam in 1921 aan de macht, maar na drie jaar geruzie werden de socialisten in de oppositie gezet. Tijdens de woelige jaren dertig werd het democratisch regime ook in Mechelen zwaar bekritiseerd en in 1938 kwam er een controversieel kartel van de katholieken, de Vlaams-nationalisten van het VNV en het extreemrechtse Rex-Vlaanderen. In 1945 kwam er een coalitie van socialisten en liberalen. Pas na het Schoolpact van 1958 was de tijd rijp voor een coalitie van socialisten en katholieken. Vanaf het jaar 2000 versnipperde het politieke landschap, mede door de grote electorale steun voor radicaal-rechts, terwijl ook de ecologisten een belangrijke fractie werden.

The results of the 2010 federal elections in Belgium show a growing divide between the French-speaking south (Wallonia) and the Dutch-speaking north (Flanders) of the country. In the north, the Flemish nationalist party New Flemish Alliance (N-VA) achieved a landslide victory with its campaign for complete political autonomy for Flanders. Never in the history of Belgium has Flemish nationalism been politically stronger than today. A secession of Flanders from Belgium is no longer considered an unimaginable scenario. The N-VA has its roots in the “Flemish Movement,” a collective term for a plurality of people and organizations that have pushed for greater Flemish autonomy since Belgium achieved independence in 1830. This article presents an analysis of this movement, its ideology, goals, achievements and relevance to the current political crisis.

This paper uses A. Wimmer's multilevel process theory to assess the dynamics of Flemish and Walloon ethnic groups through the ages and explain how political events have changed the Roman multilingual frontier into a political salient linguistic border. Moreover the article highlights how identity is being used today and how other factors, like a Brussels regional identity complicate contemporary relations and keep the conflict alive.

The Walloon Movement is the lesser-known counterpart to the Flemish Movement in Belgium. In contemporary political debate it presents itself, and is usually perceived, as a civic and voluntaristic movement predicated on the values of democracy, freedom, openness and anti-nationalism. As such it is contrasted against its Flemish counterpart, which accordingly is characterized as tending towards an ethnic exclusivist form of nationalism hinging on descent, culture and language. The historical record behind these representations, however, shows that the Walloon Movement is rooted in ethnocultural as much as social politics, and that it has always contained both civic and ethnic elements, to varying degrees. This article highlights the Walloon Movement in order to analyse the language and national stereotypes in which national movements are characterized both in political rhetoric and in scholarly analysis. The case is particularly relevant for the problematic usage of the ‘civic-ethnic’ opposition slipping between the discourses of antagonism and analysis; one type of such slippage is here identified as ‘denied ethnicism’.

Johan Huizinga conceptualized and composed his masterpiece, *Autumn of the Middle Ages*, during a Great War fought on medieval battlegrounds and on the very soil of the Burgundian borderlands whose decadent culture he had devoted himself to excavating. This chapter investigates the ways that Huizinga’s *Herfstttij der Middeleeuwen* functions as a critique of medievalism as it had developed in the decades prior to the war and during the war itself. Writing in the neutral Netherlands, and yet strongly attuned to the unfolding events around him, Huizinga both explicitly and implicitly sought to expose the dangers of locating the origins of modernity in an age of political, cultural, and moral decay. In this work, he accordingly exposed the deadly logic of his contemporaries’ passionate and divisive embrace of the bellicose nationalist ideologies undergirding the war and the medieval continued to furnish the imagery, vocabulary, and emotional charge of wartime propaganda on the Western Front.

In the Belgian political debate, regional and national identities are often presented as opposites, particularly by sub-state nationalist actors. Especially Flemish nationalists consider the Belgian state as artificial and obsolete and clearly support Flemish nation-building as a project directed against a Belgian federalist project. Walloon or francophone nationalism has not been very strong in recent years, but in the past Walloon regionalism has also directed itself against the Belgian state, amongst other things accused of aggravating Walloon economic decline.
Despite this deep-seated antagonism between Belgian and Flemish/Walloon nation-building projects its roots are much shorter than most observers believe. Belgium’s artificial character – the grand narrative and underpinning legitimation of both substate nationalisms - has been vehemently contested in the past, not only by the French-speaking elites but especially by the Flemish movement in the period that it started up the construction of its national identity.
Basing ourselves methodologically on the assumption that the construction of collective and national identities is as much a result of positive self-representation (identification) as of negative other-representation (alterification), moreover two ideas that are conceptually indissolubly related, we compare in this interdisciplinary contribution the mutual other representations of the Flemish and Walloon movements in mid-nineteenth century Belgium, when the Flemish-Walloon antagonism appeared on the surface. By launching in 1840 a petition demanding the use of Flemish language – Vlaemsch or Nederduitsch - in matters of local governance in what then was called the Flemish provinces, a budding Flemish movement set its first steps on the political scene. As a political Walloon movement only came into existence as a reaction around the 1890’s, we will analyze other representation by francophone elites and the first Walloon philologists. The sources for our discussion of othering strategies in this early period of Belgian history are public sources such as cultural magazines and brochures, through which national movements intended to gain legitimacy.
The analysis shows that on both sides, actors not only situated themselves eagerly inside the Belgian framework; they represented themselves as indispensable for the legitimation of a Belgian identity and represented the other as a threat for the completion of this undertaking. The francophones considered a general frenchification as key for the anchoring of  a Belgian identity, as this would unify the country and be a vehicle for high cultural education and emancipating values, necessary to stand up to the menace of the ‘negative external other’ personified by the Dutch kingdom of William I. In contrast to this, Flemish elites aimed to root this Belgian identity by stressing the Flemish character, history and language as distinctive features necessary to stand up to the annexionist menace of the ‘negative external other’ France. In their respective discourses both camps accentuated their Belgian patriotism, accusing the national ‘internal other’ of jeopardising the fragile unity of the young country by benefitting the menacing ‘external other’. Flemish and francophone elites represented themselves as being the best, the most original and the most efficient Belgians… not least by unmasking the fake ones.

Dit artikel onderzoekt hoe Louis Paul Boons historische roman Pieter Daens (1971) en, in het bijzonder, Stijn Coninx’ biopic Daens zich verhouden tot hun historisch onderwerp, de Aalsterse priester en politicus Adolf Daens (1839-1907). Het artikel toont hoe deze Daensvertellingen bijdragen tot de Daensmythe, die twee dimensies kent. Enerzijds een persoonlijke dimensie met de heroïsering van Daens, anderzijds een politiek-historische dimensie waarbij Daens en het daensisme gelijkgesteld worden met de bredere daensistische beweging en het ontstaan van de christendemocratie in Vlaanderen. De Daensmythe en de filmische popularisering ervan zorgden er mee voor dat Daens kon uitgroeien tot een historisch symbool dat zich flexibel laat inzetten in hedendaagse politiek-ideologische discoursen.

Charles Dessain (1871-1944) was a Belgian Catholic publisher, Mayor of the city of Mechelen and senator. Hij became famous for his resistance to the German occupiers during WW I and II. As a Belgian nationalist, his attitude to the Flemish movement and the Christian Democracy was ambiguous.

The Great War strengthened the social consciousness in Europe. In Mechelen, as in the rest of Flanders, the Flemish Movement became stronger. A new generation of well educated, young, ambitious people committed themselves in social life and in politics. They were determined to reform the (conservative and Belgian-nationalist) Catholic Party to a Flemish and progressive, Christian Democratic party.

Johan Huizinga conceptualized and composed his masterpiece during World War I, a great war fought on medieval battlegrounds and on the very soil of the Burgundian borderlands whose decadent culture he had devoted himself to excavating. This chapter investigates the ways that Huizinga's Herfsttij der Middeleeuwen functions as a critique of medieval-ism as it had developed in the decades prior to the war and during the war itself. Writing in the neutral Netherlands, and yet strongly attuned to the unfolding events around him, Huizinga both explicitly and implicitly sought to expose the dangers of locating the origins of modernity in an age of political, cultural, and moral decay. In this work, he accordingly exposed the deadly logic of his contemporaries' passionate and divisive embrace of the bellicose nationalist ideologies undergirding the war as the medieval world continued to furnish the imagery, vocabulary, and emotional charge of wartime propaganda on the Western Front.

Despite the critical distance young Flemish intellectuals feel towards the Flemish
Movement, their ideas and ambitions are clearly marked by the agenda of one of
the Movement’s leaders, August Vermeylen. For more than a hundred years Flemish
emancipation has progressed thanks to the support from writers who are concerned
with the position of Flemish culture within Europe.

Alfons Verbist (1888-1974) was a Belgian Member of Parliament and a Minister. He was a key figure of the Flemish movement and the Christian Democracy in Belgium. He was the leader of the Flemish wing of the Catholic Party of Belgium in 1936 until World War II. In 1936-1938 he made controversial alliances with the Flemish Nationalists and the far right in the district and the city of Mechelen.

Cyriel Neefs (1899-1976) was a key figure in the Flemish movement and the Catholic workers movement. He was the Private Secretary of Philip Van Isacker, Minister in 1931-1938. He was an important member of the City Government of Mechelen and temporary Mayor of the city right after the liberation from the German occupiers in September 1944. Although he became charged with collaboration with the enemy in 1944, he became elected as a senator (1946-1965) with the support of the Catholic Party.

Charles Dessain (1871-1944) was a Belgian Catholic publisher, Mayor of the city of Mechelen and senator. Hij became famous for his resistance to the German occupiers during WW I and II. As a Belgian nationalist, his attitude to the Flemish movement and the Christian Democracy was ambiguous.

Among translations of Dutch literature in Slavonic languages translations into Czech are the most frequent. Between 1846 and the present over 800 titles have been translated. About 80 have were published till World War I. A remarkable feature of mid-19th century translations is that the Flemish background was sometimes changed in a Moravian setting. This adaptation process was known as “Czechisation” or “localisation” and was recommended by Josef Jungmann, one of the protagonists of the renewing of Czech language and literature in the middle of the 19th century. This tendency was widely accepted until the fifties of the 19th century when Jakub Malý was among the first authors who started to discuss the correctness of it. In this paper we are going to deal with the way Ladislav Hodický placed the novels of the internationally popular Flemish writer Hendrik Conscience (1812-1883) into Moravian setting.

Lezing voor het Verbond der Vlaamse Academici, Antwerpen, 23 februari 2016

Nog niet zo heel lang geleden hebben de Vlamingen heel bewust het Nederlands – ik bedoel: het Nederlands van de Nederlanders – tot cultuurtaal van Vlaanderen bestemd. Dat was een ingreep die inging tegen de natuurlijke loop der dingen, die had kunnen resulteren in het ontstaan van een ‘Vlaamse’ cultuurtaal. Toch is het Nederlands één gebleven (of geworden). Nu zijn er allerlei gebeurtenissen die de indruk wekken dat het Nederlands weer uit elkaar aan het groeien is. Woordenboeken beschrijven niet meer dat éne Nederlands, maar wel Nederlands-Nederlands naast Belgisch-Nederlands. Taaladviesinstanties honoreren hoe langer hoe meer allerlei woorden, uitdrukkingen en grammaticale constructies die alleen in België bekend zijn, als ‘standaardtaal in België’, terwijl die tot het begin van de 21e eeuw als ‘taalfout’ gebrandmerkt werden. De Vlaamse media hangen vaak een beeld op van een uitsluitend ‘Vlaams’ (= tussentaal) sprekend Vlaanderen. Is er dan nu en straks nog sprake van één Nederlands?

De Mechelaar Alfons Verdellen was een pionier van de christelijke arbeiders- en vakbeweging. Hij bouwde het syndicaat van de katholieke houtbewerkers uit in de meubelstad Mechelen. Hij ijverde mee voor de vervlaamsing en democratisering van de katholieke partij  en van het politieke leven in Mechelen.

Edward Clottens (1881-1961) was a War volunteer in 1916-1918. The horror of the war had an enormous impact on him. He engaged himself in the Flemish veterans organisations. He became a leader of the Flemish Movement and the Christian Democracy. He was a pioneer of the Catholic workers movement in the city of Mechelen. After World War II, he devoted himself to the rebuilding of the 'Yser Tower' (IJzertoren), a memorial for the Great War along the Belgian Yser river in Diksmude, which was blown up by Belgian nationalists in march 1946.

Cet article analyse le film Le lion des Flandres (Hugo Claus, 1984), en se basant sur une analyse de texte et sur l’exploitation d’archives. Il se concentre sur les relations complexes que ce film entretient avec la question nationale belge et flamande. Cette coproduction flamande et néerlandaise (également adaptée en série télévisée en 1985) est une adaptation du roman historique romantique du même nom d'Hendrik Conscience, publié en 1838, une œuvre marquante dans l'histoire culturelle et symbolique du Mouvement flamand. Malgré diverses difficultés liées au caractère nationalise flamand de l’oeuvre de Conscience, les producteurs (dont le ministère flamand de la Culture et la télévision publique de la Communauté flamande) voulaient que le film soit le plus fidèle possible au roman de Conscience. Il en a résulté une production ouvertement romantique et nationaliste flamande et ce, en dépit de quelques contrepoints introduits par le directeur de production Hugo Claus ; un personnage controversé et critiqué mais néanmoins reconnu comme étant extrêmement rigoureux. Bien que Le lion ait été la production la plus coûteuse de l'histoire du cinéma néerlandais, le film s'est avéré être un échec critique et commercial sans précédent.

"I want to forget the 'Lion of Flanders' as soon as possible." The Production and Reception of the Film and Television Series The Lion of Flanders (1984)

This article analyses the production and reception of the 1984 film and television series The Lion of Flanders. A Flemish-Dutch co-production, it was an audiovisual adaptation of the historical romantic novel of the same name by Hendrik Conscience from 1838; a novel that was partly responsible for creating a cult of memory around the Battle of the Golden Spurs. Because of this, the novel had become a central theme in the Flemish Movement of the 19th and 20th centuries.

The driving forces behind the film adaptation were Jan Van Raemdonck of the Kunst en Kino production company and some members of the Belgian National Radio and Television Company (BRT), who planned a prestigious and spectacular production set in the Medieval period. beside the Dutch Catholic Radio Broadcasting Company (KRO), the Ministry of the Flemish Community was also involved, despite warnings from the Film Commission which had expressed its concern that the result might be overtly Flemish nationalistic. Indeed the producers, wishing to remain as faithful as possible to Conscience's original work, seemed to be planning just that. The controversial appointment of Hugo Claus as director, who was known for his rebellious and critical views, was accompanied by the establishment of special measures to ensure that control remained firmly in the hands of the producers. The result was a both romantic and nationalistic version of The Lion. Nevertheless, one can detect several aspects that go against Conscience's original intentions, including elements of irony and criticism.

Even before the release of the film, popular political sensitivities about the possible Flemish nationalist nature of the production became clear. While the Francophone press voiced strong criticism of what they perceived as a work of Flemish nationalist propaganda, most Flemish film critics felt this was unjustified. Only a fringe of Flemish nationalists really considered it in detail, judging it insulting to their ideological views.

This essay revisits the debate on the motives of the Flemish nationalist historian Hendrik Jozef Elias to collaborate during the Second World War. Using the concept of teleology, this essay will reassess certain conceptions about the life and career of Elias. First, it will argue that Elias held a unique teleological perspective on national history. Contrary to other Flemish nationalist historians who envisioned history as one long progress towards national independence, Elias adhered to the principles of the early conceptualization of teleology – ambiguity and human freedom/will – to envision history as constituting a plethora of different national communities, each with its own idea and will that was formed by their corresponding historical circumstances. This unique teleological perspective consequently influenced Elias’ subsequent political career. By characterizing his own era as a national community possessing a historically defined will, Elias believed that it was imperative for an individual to adhere to this will once history had made it clear. Consequently, this meant that he had no other choice but to collaborate to support his national community’s will. In addition, Elias believed he had to continue to adhere to this will, even when historical circumstances changed, spelling the end not only of his historically defined national community, but of his own political career as well.

... The same holds for La Ruche Wallonne in 1883, the Société de Propagande 6 Maarten Van Ginderachter and Joep Leerssen ... Page 8. Charles the Bold's siege of Liège in 1468 was to be rehearsed over and over again, becoming, in the process, a veritable myth (Rottiers 1995). ...

La Belgique est riche en identités nationales. À l’heure actuelle, les identités belge, flamande et wallonne sont l’enjeu de discussions acerbes et parfois même de conflits.

Afin de comprendre la façon dont les citoyens belges du XIXe siècle envisageaient cette question identitaire cet ouvrage se tourne vers la franc-maçonnerie. Avec ce cadre social comme point de départ, il tente de peindre le tableau des allégeances identitaires, qu’elles soient nationalistes, internationalistes ou patriotiques, qui existaient au sein de la Belgique tout au long du siècle dit ‘du nationalisme’. Les francs-maçons belges se sont-ils engagés dans la construction de la nation belge avant et après 1830 ? Ont-ils secondé les mouvements flamand et wallon ? Ont-ils participé à la construction du citoyen belge ? Quelle fut leur réaction face à la colonisation du Congo ? Existait-il une tension entre le cosmopolitisme inné à leur organisation et l’éclosion du nationalisme ? Et enfin, de quelle façon la Première Guerre mondiale a-t-elle affecté ces diverses loyautés ?

100 years after the outbreak of World War I, the book Heroisches Elend.sheds a new light on the war’s intellectual, literary and artistic traces in the collective memories of the European nations. "Emile Krieger, Trauernde Soldaten and Kathe Kollwitz, Die Eltern: Personal Mourning and National Grief" addresses the political instrumentalization of the Martyred Soldier located in the inescapable importance of the national framework for the memorialization of war.