Albert Devèze

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Albert Joseph Charles Devèze (born June 6, 1881 in Ypres , Belgium , † November 28, 1959 in Brussels ) was a Belgian lawyer and liberal politician . From 1912 until his death he was a member of the Belgian Chamber of Deputies for the constituency of Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde , and in the meantime from 1939 to 1946 for the constituency of Verviers . He was also a member of various governments as a minister during his political career. From 1920 to 1923, from 1932 to 1936 and from 1949 to 1950 he was Minister of Defense, from 1939 to 1940 Minister of the Interior and 1946 Minister of Economic Affairs of Belgium. From 1926 to 1933 he was chairman of the Liberal Party .

Life

After studying law at the Free University of Brussels and the subsequent promotion to Doctor of Law, he served as from June 1902 Attorney based in Brussels. He was involved in politics early on - first for the Catholic Party, then for the Liberals. His political career began in local politics . Devèze was from 1907 to 1921 a member of the local council of Schaarbeek and from 1938 to 1939 of Ixelles / Elsene . At the same time he was chairman of the Jeunesses libérales de Belgique from 1906 to 1919 . In 1912 he was elected as a candidate for the Liberal Party for the first time as a member of the Chamber of Deputies and was there until 1939 representative of the interests of what is now the Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde constituency.

At the beginning of World War I, Devèze volunteered and served at the front for four years. He was then in 1920 by Prime Minister Henri Carton de Wiart as defense minister appointed to his cabinet and kept this office also under his successor Georges Theunis to 1923. On April 17, 1923 during the Allied occupation of the Rhineland , which was marked by numerous attacks on trains and railway systems , the Minister traveled with his French colleague, the Minister for Public Works, Yves Le Trocquer , on an express train from Brussels to Cologne. In Düren a bridge in front of the train was blown up just before he was to drive on them. The train was able to stop in front of the damaged bridge. After 1923 Albert Devèze was again increasingly active as a lawyer in addition to his parliamentary activities. He also chaired the Liberal Party from 1927 to 1932 and was again a member of the government from 1930 to 1932 as a minister without portfolio. He was also president of the Institut international des Sciences administratives in Brussels from 1930 to 1947 .

Devèze was again a member of the cabinet of Prime Ministers Charles de Broqueville , Theunis and Paul van Zeeland from 1932 to 1936 as Minister of Defense. In 1936 he handed over the department to General Henri Denis . Between 1939 and 1946 he was a member of the Chamber of Deputies, this time representing the interests of the Verviers arrondissement . At the same time he was Minister of the Interior in the government of Prime Minister Hubert Pierlot from 1939 to 1940 . He then took part in the 1940 campaign as a lieutenant colonel in the artillery .

After his re-election as a member of the Chamber of Deputies in 1946, in which he again represented his old constituency of Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde until 1958, he was briefly Minister of Economics in 1946 . Most recently he was appointed Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister by Prime Minister Gaston Eyskens in August 1949 and was a member of this government until it resigned as a result of the royal and parliamentary crisis in March 1950.

Dezève died on November 28, 1959 at the age of 78.

Awards

Devèze has received several awards for his services as a soldier. So he was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Leopold and the Order of the Crown , he was an officer of the Order of Leopold II , and he was awarded the War Cross , the Croix de l'Yser, the Fire Cross , the Médaille du Volontaire Combattant, the French , Polish and Italian War Cross, the United States Distinguished Service Medal, and the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor.

Devèze was made honorary president of the Institut international des Sciences administratives in 1947 . He was President of the International Law Association and Belgian delegate to the Institut international pour l'unification du droit .

Publications (selection)

  • Aujourd'hui: étude pour l'après-guerre économique . Berger-Levrault, Nancy 1919.
  • La Belgique devant le péril . Impr. H. et M. Schaumans, Brussels 1932.

literature

  • Le Livre bleu: Recueil biographique donnant les: Noms, adresses, profession, titres et qualités des personnalités qui se sont fait un nom en Belgique par leurs oeuvres ou leur activité dans le domaine des arts, des sciences et des lettres, de la politique et de l'administration, de l'industrie et du commerce . Larcier, Brussels 1950.
  • Paul van Molle: Het Belgisch parlement 1894–1972 . Antwerp 1972.
  • Nijhoffs divorced islexicon Nederland en België . 's-Gravenhage, Antwerp 1981.
  • Le nouveau dictionnaire des Belges . Brussels 1992.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Klaus Kemp: Regiebahn. Reparations, occupation, war against the Ruhr, Reichsbahn. The railways in the Rhineland and the Ruhr area 1918–1930 . EK-Verlag , Freiburg 2016. ISBN 978-3-8446-6404-1 , p. 296.
  2. ^ A b Jean-Marie Yante: La Belgique et l'Institut international des Sciences administratives . In: Fabio Rugge, Michael Duggett (Eds.): IIAS / IISA Administration & Service, 1930–2005 . IOS Press, Amsterdam 2005, ISBN 1-58603-542-8 , p. 85.
personal data
SURNAME Devèze, Albert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Devèze, Albert Joseph Charles (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Belgian politician
DATE OF BIRTH June 6, 1881
PLACE OF BIRTH Ypres , Belgium
DATE OF DEATH November 28, 1959
Place of death Brussels , Belgium