August De Schryver

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August de Schryver, 1959

August-Edmond De Schryver (born May 16, 1898 in Gent , East Flanders , † March 5, 1991 ibid) was a Belgian politician .

biography

Origin, professional and social activities

De Schryver's father August-Octaaf De Schryver came from a merchant family from Eeklo and continued the family weaving and fabric trade, which was expanded to include a copper pot factory and horticultural activities. His maternal grandfather, the merchant Lieven Edmond Block, was mayor of Ghent for almost 20 years . He himself was the oldest of six children and first completed his education at the Sint-Barbara-College in Ghent. At the beginning of the First World War he first went to England and continued his education at a Jesuit school. In 1916 he volunteered for military service in the Belgian armed forces and was promoted to sergeant in the artillery until the end of the First World War .

He then began to study law and political and social science at the University of Ghent and completed these studies in 1921. During his studies he was president of the Katholiek Vlaams Hoogstudenten Verbond (KVHV) of the University of Ghent between 1919 and 1920 and was admitted to the court of appeal from 1921 to 1956 after completing his studies . He was also part of the board of directors of the Flemish Bar Association .

After his marriage to the entrepreneur's daughter Maria Scheerders from Sint-Niklaas , he worked until his death as managing director of Scheerders-Van Kerchove's Verenigde Fabrieken, a company for building materials.

Due to his social and religious character, he sought contacts to the Flemish, social and religious-ecclesiastical club life in Ghent during his work as a lawyer and was not only an active member of the scout movement , but also a speaker and advisor to the General Christian Workers' Association (ACW). He was also the chairman of the Flemish Elder Fighters Association in the Ghent district of Gentbrugge.

Political career

MP and Minister and World War II

He began his national political career as a candidate for the Catholic Party in 1928 when he was elected a member of the Chamber of Deputies , in which he represented the interests of the arrondissements of Gent and Eeklo until 1965 . Between 1931 and 1938 he was also secretary of the Flemish Catholic Group in the Chamber of Deputies. In the parliamentary elections in November 1932 he was the top candidate of his party in the Ghent arrondissement.

In the Catholic Union, which emerged from the Catholic Party, he was also party secretary between 1933 and 1935. In addition, as chairman of the Flemish Catholic Young Guardians from 1928 and 1934, he tried to win over the young generation for party work in the Catholic Union.

In 1935 he was appointed to a government for the first time as Minister of Agriculture by Prime Minister Paul van Zeeland . After a cabinet reshuffle, he was Interior Minister in Zeeland's cabinet from June 1936 to November 1937 . He was then chairman of the Flemish Catholic Group in the Chamber of Deputies between 1938 and 1940. In addition, he was briefly Minister of Justice in 1939 .

During this politically turbulent period, he made a name for himself as an advocate of Flemish monolingualism in language legislation and as a defender of parliamentary democracy . In addition, he increasingly solidified his own political ideal of the Flemish movement.

As Minister of Economics , he followed Prime Minister Hubert Pierlot's government into exile in France in May 1940 . Together with several other ministers in the government-in-exile , he was under house arrest due to an order from the Vichy government . After a government reshuffle, he was again Minister of Agriculture in the Pierlot government between 1940 and 1944. In 1942 he went to the United Kingdom via Portugal with a forged passport and joined the War Cabinet formed from the four ministers who had gone to London in September 1940. However, his long stay in France sparked a heated discussion about his ministerial status.

After undertaking a number of diplomatic missions to the United States , he was reappointed Minister of the Interior in April 1943 and held this post until September 1944. In doing so, he played a key role in preparing the post-war period in the questions of establishing the constitution of the Kingdom of Belgium , civil Leadership and justice as well as repression and puration .

After Belgium was liberated from the German occupation forces , he became a Minister without Portfolio in September 1944 .

Time after World War II

Subsequently, between April and June 1945 he was head of the Belgian delegation at the founding of the United Nations and on June 26, 1945 he was a signatory of the United Nations Charter in San Francisco .

In August 1945 De Schryver was one of the co-founders of the Christelijke Volkspartij (CVP) -Parti Social Chrétien (PSC) , the successor to the Catholic Party, and was also chairman of the CVP-PSC until 1949.

He tried to transform the traditionally shaped party into a modern and rejuvenated people 's party. In doing so, he drew on his experience from the 1930s as chairman of the Catholic Young Guardians. In his function as party chairman he succeeded with the CVP-PSC and the Belgian Socialist Party (BSP), the formation of the “Roman-Red” coalition government of Paul-Henri Spaak and Gaston Eyskens, the fulfillment of a dream and was practically obstetrician and father-in-law of this coalition. Due to the progressive social program and the great representation, he saw the CVP and BSP as natural allies.

In addition, as party chairman and as a prominent member of parliament, he played an important role in the so-called "King's Question" about the return of King Leopold III.

In the following years he was a leading member of the Foreign Policy Committee of the Chamber of Deputies and dealt with European integration and Atlantic cooperation as well as in NATO . As a moderate and willing politician, he also held talks with politicians such as Paul-Henri Spaak, Gaston Eyskens, Antoon Spinoy and Paul-Willem Segers to solve problems such as socio-economic expansion, security and budgetary issues.

For his political merits he was honored with the honorary title of Minister of State on July 21, 1948, along with several other politicians .

Between 1950 and 1959 De Schryver was chairman of the Nouvelle Equipes Internationales, a kind of international of the European Christian Democratic parties. In doing so, he also created the basis for the founding of the later European People's Party (EPP) .

Subsequently, on September 3, 1959, Prime Minister Gaston Eyskens appointed him to the government as Minister for the Belgian Congo and Rwanda-Urundi . This made him the last minister for the colonies, and in this role he initiated the process of gaining the sovereignty of these states. In the run-up to this, he was confronted with radical African nationalism , particularly during the round table on the future of the Congo in February 1960 . This threatened the independence process of the Congo, especially after the arrest of Patrice É. Lumumba ends in a fiasco with chaos in the colonial administration, political instability and many local deaths.

During his final years as a member of the Chamber of Deputies, he dealt with issues relating to the “Belgian Community” from Flanders, Wallonia and the German-speaking Community of Belgium .

In 1965 he gave up his seat in the Chamber of Deputies and withdrew from political life.

However, he remained socially and politically active in the following years and took on responsible functions in the Catholic peace movement Pax Christi , refugee aid, third world and development organizations such as the Nationaal Centrum voor Ontwikkelingssamenwerking (NCOS) as well as in church and social initiatives. In addition, he was a member of the administrative board of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven for some time .

As chairman of the Benelux Stimulation Committee between 1969 and 1974, he held a key position in promoting the economic integration process in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg .

One of his daughters is married to a son of Frans Van Cauwelaert , and another daughter is married to the legal scholar and former Senator Marcel Storme .

literature

  • Herman Van Goethem (Editor): August de Schryver. Oorlogsdagboeken 1940-1942 , Tielt, 1998.
  • Godfried Kwanten: August-Edmond de Schryver 1898-1991. Politieke biography van een gentleman-staatsman , Leuven 2001.
  • Verertig jaar Belgian politics. Liber amicorum aangeboden aan Minister van Staat AE de Schryver ter Situatedheid van zijn 70th verjaardag , Festschrift for the 70th birthday, Antwerp-Utrecht 1968.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME De Schryver, August
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schryver, August-Edmond De (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Belgian politician
DATE OF BIRTH May 16, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH Ghent , East Flanders, Belgium
DATE OF DEATH March 5, 1991
Place of death Ghent , East Flanders, Belgium