Baudouin (Belgium)
.jpg)
Baudouin - French by birth Baudouin Albert Charles Léopold Axel Marie Gustave , Dutch Boudewijn Albert Karel Leopold Axel Marie Gustaaf , German Balduin Albert Karl Leopold Axel Marie Gustav - (* September 7, 1930 at Stuyvenberg Castle , Laeken ; † July 31, 1993 in Motril , Spain ) from the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was King of the Belgians from 1951 to 1993 .
After the abdication of his father Leopold III. Baudouin succeeded him as Belgian king on July 16, 1951.
Life
After the Allies landed in 1944, the royal family was abducted by the Germans, initially to Hirschstein in Saxony, and then to Strobl in Austria in March 1945 . On May 7, 1945 it was liberated by US troops and King Leopold III. was confronted by the Belgian public with allegations that he had surrendered too early in the war against the Germans. He was therefore initially unable to return to Belgium . The king's brother, Prince Charles of Belgium , therefore perceived the reign on the grounds that his brother was “in the impossibility to rule”.
Since no political solution could be found to the controversy surrounding the king, there was a referendum for or against the return of the king. The electorate's response was a majority of 58% in its favor, with wide regional differences. On July 22, 1950, the king returned to Brussels. But after serious unrest, especially by Walloon workers, Leopold III thanked him. and proposed that his royal powers be transferred to his son Prince Baudouin. On July 17, 1951, he took his oath on the constitution and became the fifth king of the Belgians.
On the occasion of his 25th anniversary to the throne in 1976, the King Baudouin Foundation was set up with the aim of improving the living conditions of the Belgian population.
Because his Catholic faith spoke against it, Baudouin refused in 1990 to sign a law to liberalize the abortion law. The Belgian government therefore declared Baudouin incapable of governing on April 4, 1990 at his own request . In this case, the Belgian Constitution provides that the entire government takes on the role of head of state . After all members of the government had signed the law, the next day, April 5, 1990, the government declared Baudouin to be eligible to govern again.
Baudouin ruled for 42 years until his death on July 31, 1993, when he died of heart failure at Villa Astrida in Motril , southern Spain. The mourning for the death of the “only Belgian” was deeply felt in the population across all language barriers. Baudouin was buried in the royal crypt in the Church of Our Lady in Laeken , Belgium. Since he had no children, Baudoin's brother Albert succeeded him.
A commission of the Belgian parliament convened in 2002 investigated the events surrounding the assassination of the first Congolese prime minister Patrice Lumumba (* July 2, 1925, † January 17, 1961). The Democratic Republic of the Congo was granted independence on June 30, 1960. In its final report, the commission concluded that King Baudouin knew of the plans to assassinate Lumumba. What is certain is that the Belgian government supported the Lumumba hostile forces in the Congo logistically, financially and militarily. Much of the blame is directly attributed to King Baudouin, who is said to have pursued his own post-colonial policy by bypassing political authorities.
Titles and honors
- Special level of the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
- Big star of the Decoration for Services to the Republic of Austria
- King Baudouin Base in Antarctica
marriage
King Baudouin married the Spanish noblewoman Fabiola Mora y Aragón (born June 11, 1928 in Madrid , † December 5, 2014 in Brussels ), a former nurse and children's book author , on December 15, 1960 . The marriage remained childless as all of the queen's pregnancies resulted in stillbirths .
ancestors
| Pedigree of Baudouin, King of the Belgians from 1951 to 1993 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Great-great-grandparents |
|
Prince |
Duke |
King |
King |
Duke |
King |
King |
| Great grandparents |
Prince |
Duke |
King |
King |
||||
| Grandparents |
|
Prince Carl of Sweden , Duke of Västergötland (1861–1951) |
||||||
| parents |
|
|||||||
|
|
||||||||
See also
literature
- Baudouin I. , in: Internationales Biographisches Archiv 43/1993 of October 18, 1993, in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely available)
- José-Alain Fralon: Baudouin. L'homme qui ne voulait pas être roi, Fayard, Paris 2001, ISBN 2-213-60578-5 .
- Christian Koninckx (Ed.): Le roi Baudouin. Une vie, une époque , Racine, Bruxelles 1998, ISBN 2-87386-138-X .
Web links
- curriculum vitae
- Newspaper article about Baudouin in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .
- Archives Baudouin Belgium , Royal Museum for Central Africa
Individual evidence
- ^ Jiri Louda et Michael MacLagan, Les Dynasties d'Europe , Bordas, 1995, ISBN 2-04-027115-5 , plate 82
- ^ Monarchie.be - Entry King Baudouin
- ^ Monarchie.be - Entry Prince Regent Charles
- ↑ 25 years of abortion law in Belgium: “A drama” for Archbishop Léonard (Gerard Cremer, Ostbelgien Direkt, April 5, 2015)
- ↑ François Missèr: murder of Patrice Lumumba - Belgium can detect. TAZ, December 16, 2012, accessed February 6, 2017 .
| predecessor | Office | successor |
|---|---|---|
| Leopold III. |
King of the Belgians 1951–1993 |
Albert II |
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Baudouin |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Boudewijn I. (Dutch); Balduin I. (German); Baudouin Albert Charles Léopold Axel Marie Gustave (full name, French); Boudewijn Albert Karel Leopold Axel Marie Gustaaf (full name, Dutch) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Belgian nobleman; King of Belgium (1951-1993) |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 7, 1930 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Stuyvenberg Castle , Laken , Belgium |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 31, 1993 |
| PLACE OF DEATH | Motril Castle , Granada , Spain |