Edward Anseele

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Statue of Edward Anseele on Frankrijkplein in Ghent

Edward Anseele (born July 26, 1856 in Ghent , † February 18, 1938 ibid) was a Belgian socialist politician .

The son of a shoemaker joined the political left early on. The Socialist Congress in Ghent in 1877 marked the beginning of his involvement in the labor movement . Anseele became a journalist for the weekly “ De Volkswil ” (Volkswille), which was later converted to the daily “ Vooruit ” (forward). In 1880 he organized the founding of the cooperative bakery Vooruit, which became the starting point for a small "anti-capitalist" industrial and trading empire that was at times internationally recognized. However , this charisma was lost in the Great Depression of the 1930s. The Vooruit building is still reminiscent of the great times of the cooperative group of companies from 1900 to 1910.

During the First World War, Anseele was contrasted by the German press as a pragmatic, pro-German Flemish with the “Romance” Émile Vandervelde . While Vandervelde, as President of the Office of the Second International, condemned the German occupation of Belgium in World War I , Anseele tried to mediate contacts with the German SPD . His portrayal in the German war propaganda suggested, however, that the Flemish-Belgian population was friendly to German, which did not correspond to the facts.

Anseele's personal career was long and successful, initially at the municipal level, in the interwar period also as Minister for Public Works (1918-21) and as Minister of Railways and Post (1925-27). Anseele had refused the post of "President of Belgium" offered by the German occupiers during World War I. In 1930 he received the honorary title Minister van Staat / Ministre d'Etat . In Belgium this is an honorary title which, in special cases, is bestowed by the king for life.

The Belgian socialist politician Edward Anseele Jr. was a son of Edward Anseele.

Web links

Commons : Edward Anseele  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Edward Anseele in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved January 7, 2015.
  2. ↑ Sebastian Bischoff: Good comrade, welscher enemy. The SPD, the International and the personification of the "Belgian danger" in the First World War , in: Arbeit - Bewegungs - Geschichte , Issue I / 2018, pp. 9-27.
personal data
SURNAME Anseele, Edward
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Belgian politician
DATE OF BIRTH July 26, 1856
PLACE OF BIRTH Ghent
DATE OF DEATH February 18, 1938
Place of death Ghent