Frans Van Cauwelaert

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Frans Van Cauwelaert (around 1914)

Frans Van Cauwelaert (born January 10, 1880 in Onze-Lieve-Vrouw-Lombeek , Brabant ; † May 17, 1961 in Antwerp , province of Antwerp ) was a Belgian psychologist , university professor , author , co-founder of the daily newspaper De Standaard and politician of the Flemish movement who was not only mayor of Antwerp for many years and president of the Chamber of Deputies , but also minister on several occasions.

biography

Studies, professorship, member of parliament and newspaper editor

Consisting of a Flemish native peasant family Van Cauwelaert studied after attending the middle school and the minor seminary of Hoogstraten philosophy and law at the Catholic University of Leuven and completed these studies with the doctorate . During his studies he was already involved in the Algemeen Katholiek Vlaams student association , which advocated teaching in the Dutch language . He was also temporarily editor of Ons Leven , the organ of the Catholic Student Union at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. He then worked as a professor of philosophy at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.

He began his political career in 1910 when he was elected a member of the Chamber of Deputies, to which he belonged for 51 years until his death in 1961 and in which he was temporarily chairman of the Catholic-Flemish parliamentary group. Together with Louis Franck and Camille Huysmans , he started a propaganda campaign at the University of Ghent in 1911 in order to “Dutchize” it. In fact, in 1916 the university was briefly Flemish, supported by the then occupying power of the German Empire . However, the final Fleming did not take place until 1930 after Rector August Vermeylen took office .

In May 1914 he founded the daily De Standaard together with Alfons Van de Perre and Arnold Hendrix in Antwerp , the first edition of which did not appear until December 4, 1918 because of the outbreak of the First World War . During the First World War he was in exile in the Netherlands , where he became one of the leaders of the Dutch-speaking Belgians who fled. There, together with Julius Hoste Jr., he founded the weekly newspaper Vrij België , which operated propaganda against the German occupying power. The Vlaamsch-Belgisch Verbond , under his chairmanship , advocated Dutch monolingualism in teaching, justice and corporate governance and the separation of the Flemish and Walloon teachers.

After the end of the First World War, he was not only the editor of De Standaard , but also established himself as a lawyer in Antwerp with his younger brother August Van Cauwelaert.

Mayor and Minister

In 1921 he finally became mayor of Antwerp and took over the office of lay judge for the port of Antwerp during his tenure there, which lasted until 1932 . As such, he drove the expansion of the port in a northerly direction. One of the sea locks in the port of Antwerp in Van Cauwelaertsluis was later named in his honor .

Together with the Catholic Flemish group, he submitted a draft for a new language law in 1928 and a pardon law for the Flemish activists in 1929. However, these initiatives did not go far enough for the Flemish nationalists, although Van Cauwelaert was not only an advocate of the Flemish movement but also an opponent of federalism . In the following years, the Christian labor movement took the initiative in language legislation.

For his political services he was honored with the honorary title of Minister of State on June 6, 1931 .

On January 10, 1934, he was then appointed by Prime Minister Charles de Broqueville to his cabinet, where he was initially Minister for Industry, SMEs and Domestic Trade and Minister for Post, Telegraphy and Telephone (PTT). After a government reshuffle, he was in de Broqueville's government from June 12 to November 20, 1934 Minister of Agriculture and Economy.

In the subsequent government of Prime Minister Georges Theunis he was then Minister for Agriculture and Small Businesses and Minister for Public Works on November 20, 1934. After a financial scandal, however, he had to resign as minister on January 14, 1935, which, in addition to his anti-federalism, meant that he lost his leadership role in the Flemish movement.

Nevertheless, he remained active in the movement and in 1938 was one of the fathers of the Flemish Academy for Science, Literature and Art, which has since awarded the renowned Franz Van Cauwelaert Science Prize.

President of Parliament

On April 21, 1939 he became President of the Chamber of Deputies and held the office of President of Parliament for more than 15 years until April 27, 1954. In this capacity he was one of the supporters of the government of Prime Minister Hubert Pierlot in the conflict with King Leopold III. who surrendered himself to the German armed forces . The Pierlot government declared the king "prevented from exercising his office"; the government temporarily took over the monarch's authority in corpore and received Van Cauwelaert's support.

During the Second World War he remained in exile in New York City . After the war, he sought a moderate punishment of collaborators and was among those present at the declaration of abdication of King Leopold III., With this the "Royal Question" on July 16, 1951 in favor of Baudouin I decided.

When he died, he left an extensive archive. In 2005, he was in finding "The greatest Belgian" (De Grootste Belg) in a television broadcast of the VRT elected at the 92nd place.

His son Jan Van Cauwelaert was a Roman Catholic bishop of the Inongo diocese in the Congo .

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Van Cauwelaert, Frans
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Motz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Belgian politician and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH January 10, 1880
PLACE OF BIRTH Onze-Lieve-Vrouw-Lombeek , Brabant
DATE OF DEATH May 17, 1961
Place of death Antwerp , Antwerp Province