Hendrik de Man

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Hendrik de Man (around 1935)

Hendrik de Man ( French Henri de Man; born November 17, 1885 in Antwerp , † June 20, 1953 near Murten ) was a Belgian social psychologist , theorist of socialism and politician .

biography

Until 1918

Hendrik de Man grew up in a middle-class family in Antwerp and studied mathematics at the University of Brussels and Ghent University after graduating from high school . In 1905 he was expelled from Ghent University because he had taken part in a demonstration for the rebellious Russian workers and went to Germany, which he saw as "the promised land of Marxism." After starting out as a correspondent for socialist Belgian newspapers, he became editor of the " Leipziger Volkszeitung ". In addition to his journalistic work, he studied economics , history , philosophy and psychology at the University of Leipzig and was awarded a Dr. phil. PhD. He spent one semester in 1907/08 at the University of Vienna . During his journalistic years in Leipzig he had personal contact with August Bebel , Karl Kautsky , Karl Radek , Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht . Together with Liebknecht and Ludwig Frank , he headed the international secretariat of the socialist youth organizations from 1906 to 1908. In 1910 he joined the Social Democratic Federation in London . After his return in 1911, his radical views almost caused a split in the Belgian workers' party Parti Ouvrier Belge (POB; Flemish: Belgische Werklieden Partij (BWP)).

Interwar period: professor and minister

After the First World War , he taught social psychology at the University of Washington in Seattle, where he was involved with exploited farm workers . Because of his political activities he lost his teaching post. Between 1922 and 1926 he taught at the Academy of Labor in Frankfurt am Main . In 1929 he became a lecturer in social psychology and social education at the University of Frankfurt (until 1933). To ward off fascism , he developed the "De Man Plan" ( Het Plan De Man ), comparable to Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal , which aimed to combat unemployment as the social cause of fascism through a planned economy . In 1935 he joined the Paul van Zeeland government as labor minister and in 1936 took over the finance ministry . As a minister without portfolio de Man was in 1938 by King Leopold III. charged with keeping Belgium out of the looming war .

World War II: collaboration and retreat

Also on his advice, after the occupation of Belgium by the German Wehrmacht , the king decided not to follow the government into exile but to stay in the country, which ultimately led to his abdication in 1951. After the capitulation, de Man hailed it in his manifesto of June 28, 1940 as the "defeat of the parliamentary regime and the capitalist plutocracy". The occupation seemed to him an opportunity for neutralist social and economic action. He dissolved the Belgian Workers' Party (POB), of which he had been president since 1938, and helped to set up a unified union that was tolerated by the Nazi regime and corresponded to the DAF . However, because of his advocacy of Belgian interests, he was banned from speaking and performing. He left Belgium and came to Paris , where he joined the circle of Ernst Jünger .

Post-war period: exile and death

After the liberation of Paris , he first retired to a hut in La Clusaz ( Haute-Savoie department ) and then settled in Switzerland, where a socialist colleague obtained political asylum for him . On September 12, 1946, a (Belgian?) Military court found him guilty in the absence of high treason and sentenced him to 20 years' imprisonment and 10 million francs in damages . His rehabilitation efforts failed. On June 20, 1953, he and his wife died when their car was hit by a train at a level crossing near Murten .

Family and private

Henri de Man is the grandson of the Flemish poet Jan van Beers .

Through his mediation, his nephew Paul de Man got the job as editor of the newspaper Le Soir in 1940 , which after his death brought him the charge of collaboration with National Socialism.

In his spare time, Hendrik de Man occupied himself with his hobby, fishing, and wrote two books about it.

Fonts (selection)

Article in Le Soir "La Crise du Capitalisme", August 31, 1931
  • Au pays du Taylorisme , Bruxelles: Publishing house "Le Peuple" 1919
  • On the psychology of socialism , Jena: E. Diederichs 1927
  • Au-delà du marxisme , Bruxelles: L'Églantine 1927. (New edition, Paris: Alcan 1929)
  • Socialisme et marxisme , Bruxelles: L'Églantine 1928
  • Joie du travail , Paris: Librairie Félix Alcan 1930
  • Réflexions sur l'économie dirigée , Bruxelles: L'Églantine 1932
  • Nationalisme et socialisme , Paris 1932
  • The newly discovered Marx , 1932
  • The socialist idea , Jena: E. Diederichs 1933
  • Pour un plan d'action , Paris: M. Rivière [1934]
  • Le Plan du travail , Bruxelles: Institut d'économie européenne 1934
  • Corporatisme et socialisme , Bruxelles: Éditions Labor 1935
  • Masses et chefs , Bruxelles: La Nouvelle églantine 1937
  • Après coup, mémoires , Bruxelles et Paris: Editions de la Toison d'or et PUF [1941]
  • Réflexions sur la paix , Paris / Bruxelles: Editions de la Toison d'Or 1942.
  • Cahiers de ma montagne , Bruxelles: Éditions de la Toison d'or 1944.
  • Au delà du nationalisme. Vers un gouvernement mondial , Geneva: Éditions du Cheval ailé 1946.
  • Cavalier seul. 45 années de socialisme européen , Genève: Éditions du Cheval ailé 1948.
  • Dimensioning and Cultural Decay: A Diagnosis of Our Time , Bern: Francke 1951 (2nd edition, Munich: Lehnen 1952; 3rd edition, Bern / Munich: Francke 1970)
  • Against the current. Memoirs of a European Socialist , Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt 1953.
  • Fly fishing made easy. Instructions for fishing with the artificial fly , Rüschlikon: Müller 1951
  • Fishing pleasure. Experiences of a sport fisherman in Europe and America , Rüschlikon: Müller 1952

literature

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Hendrik de Man: Against the current. Memoirs of a European Socialist, Stuttgart 1953, p. 70.
  2. ↑ “débâcle du régime parlementaire et de la ploutocratie capitaliste”
  3. ↑ http://classiques.uqac.ca/classiques/de_man_henri/au_dela_du_marxisme/au_dela_du_marxisme.html
personal data
SURNAME Man, Hendrik de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Man, Henri de (French)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Belgian theorist of socialism and politician
DATE OF BIRTH November 17, 1885
PLACE OF BIRTH Antwerp
DATE OF DEATH June 20, 1953
Place of death near Murten