Jules Destree

Jules Destree

Jules Destrée (born August 21, 1863 in Marcinelle , † January 2, 1936 in Brussels ) was a Belgian writer , lawyer and politician .

Jules Destrée became a member of the Belgian Labor Party , the forerunner of the Socialist Party, and was a member of the Belgian Chamber of Deputies from 1894 . In 1917/18 he was envoy to the Russian revolutionary government of Kerensky .

As a representative of the Walloons , he advocated a separate administration of Flanders and Wallonia . In 1912 he wrote an open letter to King Albert I in which he stated:

«Sire, (...) Vous régnez sur deux peuples. Il ya en Belgique, des Wallons et des Flamands; il n'y a pas de Belges. "Sire, you rule over two peoples. In Belgium there are Flemings and Walons; there are no Belgians ”.

Destrée was Minister of Art and Science from 1919 to 1921, and in 1920 he founded the Académie royale de langue et de littérature françaises de Belgique (Royal Academy for French Language and Literature). The Jules-Destrée Institute is named after him.

Works (selection)

• Le socialisme en Belgique . With Émile Vandervelde . Giard & Brière, Paris 1903.
• Une campagne électorale au pays noir . Soc. coop. "Volksdrukkerij", Ghent 1907.
• Les réfectoires scolaires . Soc. coop. "Volksdrukkerij", Ghent 1908.
• Lettre au roisur la séparation de la Wallonie et de la Flandre . Brussels 1912.
• Wallonia . Société des Trente [u. a.], Paris 1914.
• Les socialistes et la guerre européenne 1914–1915 . van Oest, Brussels 1916.
• Les déportations d'ouvriers belges . Hayman, Christy & Lilly, London 1917.
• Wallons et Flamands . Plon, Paris 1923.
• Roger de la Pasture, van der Weyden . Brussels and Paris, 1930.

Web links

Commons : Jules Destrée  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Museum Jules Destrée in Charleroi (French, Dutch, English)
• Institute Jules-Destrée
• Jules Destrée and anti-Semitism