Belgian government at Sainte-Adresse

Last updated
The Immeuble Dufayel in Sainte-Adresse where the government sat between 1914 and 1918. ELD 50 - SAINTE-ADRESSE-NICE-HAVRAIS - Nouvelle creation Dufayel.JPG
The Immeuble Dufayel in Sainte-Adresse where the government sat between 1914 and 1918.

The De Broqueville government in Sainte-Adresse refers to two successive Belgian governments, led by Charles de Broqueville, which served as governments in exile during the German occupation of Belgium in World War I. They were based in Le Havre in northern France after October 1914. The first government, known as the First de Broqueville government, was a Catholic government which was elected in 1911 and continued until 1916, when it was joined by Socialists and Liberals expanding it into the Second de Broqueville government, which lasted until 1 June 1918. In November 1914, the vast majority of Belgian territory (2,598 out of 2,636 communes) was under German occupation. The only portion of Belgium that remained controlled by the Kingdom of Belgium in exile was the strip of territory behind the Yser Front. [1]

Contents

Exile in Le Havre

2014 October, centenary in Le Havre - Sainte-Adresse. Centenary of exile in Sainte-Adresse of belgium government 2.JPG
2014 October, centenary in Le Havre - Sainte-Adresse.

In October 1914, the government moved to the French coastal city of Le Havre. It was established in the large Immeuble Dufayel ("Dufayel Building"), built by the French businessman Georges Dufayel in 1911, situated in the suburb of Sainte-Adresse. The whole area of Sainte-Adresse, which still carries the national colours of Belgium on its shield, was leased to Belgium by the French government as a temporary administrative centre while the rest of Belgium was occupied. The area had a sizeable Belgian émigré population, and even used Belgian postage stamps.

King Albert I considered that it was inappropriate for the King to leave his own country and so did not join his government in Le Havre. Instead, he established his staff in the Flemish town of Veurne, just behind the Yser Front, in the last strip of unoccupied Belgian territory.

Composition

The de Broqueville government comprised: [2]

Criticism

The Flamingant poet René de Clercq published a poem called Aan Die Van Havere ("To those of Le Havre") in 1916, in which he accused the government (the "Lords of Le Havre") of having forgotten the plight of Flanders.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Hymans</span> Belgian politician (1865–1941)

Paul Louis Adrien Henri Hymans, was a Belgian politician associated with the Liberal Party. He was the second president of the League of Nations and served again as its president in 1932–1933.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Allies of World War I</span> Opposing side to the Central Powers

The Entente, or the Allies, were an international military coalition of countries led by France, the United Kingdom, Russia, the United States, Italy, and Japan against the Central Powers of Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria in World War I (1914–1918).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emile Vandervelde</span> Belgian politician (1866–1938)

Emile Vandervelde was a Belgian socialist politician. Nicknamed "the boss", Vandervelde was a leading figure in the Belgian Labour Party (POB–BWP) and in international socialism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles de Broqueville</span> Belgian politician

Charles, 1st Count de Broqueville was the prime minister of Belgium, serving during World War I.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hubert Pierlot</span> Belgian politician and 32nd Prime Minister of Belgium

Hubert Marie Eugène Pierlot was a Belgian politician and Prime Minister of Belgium, serving between 1939 and 1945. Pierlot, a lawyer and jurist, served in World War I before entering politics in the 1920s. A member of the Catholic Party, Pierlot became Prime Minister in 1939, shortly before Belgium entered World War II. In this capacity, he headed the Belgian government in exile, first from France and later Britain, while Belgium was under German occupation. During the German invasion of Belgium in May 1940, a violent disagreement broke out between Pierlot and King Leopold III over whether the King should follow the orders of his ministers and go into exile or surrender to the German Army. Pierlot considered Leopold's subsequent surrender a breach of the Constitution and encouraged the parliament to declare Leopold unfit to reign. The confrontation provoked a lasting animosity between Pierlot and other conservatives, who supported the King's position and considered the government's exile to be cowardly.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gérard Cooreman</span> Belgian politician

Gérard (Gerard) François Marie Cooreman was a Belgian Catholic Party politician.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1932 Belgian general election</span>

General elections were held in Belgium on 27 November 1932. The Catholic Party won 79 of the 187 seats in the Chamber of Representatives and 42 of the 93 seats in the Senate. Voter turnout was 94.3%.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Allied leaders of World War I</span>

The Allied leaders of World War I were the political and military figures that fought for or supported the Allied Powers during World War I.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sainte-Adresse</span> Commune in Normandy, France

Sainte-Adresse is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the region of Normandy, France.

Georges Dufayel was a Parisian retailer and businessman who popularized and expanded the practice of buying merchandise on credit and purchasing from catalogues. He is mainly remembered as the founder of the Grands Magasins Dufayel, a large and opulent department store in the Goutte d'Or district of Paris that sold household furnishings. It closed in 1930, but the building, somewhat modified, still stands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gustave Rives</span> French architect

Bernard Auguste Rives, known as Gustave Rives (1858–1926), was a French architect of the late 19th and early 20th centuries who designed residential, institutional, and commercial buildings in France in a style described as "opulent eclecticism." He organized many popular auto and aeronautical shows in Paris before the First World War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Armand De Ceuninck</span> Belgium Army general

Armand Léopold Théodore, Baron de Ceuninck was the Minister of War of Belgium, serving in the last year of World War I.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Belgium in World War I</span> Involvement of Belgium in the First World War

The history of Belgium in World War I traces Belgium's role between the German invasion in 1914, through the continued military resistance and occupation of the territory by German forces to the armistice in 1918, as well as the role it played in the international war effort through its African colony and small force on the Eastern Front.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Émile Dossin de Saint-Georges</span> Belgian Army general

Émile Dossin de Saint-Georges CBE, born Émile Jean Henri Dossin, was a Belgian Lieutenant-General and one of the foremost Belgian generals of World War I. Made Baron of Sint-Joris, a notable barracks at Mechelen was named in his honour in 1936.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yser Front</span>

The Yser Front, sometimes termed the West Flemish Front in British writing, was a section of the Western Front during World War I held by Belgian troops from October 1914 until 1918. The front ran along the Yser river (IJzer) and Yser Canal (Ieperlee) in the far north-west of Belgium and defended a small strip of the country which remained unoccupied. The front was established following the Battle of the Yser in October 1914, when the Belgian army succeeded in stopping the German advance after months of retreat and remained largely static for the duration of the war.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">German occupation of Belgium during World War I</span> 1914–1918 military occupation

The German occupation of Belgium of World War I was a military occupation of Belgium by the forces of the German Empire between 1914 and 1918. Beginning in August 1914 with the invasion of neutral Belgium, the country was almost completely overrun by German troops before the winter of the same year as the Allied forces withdrew westwards. The Belgian government went into exile, while King Albert I and the Belgian Army continued to fight on a section of the Western Front. Under the German military, Belgium was divided into three separate administrative zones. The majority of the country fell within the General Government, a formal occupation administration ruled by a German general, while the others, closer to the front line, came under more repressive direct military rule.

The general strike of 1913 was a major general strike in Belgium. It was the third general strike aimed at forcing electoral reform and, like the general strike of 1902, was particularly aimed at ending the system of plural voting. It officially lasted between 14 and 24 April and brought out between 300,000 and 450,000 workers on strike. Despite its large participation, it was relatively peaceful.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louis Bernheim</span>

Lieutenant-General Louis Bernheim was a Belgian career soldier and general, best known for his service during World War I. He is also notable as one of Belgium's highest ranking soldiers of Jewish origin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henri Denis</span> Belgian Army general and politician

Henri Jean Charles Eugène Denis was a lieutenant general in the Belgian Army who served as Minister of National Defence at the beginning of the Second World War.

The Declaration of Sainte-Adresse was a diplomatic announcement made on 14 February 1916 by the principal Allied powers of the First World War. It was also supported by Italy and Japan. The declaration stated that the powers would refuse to sign any peace treaty ending the war that left Belgium, a neutral power at the war's start, without "political and economic independence". It was extended in April 1916 to also cover the Belgian Congo.

References

  1. De Schaepdrijver, Sophie (2014). "Violence and Legitimacy: Occupied Belgium, 1914–1918". The Low Countries: Arts and Society in Flanders and the Netherlands. 22: 46. OCLC   948603897.
  2. Thielemans, Marie-Rose, ed. (1991), Albert 1er, Carnets et Correspondance de Guerre, 1914-1918, Paris: Duculot, pp. 14–5, ISBN   2-8011-0951-7

Further reading

See also