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Front to Rear: Architecture and Planning during World War II, March 7-8, 2009 >
Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
http://hdl.handle.net/2451/30278
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| Title: | Architecture, urbanism and national heritage during German occupation in
Belgium: The Modern Movement and the Commissariat-General pour la
Reconstruction du Pays |
| Authors: | Uyttenhove, Pieter |
| Keywords: | architecture
World War II
Belgium
urban planning |
| Issue Date: | 19-Sep-2011 |
| Abstract: | Founded in June 1940 under the Militaerverwaltung, the German occupying
forces, the Commissariat-General pour la Reconstruction du Pays seems to
be the continuation of pre-war structures. These had been set up in
Belgium by modernist circles inside the Ministry of Public Works,
involving for instance the Institut Superieur des Arts Decoratifs of La
Cambre in Brussels and the Office de Redressement Economique. Inside the
Commissariat-General, the Office for Reconstruction was created next to
the offices for Employment and for War Damage. Raphael Verwilghen, who
had also been the director of the Service des Regions Devastees for the
reconstruction after World War I, stood as one of Belgium's most
prominent members of the Modern Movement, at the head of the
Commissariat. In this administration for national reconstruction one
finds many other of the leading modern architects and urbanists
who--before the war and even during and after the First World
War--belonged to the most progressive circles, among whom Stan Leurs,
Max Winders, Joseph Vierin, Valentijn Vaerwijck, and also Henry Van de
Velde. Verwilghen's administration covered architecture, urbanism,
regional planning and national heritage. The Commissariat's intention
was to proceed to much more rigorous planning of infrastructures and
urban development, and proposed in the main time a very rigid catalogue
of new typologies for agricultural settlements and new villages.
Planning for the metropolitan areas, started before the war, was
continued and emphasized. Regional planning for dynamic new industrial
areas like Limbourg and the new coal mining areas in the east of the
country near Germany received special attention. Setting up a new
urbanistic legislation, the Commissariat aimed to a total planning of
the Belgian built environment within a clear and well-defined social
vision. The strong voluntary opposition to the pre-war lack of economic
and administrative policies could not avoid that the
Commissariat’s policy stood in an ambiguous relationship with the
German military government. Secret German reports to Berlin mention the
Militaerverwaltung's high interest for the infrastructural development
of rail- and highways in the Belgium region, and especially in Flanders,
culturally spoken closer to Germany and considered as one of the regions
to be 'annexed'. In spite of the Commissariat's ambiguous concepts
existing on the background of the war and the fact that many of its
administrators were considered and treated as 'collaborators' after the
war, during this period were laid the foundations for the spatial
planning after the war in Belgium. |
| URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/2451/30278 |
| Appears in Collections: | Front to Rear: Architecture and Planning during World War II, March 7-8, 2009
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