Lionel Wiener archives

Collection description

Collection

Country:: Belgium

Holding institution:: Archives and Museum of Literature

Holding institution (official language):: Archives et Musée de la Littérature

Postal address:: Bibliothèque Royale (3è étage), Keizerlaan 4 / Boulevard de l’Empereur 4, 1000 Bruxelles

Phone number:: +32-2-519-55-76

Web address:: http://www.aml-cfwb.be/

Email:: info@aml-cfwb.be

Reference number:: AMLit-Brussels-Fonds Lionel Wiener

Title:: Lionel Wiener archives

Title (official language):: Fonds Lionel Wiener

Creator/accumulator:: Wiener, Lionel

Date(s):: 1898/1937

Date note:: ca. 1900-1935

Extent:: 855 boxes

Scope and content:: This fonds mainly contains programs collected by Wiener of concerts and of theatre, film, musical and opera performances. The material comes from performances in Belgium (216 boxes in total, 165 of which relate to Brussels), Paris (285 boxes) and London (260 boxes), although almost all European countries and the United States are represented. We also notes a number of books, some press cuttings and a number of (fairly rare) photos.

Administrative/biographical history:: Lionel Edouard Wiener (1878-1940) came from a Jewish family of sculptors and engravers. He was the nephew of Samson Wiener, the liberal senator and councillor of king Leopold II; his father Edouard Wiener was a banker and company manager. Lionel Wiener was an engineer and professor at the Université libre de Bruxelles as well as a musician and writer. He graduated as an artillery lieutenant from the École royale militaire in 1904 before studying the operation of railways at the Université de Liège. He first married Sylvia Debleeh; C. Vranckx was his second wife. During the First World War Wiener found refuge in The Hague, where he directed the Société belge des Chemins de fer en Chine and also served as the president of the Conseil économique du Belgique. He lectured at the ULB from 1925, notably on the topic of railways in the colonies. Wiener was also a musician and composer (under the pseudonym Lionel Renieu). He assembled enormous collections of postcards (over 100,000, conserved in the Cabinet des Estampes of the Belgian Royal Library) and railway tickets (conserved in the Musée des Chemins de fer in Brussels). He was the author of many publications in fields as varied as operettas, theatre, railways and postcards. (A. Despy-Meyer, "Lionel Wiener", in Biographie Nationale, XXXVIII, col. 821-837 ; A. LACROIX, "Lionel Wiener", in Biographie coloniale belge, t. IV, 1955, col. 947-948; J.-P. Schreiber, "Lionel-Édouard Wiener", "Wiener, Jacob", in J.-P. Schreiber, Dictionnaire biographique des Juifs de Belgique. Figures du judaïsme belge, XIXe-XXe siècles, Bruxelles, De Boeck, 2002, pp. 358-361.)

Access points: locations:: Belgium; Brussels; London; Paris

Access points: persons/families:: Wiener, Lionel

Subject terms:: Film; Music; Professions; Professions--Scholars (secular), scientists, and academics; Theatre

Finding aids:: A. Godefroid, Théâtres de Bruxelles: 1832-1939: Fonds Wiener, 1995. The fonds is also (partially) described in the online catalogue of the AML – see http://www.aml-cfwb.be/catalogues/general.

Yerusha Network member:: State Archives of Belgium

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