Hendrik de Man

Collection

Holding institution (official language):: Amsab - Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis

Scope and content:: In file no. 590 (year 1940) we note correspondence between Hendrik de Man and Paul M.G. Levy concerning the memoirs of Levy and his ‘Belgian’ solution for the ‘Jewish problem’.

Administrative/biographical history:: Hendrik de Man (1885-1953) was a socialist politician. He started his career within the structures of the Belgian Labour Party (BWP)(in which he belonged to the left wing). As an academic and socialist leader de Man often lived and worked abroad, i.a. in Switzerland, the United States, England and especially Germany. De Man, an original and brilliant theoretician, remains known in Belgium especially for his Plan van de Arbeid (the so-called ‘Plan de Man’), which proposed a gradual evolution to a planned economy as the solution to the economic crisis. In 1939 he became the president of the BWP. De Man was i.a. Minister of Public Works (1935-1936), of Finance (1936-1938) and vice-minister (governments Van Zeeland II and Pierlot). After the capitulation of Belgium in May 1940 he dissolved the BWP and committed to the new economic order (i.a. in the foundation of the Unie van Hand- en Geestesarbeiders, a union controlled by the occupier). He moved to Switzerland in 1944. After the Liberation, de Man was convicted in absentia. Despite going into higher appeal and various attempts at rehabilitation he remained persona non grata in Belgium. De Man died in a car crash in 1953. (Y.-W. Delzenne & J. Houyoux (dir.), Le nouveau dictionnaire des belges, Brussel, Le Cri, 1998, vol. 1, p. 162; W. Steenhaut & J. De Clerck, Inventaris van het archief van Hendrik de Man, Gent, Amsab-ISG, 2003.)

Finding aids:: W. Steenhaut & J. De Clerck, Inventaris van het archief van Hendrik de Man, Gent, Amsab-ISG, 2003.