Metadata: Leopold Flam archives
Collection
- Country:
- Belgium
- Holding institution:
- Archives and Museum of Flemish Life in Brussels
- Holding institution (official language):
- Archief en Museum voor het Vlaams leven te Brussel
- Postal address:
- Arduinkaai 28 / Quai aux Pierres de Taille 28, 1000 Brussel
- Phone number:
- +32 02/209 06 01
- Web address:
- http://www.amvb.be/
- Email:
- info@amvb.be
- Reference number:
- AMFL-Brussels-209
- Title:
- Leopold Flam archives
- Title (official language):
- Archief van Leopold Flam
- Creator/accumulator:
- Flam, Leopold
- Date(s):
- 1948/1974
- Extent:
- ca. 5 linear metres
- Scope and content:
- In this fonds we firstly note the many manuscripts and typescripts, often annotated, of (parts) of books, articles and other publications by Flam. The correspondence concerns virtually all aspects of Flam’s private and professional life. We firstly note correspondence with his son Henri and Flam’s personal administration, but sporadically also contacts with Masonic organisations, political organisations, associations of the resistance and former prisoners, as well as Jewish organisations (i.a. the Comité ter Verdediging van de Joden (CDJ), the Vereniging van Joodse Politieke Gevangenen, the AIVG, the Joodse Kulturele Kring, etc.). The fonds contains, apart from correspondence, also private documents such as documents concerning Flam’s personal finances, notes, postcards etc. At the professional level we mainly find correspondence concerning the publishing of Flam’s work (i.a. with the publishing houses Ontwikkeling, De Bezige Bij, La Renaissance du Livre, with G. Vercammen of De Rode Vaan, etc.), concerning his function as a teacher, professor and philosopher (i.a. contacts with students, other academics, reactions from readers), concerning his job as an inspector (i.a. contacts with school and teachers), etc. Furthermore we also note the documents produced by Flam in the context of his professional career, such as various notes, drafts of texts, reading notes and manuscripts of speeches. There are also six notebooks with quotations from the works of Hegel, Heidegger, Marx and others. The fonds also contains a series of articles on dozens of freethinkers from all periods of history. Lastly, we mention that these archives contain (a part of) Flam’s library; these works are usually annotated.
- Archival history:
- Donation by Jeanine Lambrecht.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- Leopold Flam (1912-1995) worked as a teacher in the athenaeum in Deurne after his studies at Ghent university (i.a. philosophy and history). During the Occupation he was active (under the name ‘Flamme’) in the resistance, more specifically the Joods Verdedigingscomité (CDJ); he was i.a. the editor in chief of the clandestine periodical De Vrije Gedachte. After a first arrest in 1943, he was arrested again in 1944 and deported to Auschwitz and Buchenwald. After the war Flam worked for the AIVG and taught history at the athenaeum in Brussels (1944-1945) as well as philosophy at the Instituut Émile Vandervelde in Antwerp (1947-1955). After obtaining a PhD in history (1952) Flam became a professor at the ULB/VUB (from 1961); he taught i.a. Dutch and philosophy. He was the (co)founder of various philosophical associations such as the Humanistisch Verbond, the Vlaamse Vereniging voor Wijsbegeerte, the philosophy group Aurora and the Centrum voor de Studie van de Verlichting. Apart from this he also directed the journals Dialoog, Aurora and Clio. Leopold Flam was one of the leading philosophers in post-war Belgium. He left an important body of work, i.a. De crisis van de burgerlijke moraal, Denken en existeren, Ethisch Socialisme and Utopie en universele hervorming. (E. Wulliger & J.-P. Schreiber, “Flam, Léopold”, in J.-P. Schreiber, Dictionnaire biographique des Juifs de Belgique. Figures du judaïsme belge, XIXe-XXe siècles, Brussel, De Boeck, 2002, p. 111.)
- Access points: persons/families:
- Flam, Henri
- Flam, Leopold
- Access, restrictions:
- Access requires the authorisation of Jeanine Lambrecht; contact the AMVB for more information.
- Finding aids:
- The fonds is currently being completely reordered and described. Various obsolete summary lists exist.
- Yerusha Network member:
- State Archives of Belgium
