Metadata: Lionel Wiener papers
Collection
- Country:
- Belgium
- Holding institution:
- National Archives of Belgium
- Holding institution (official language):
- Archives Générales du Royaume
- Postal address:
- Ruisbroekstraat 2-6 / Rue de Ruysbroeck 2-6, 1000 Brussel
- Phone number:
- +32 (0)2 513 76 80
- Web address:
- http://www.arch.be/
- Email:
- archives.generales@arch.be
- Reference number:
- NAB-Brussels-510-174
- Title:
- Lionel Wiener papers
- Title (official language):
- Papiers Lionel Wiener
- Creator/accumulator:
- Wiener, Lionel
- Date(s):
- 1878/1940
- Extent:
- 0.7 linear metres
- Scope and content:
- This fonds mainly contains material concerning Wiener’s business interests and such as it does not represent the totality of his intense activity. We note reports on the political situation in Bulgaria and possible Belgian investments in the Balkans, written by Wiener (in his capacity as manager of the Sofia branch of the Société Générale), documents related to his activity as agent for the Compagnie générale des Chemins de fer et Tramways en Chine during the First World War (when he was exiled in The Hague), as well as correspondence, handwritten and typed notes, his publications, material concerning his cultural activities and documents related to his family.
- 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:
- Bulgaria
- Access points: persons/families:
- Wiener, Lionel
- Finding aids:
- M.-R. Thielemans & E. Vandewoude, Inventaire des papiers Lionel Wiener, I 232, Bruxelles, ARA-AGR, 1985.
- Yerusha Network member:
- State Archives of Belgium
