city and university since 1817

ENgallery texts downloadable from www.stamgent.be

please drop me in the box as you leave city and since 1817 university

October 9th 1817 saw the ceremonious opening of the university in Ghent. Since that day back in 1817 the university has become firmly embedded in the city and is now an unmissable part of the street­ scape. Students live here, hurry by bicycle from one building to another and also take advantage of the university city’s vibrant nightlife. Campuses are expanding and a fourth tower has appeared on the skyline, the Book Tower. The exhibition looks back at the inter- action between city and university over the last 200 years. It also looks to the future. ‘City and University. Since 1817’ is a STAM exhibition about the university, the city and above all about their coexistence — yesterday, today and tomorrow.

2 1 ] a university The Belgian Revolution in August for ghent 1830 was the start of a chaotic period. Two of the four faculties In 1817 Ghent acquired were scrapped and Orangist Ghent a university. At the time Ghent feared for its university. The uncer­ — like the rest of what is tainty came to an end in Septem- today Belgium — was part ber 1835: Ghent would retain of the United Kingdom its university, with four faculties. of the Netherlands.

In 1815, at the beginning of 1.01 ] The early days the newly created United Kingdom of the university of the Netherlands, education in the south was in a sorry state, On November 3rd 1817 classes having been badly neglected. King began at the Arts and Philosophy, William I planned to bring educa­ Law, Science and Medicine faculties tion, including higher education, with 190 students, 16 professors up to scratch. It was not long before and 13 members of staff. Lectures a bitter struggle broke out between were delivered in Latin, but Dutch Ghent, Leuven, Bruges, Tournai and French were also used. Most and Brussels, all of which recognized of the professors, who were mainly the importance of having a uni­ Catholics, came from the (Northern) versity. Ghent also lobbied in The Netherlands, Germany and France. Hague. The city already had a medical For medicine they were also school, a botanical garden and a recruited locally. Jozef Kluyskens library in Baudelo Abbey as well as (1771–1843), who had trained at the a burgeoning industry. And hadn’t Medical School in Ghent, became a ‘Calvinist university’ been founded professor without a chair or professor in Ghent back in 1576, with the con­ extraordinarius and later rector. sent of the House of Orange-Nassau? The city council had to provide build­ On September 25th 1816 William ings for the lectures: the Pakhuis took the plunge and founded univ­ (warehouse) on the Korenmarkt ersities in Ghent, Leuven and Liège. (Medicine), the former Jesuit Ghent’s inauguration ceremony College in Voldersstraat (Arts and was held in the presence of crown Philosophy), Baudelo Chapel (Law) prince William in the Town Hall and buildings on Kortedagsteeg on October 9th 1817. (Sciences and Anatomy). Clinical

A UNIVERSITY FOR GHENT 3 studies as part of the Medical Science 1.06 ] Flandria Illustrata, 1641–1644 course took place in the Bijloke Civil  Illustration of the Collegium Hospital and botany lessons were Societatis Iesu Gandavensis, given in the botanical garden on the the Jesuit monastery in Volders­ Baudelo site where the city library straat, where the Arts lectures was also located. At the beginning of took place in the early days 1818 the city gifted the library and the of the university. botanical garden to the university. Ghent University Library

1.07 ] A degree in medicine from 1.03 ] File relating to the establishment the university of Padua, awarded to of the universities in the Southern Jan Damman (or Daman) in 1642. Netherlands, 1816.  It was 1817 before Ghent citizens National Archives of the Netherlands could follow a university course in their own city. So in the seventeenth 1.04 ] Letters from the burgomaster century Jan Damman went off to of Leuven, the burgomaster and Padua in Italy to study. council of Ghent and representa- Ghent University Library tives of the States of West Flanders about the respective advantages 1.08 ] Panoramic views of Ghent, c. 19. of Leuven, Ghent and Bruges as  In the course of the nineteenth university cities, 1814–16. century Ghent became a large National Archives of the Netherlands industrial city. More and more smoking factory chimneys featured 1.05 ] Book of portrait drawings in illustrations of that time. of six former pupils of the college Ghent University Library of the Augustinians in Ghent who were school captain (primus). 1.09 ] Marcellis Bridge, view from That achievement merited immor­ the Muinkkaai, A. Heins, c. 19. talization in a portrait, 1804–1805. Ghent Archives (City of Ghent and OCMW Ghent)

Ghent University Library

1.10 ] View of the botanical garden with the hothouses on the Ottogracht, c. 19.

Ghent University Library

4 1.11 ] Jean Baptiste de Noter, Plantentuin 1.20 ] Chair from the university Gent (Botanical Garden Ghent), library on the Ottogracht. published in 1815 and 1816. Ghent University Library

Ghent University Library

1.21 ] Programme of the university 1.12 ] Jean Baptiste de Noter, plan inauguration ceremony drawn up in 1818 for the library, on October 9th 1817. the botanical garden and the Royal Ghent University Library College on the Ottogracht. Ghent University Library 1.22 ] Mattheus Ignatius van Bree, the solemn inauguration of the 1.13 ] Reading Room in the chapel university of Ghent by the Prince on the Ottogracht, 1898. of Orange in the Throne Room Ghent University Library in the Town Hall, 1817–1830. The painting above the throne 1.14 ] Watercolour by Auguste Joseph depicts William I and was brought Van den Eynde depicting Baudelo from Antwerp to Ghent specially Chapel as a reading room, 1853. for the occasion.

Ghent University Library Rijksmuseum Amsterdam

1.15 ] The Ottogracht in 1865, seven 1.23 ] Portrait of Daniël van Duyse years before it was filled in. (1852–1924), professor at Ghent University Library the Faculty of Medicine in Ghent, dressed in a toga. Photograph 1.16 ] Catalogue Room in the library, by Albert Lahmer, 1907. end c. 19 — beginning c. 20. Ghent University Library

Ghent University Library

1.24 ] Appendix to the Royal Decree 1.17 ] Manuscripts Reading Room in of January 8th1838 stipulating the library on the Ottogracht, 1933. the attire of office for professors.

Ghent University Library Ghent University Library

1.18 ] Library on the Ottogracht in 1933. 1.25 ] Design sketch by Lieven Ghent University Library De Bast for the university sceptre, 1816. This sceptre is carried 1.19 ] Manuscripts Reading Room in in public ceremonies. the library on the Ottogracht, 1931. National Archives of the Netherlands

Ghent University Library

5 1.26 ] Toga, beret and ermine, c. 20. 1.32 ] Portrait of librarian Karel Ghent University Archives Van Hulthem (1764–1832) by Karel Picqué, 1833. 1.27 ] Stamp showing a representation KASK Ghent of Minerva, Roman goddess of wisdom. Minerva was depicted on the university emblem 1.02 ] The university’s at the time of its foundation. palace Ghent University Archives On November 16th 1816 the city 1.28 ] Letter from the intendant of the council decided to build an Aula Département de l’Escaut to burgo­ Academica, a truly prestigious master of Ghent de Lens (1765– project for Ghent and the university. 1830), discussing the establishment The commission went to the young of the university, 1814. architect Louis Roelandt (1786– Ghent Archives (City of Ghent and OCMW Ghent) 1864), later city architect and pro­ fessor. He chose a classical style for 1.29 ] Blazon of William I and his signa­ the Aula, which was built on the ture in the Gulden Boek (Golden site of the demolished Jesuit Church Book) to mark his Joyful Entry in Voldersstraat. The imposing into Ghent on September 6th 1815. façade was inspired by the Pantheon Ghent University Library in Rome. The lecture rooms were at the back. Building work began 1.30 ] Letter of application from Joannes in 1819 and continued until 1826. de Scheemaecker. He was given the The Aula Academica was inaugu­ job of porter at the new university. rated on October 3rd 1826. The city Ghent Archives (City of Ghent and OCMW Ghent) had paid for the building, so rather than being reserved exclusively 1.31 ] Palm. The inscription on the stem for academic ceremonies, the Aula tells us that it was awarded by played a full part in Ghent’s cultural the City of Ghent as a tribute to life. For example, in 1834 the Jules Octave Devigne (1844–1908). Floralies (floral show) was held He was first in Philology at in the peristylium. Ghent university in the 1865–66 academic year.

STAM

6 1.33 ] Portrait of Louis Joseph Roelandt 1.39 ] Ange De Baets, (1786–1864), city architect, Rotunda of the Aula. professor of architecture and Ghent University designer of the Aula. Photograph by Charles D’Hoy, 1860. 1.40 ] Sketch by Pierre François Ghent University Library De Noter of an exhibition of paintings in the Aula, 1.34 ] Félix (Jan Ferdinand) Heyndrickx, around 1839. allegorical representation Groeninge Museum Bruges of the laying of the first stone of the Aula. 1826 1.41 ] Sectional view of the Aula Ghent University by architect Louis Roelandt, 1919.

Ghent University Library

1.35 ] Call for tenders for the building of the Aula. 1.42 ] Façade of the Aula Ghent University Library in Voldersstraat, c. 19 – c. 20.

Ghent University Library

1.36 ] The golden trowel used to lay the first stone of the Aula 1.43 ] Péristyle de l’Université, on August 4th 1819. drawing by Pierre Degobert Royal and Nobility Archives, The Hague (1808–1844), published in 1839.

Ghent University Library

1.37 ] Commemorative medals to mark the laying of the first stone of the Aula in 1819. A total of 17 gold, 90 silver and 100 bronze medals were struck for the occasion.

STAM

1.38 ] Lodewijk Jan De Taeye, preliminary sketch for murals in the Aula, c. 19.

Ghent University Library

A UNIVERSITY FOR GHENT 7 2 ] students: 2.01 ] Student from an elite organizations to the masses The oldest still active student The university community organization was founded in consists of professors, admini­ 1852: the Taalminnend Studenten­ strative and technical staff genootschap ’t Zal Wel Gaan and students. Students account (the Flemish ‘It’ll be OK’ Language-­ for the largest group. loving Student Society). Its mem­ bers are liberal and free-thinking Students: they were those students. young squires of leisure, the “men­ There are student organizations heeren studenten, de cives academici” of every description. Catholic as they were titled when the univer­ students, socialist students, Bruges sity was founded. Until the Second students, law students, Flemish- World War the vast majority of nationalist students, homosexual the student population came from students … there is a club or society well-to-do backgrounds. Initially only to match the ideals of all of them. men were allowed to study. They are identifiable by their cap, Typically students were transients ribbon or flag or in some other way. and so for them Ghent was just the The objective of these student setting for their brief student days. organizations is twofold. On the They lived here without being fully one hand, they offer their members integrated into the city. They spent a varied programme of typical their time studying for a degree, student activities, and, on the other but nobody told them how to do that. hand, they give them an oppor­ Their freedom was legendary. tunity to get involved in the social Much changed after the Second World questions which concern them. War. The introduction of grants in The student organizations belong 1954 made higher education more to a specific koepel and the local democratic. The students became more clubs to a konvent. Ghent’s over­ diverse socially, women were accepted arching student body, the Gentsch and student numbers increased Studentencorps, was founded exponentially: the 190 students in in 1933, followed in 1935 by the 1817 were 1,782 by 1940, 11,486 by Senioren Konvent. Next came the 1970 and 21,387 by 2000. The “young FaculteitenKonvent in 1941, which squires of leisure” became a large represented student organizations and colourful mass. linked to a specific faculty. 2.06 ] The executive committee 2.14 ] 1930s flag of the Liberaal of the Société Générale des Vlaams Studentenverbond (Liberal étudiants Libéraux in 1894–95. Flemish Student Association).

Liberal Archive, Ghent Liberal Archive, Ghent

2.07 ] The Société Générale des 2.15 ] Red and white student cap. étudiants Catholiques de Gand, Ghent University Archives a Catholic society often called ‘Gé Catholique’, poses with 2.16 ] Cap with characteristics the association flag in 1909. of a liberal student society.

Ghent University Archives Ghent University Archives

2.08 ] The executive committee 2.17 ] Wase Club (Waasland Club) cap of the liberal Taalminnend from the 1940s. Studentengenootschap Ghent University Archives ’t Zal Wel Gaan in 1893–94. Ghent University Archives 2.18 ] Students of various persuasions — recognizable by their 2.09 ] The Société Académique d’Histoire, different caps — fraternizing. a history students’ society during Ghent University Archives the 1910–11 academic year. Ghent University Archives 2.19 ] Liberal students’ badge at the Fédération Nationale des étudiants 2.10 ] The Bruges student society libéraux Belges general conference, La Brugeoise around 1900. December 10th-11th 1948.

Ghent University Archives Ghent University Archives

2.11 ] The Flemish Catholic students 2.20 ] Liberal student almanac of De Rodenbachsvrienden dating from 1909. (The Rodenbach Friends) in 1935. Ghent University Library

Ghent University Archives

2.21 ] This clubcodex and song book 2.12 ] Cap, flag and ribbon: the attributes was a commercium book used of a student association, s.d. by the Ghent Seniorenkonvent. Ghent University Archives It dates from 1959 and belonged to student Joseph Smis. 2.13 ] The ‘Gé Catholique’ association Private collection flag dating from 1880.

Private collection 9 2.02 ] Living in the city 2.22 ] Poster for a ball in the Boudewijn hall “Studentenkamer, of residence around 1970. dierbre woon, Ghent University Library Trots ’t vaal behangsel aan uw’ muren, 2.23 ] The meeting area in Was geen paleis als gij Home Fabiola in the 1960s. zoo schoon.” Ghent University Archives

This rhyme written by a student 2.24 ] Furnished room in in 1874 is a homage to his beloved Home Fabiola. student room. The wallpaper lining Ghent University Archives its walls may be dingy, but for him there is no palace more beautiful. 2.25 ] King Baudouin arriving This is where he studies and receives at the inauguration of his friends; it is his oasis of tranquil- the Boudewijn (Baudouin) hall lity in his busy student life. of residence in 1967. With the exception of the commut- Ghent University Archives ing students, every student dreamt of a room like that. It was usually pro­ 2.26 ] The Jewish medical student vided by a landlady, who cooked and Fanny Vorobeitchik and washed and kept an eye on her lodger. her husband Israël Levit High-rise halls of residence sprang in the 1920s. up in the 1960s and 70s: Home Astrid, Ghent University Archives Home Boudewijn, Home Vermeylen and Home Heymans. They were the 2.27 ] Student room, probably university’s response to the democra­ in the 1970s. tization of higher education. Home Ghent University Archives Bertha De Vriese followed in 2001 and in 2010–11 a new complex on the 2.28 ] An engineering student’s digs Kantienberg. These halls of residence in the 1950s. Individual provide a form of communal living students rented rooms, at a democratic price. They are known in Dutch as koten. extremely popular. These days more and more companies also let out rooms for students.

Private collection

10 2.29 ] Nienke Bakker studied Germanic More students than you might Languages in Ghent in the 1930s. expect came from abroad: in 1930 She kept a wonderful photograph a third of the students were not album of her life as a student, which Belgian. In particular, Eastern illustrates thé dansants, gala balls Europeans and Latin Americans and stage plays, outings with came here to follow the highly-rated the Germania student society, long engineering courses, adding an walks along the rivers Leie/Lys exotic touch to the streetscape. and Scheldt, posing in Citadelpark and the peace and quiet of her student room. 2.31 ] A few students from the Vlaamsche Letterenhuis Antwerp Hoogeschool (Flemish College of Higher Education, 1916–1918) 2.30 ] A series of nostalgic photographs strolling along the Kouter. of a small group of engineering Ghent University Library students in the 1950s. Private collection 2.32 ] Foreign students in the streetscape around 1925.

Ghent University Archives 2.03 ] ‘Street theatre’ 2.33 ] Nienke Bakker and friends These days it is difficult to in Veldstraat, 1930s. distinguish students from their con­ Letterenhuis Antwerp temporaries unless perhaps it is by their UGent sweater. Their manner, 2.34 ] A group of foreign students appearance and clothes are part around 1930, probably of the same globalized youth culture on the Kouter. which originated in the 1960s. Ghent University Archives It was not always like that. In draw­ ings and photographs we see stu­ 2.35 ] International students dents togged out in suit and tie with fraternizing; group photograph a hat, cap or fashionable scarf. They taken in 1891. were young gentlemen, often seen Ghent University Archives out and about with a walking stick. The female students also dressed 2.36 ] Probably a Romanian elegantly, sporting a velvet cap. The engineering student, colour of that cap said something second half c. 19. about their identity. Ghent University Archives

STUDENTS: FROM AN ELITE TO THE MASSES 11 2.37 ] A gentleman student: Daniël van 2.04 ] Relaxation and sport Duyse (1852–1924), later professor of medicine, around 1875. Once students were done for Ghent University Library the day with studying, city life beck­ oned with its cafés, theatres, cine­ 2.38 ] View of the Church of St Nicholas mas and assembly halls where balls around 1900. The shops built onto and banquets were held. There were the church include the Van Goethem student organizations which enticed university bookshop. their members with the pleasures of Ghent Archives (City of Ghent and OCMW Ghent) club life and ‘student houses’ where — photograph Edmond Sacré students could go and read the newspaper or play billiards. Around 2.39 ] Menu for the 25th birthday celebra­ the Kuiperskaai there were cinemas tion of the Cercle des étudiants and dance halls. The Blandijnberg Wallons Libéraux, January 21st 1894. catered for the left-wing countercul­ Letterenhuis Antwerp ture and in the 1980s the Overpoort became a go-to area for nightlife. 2.40 ] The traders see the students as Sport provided another outlet. The a source of income: advertisements university offered its students more for Meyer van Loo, Opticien Braga, and more choice: interuniversity Huis Nagels & Esders, Vander championships were introduced, Haeghen publisher’s and Brasserie the Higher Institute for Physical Valentino. Education and the Ghent University Ghent University Library Sports Association were founded, the university­ built a sports infra­ 2.41 ] Tickets for activities organized structure round the Watersport­ by the Société Générale des étudiants baan (watersports course), and the in the 1880s. Twelve-hour Run was introduced. Ghent University Library Rowing was a good combination of sport and relaxation. Like fencing, 2.42 ] Invitation to a masked student ball, it was a traditional student sport. February 1st 1845. Outings on the water also took place. Ghent University Archives For example, the rowing excursion organized by ’t Zal Wel Gaan 2.43 ] Remains of a student joke from opened students’ eyes to the delights the 1950s, referencing a baby’s bib. of the rivers Leie (Lys) Ghent University Archives and Scheldt.

12 2.44 ] Fencers at a prize-giving. 2.05 ] Students today Ghent University Library The post-war democratization 2.45 ] The interuniversity sports of higher education led to a growing meetings of 1939: number of students. With student the 1,500-meter athletes. grants and social services becoming Ghent University Archives — more readily available, the number photograph Albert Ritsaert of students quadrupled between 1949 and 1969. The reorganization of higher 2.46 ] Student society ’t Zal Wel Gaan, education led to a second period of with its ritual ‘beard and growth in the 1990s. A third expansion top hat meetings’, ca. 1930. dates from the integration of academic Ghent University Library courses at colleges of higher education (hogescholen) into the university. 2.47 ] Rowing competition by By 2017 the 2,552 students of 1949 the students of the Taalmin- were 40,000. nend Studentengenootschap The kandidaturen and licenties have ’t Zal Wel Gaan’ in 1929. become Bachelor and Master degrees. Ghent University Archives Students can map out an individual course of study and follow lectures 2.48 ] Relaxing in the Hou ende Trou in English. The number of faculties student house in Sint-Pieters­ has risen from four to eleven. The nieuwstraat (1916–1918). student population has seen further Ghent University Library democratization and the number of women has increased, but the lecture 2.49 ] Students practising sports, theatres are still largely ‘white’. 1920–1930. A cultural change has also taken place. Ghent University Archives Students no longer see themselves as an intellectual spearhead of society, 2.50 ] In 1910 the Ghent university but as a ‘client’ of an educational rowing club was the Belgian institution. The degree is their ticket champion in the Eights. into society. Ghent University Archives

2.51 ] Interuniversity fencing competition cup, 1910.

Ghent University Archives

STUDENTS: FROM AN ELITE TO THE MASSES 13 3 ] language in the memory, certainly not every­ one was ready to back a Dutch- The four languages spoken speaking university. It was 1930 at Ghent university over before Dutch became the language the last 200 years are Latin, of instruction. Like Latin in the French, Dutch and English. Middle Ages, English is now the lin­ Language opens the door gua franca of scientific research and for students or it may an increasing number of subjects act as a barrier, and it are taught in English. has been the nub of a fierce linguistic battle. 3.01 ] 1817–1913 When the university was founded, Latin was the language of In 1817 the university intro­ instruction. Latin was once the every­ duced lectures, exams and doctor­ day language used in universities ates (PhDs) in Latin. However, and among scholars, but by the nine­ it was not the language of modern teenth century it was something of science in the nineteenth century an anachronism. In the newly estab­ and not all professors and students lished Belgium, French was chosen had the same command of Latin. as the official language, the lan- Belgian independence changed all guage of the elite and one in which that. Latin was dropped and in 1835 foreign students were also compe­ a law came into effect which stated tent. But while Dutch was gradually (among other things) that lessons introduced in administrative matters, should be delivered in French. criminal proceedings and state sec­ Very soon people began to argue ondary education at the end of the in favour of the use of Dutch. The nineteenth century, the university student organization Taalminnend of Ghent remained French-speaking. Studentengenootschap ’t Zal Wel More and more people favoured the Gaan was a zealous advocate of use of Dutch. A bill was presented for a course in Dutch. This was intro­ debate in parliament, but the First duced in 1854. Close on 40 years World War interrupted the process. later, several professors founded After the war the debates resumed the organization Hooger Onderwijs but with the activist Vlaamsche voor het Volk (Higher Education Hoogeschool — the Flemish College for the People), which provided of Higher Education — still fresh public courses in the vernacular.

14 The idea of introducing Dutch was 3.11 ] Poster of the Association also a subject of debate in parliament, flamande pour la vulgarisation led by three young politicians, the de la langue française, so-called ‘three crowing cockerels’. a Flemish society that promoted In 1911 Frans Van Cauwelaert (Cath­ the French language. olic), Camille Huysmans (socialist) Ghent University Library and Louis Franck (liberal) presented a bill which from 1917 would gradu­ 3.12 ] The ‘three crowing cockerels’, ally introduce Dutch as the only lan­ Frans Van Cauwelaert (1880–1961), guage at the university. Talks were Camille Huysmans (1871–1968) still ongoing when the First World and Louis Franck (1868–1937), War broke out but no vote was taken. came to Ghent in 1910 to make a speech in the Wintercircus in Lammerstraat. 3.07 ] Poster for a Flemish meeting Letterenhuis Antwerp in the Valentino assembly hall in Ghent, 1902. 3.13 ] Letter from Ferdinand Snellaert Ghent Archives (City of Ghent and OCMW Ghent) (1809–1872) to Jacques Kesteloot (1778–1852) about the “matter 3.08 ] Student march for the of the Flemish language”, 1852. Dutchification of education, 1911. Ghent University Archives

Spaarnestad Photo

3.14 ] As a Flemish liberal, the historian 3.09 ] Poster for a meeting of De Roden­ Paul Fredericq (1850–1920) bachsvrienden (The Rodenbach was committed to the Dutchifi- Friends) society, who were cam­ cation of Ghent university. paigning for a ‘Vlaamsche Hooge­ In this diary in September 1892 school’ — a Flemish College of he described how he was extremely Higher Education, 1900. busy preparing for Hooger Ghent Archives (City of Ghent and OCMW Ghent) Onderwijs voor het Volk, which organized scientific lectures 3.10 ] Poster announcing propaganda at higher education level for meetings for the Dutchification the ordinary people of Ghent. of Ghent university. There Ghent University Library were campaigns in several parts of Ghent. 1911.

Letterenhuis Antwerp

LANGUAGE 15 3.15 ] Johan Thorbecke (1798–1872), 3.02 ] The First World War lecturer at the new Ghent and the Vlaamsche state university. He lectured Hoogeschool in Latin and in Dutch, as in this statistics course in 1826. In 1914 Ghent became the head­ National Archives of the Netherlands quarters of the 4th German army. The university closed down and the occupiers 3.16 ] The student society ’t Zal took over buildings like the Aula and Wel Gaan dedicated its 1880 the Institute for Sciences in Jozef Plateau­ almanac to Paul Fredericq. straat and used them as barracks. As Ghent University Library part of the German occupier’s Flamen­ politik, which tried to get the Flemish 3.17 ] Julius Mac Leod, people on side, a Dutch-speaking univer­ Taal en Kennis (Language sity — the Vlaamsche Hoogeschool — and Knowledge), 1895. was founded in Ghent in 1916. Flemish  Julius Mac Leod (1857–1919), activists supported this initiative but lecturer at the faculties the majority of the professors refused to of Medicine and Sciences and cooperate. Two of them, Henri Pirenne later director of the Botanical and Paul Fredericq, were arrested and Garden, lectured and published deported to Germany. The government in Dutch. He was one of the in exile in Le Havre also distanced itself founders of Hooger Onderwijs from the ‘Von Bissing University’. voor het Volk. In 1897 he was The Vlaamsche Hoogeschool opened the key member of a committee on October 24th 1916 with governor gen­ at the university which pro­ eral Moritz Von Bissing in attendance. posed gradual Dutchification. Only seven professors from the French- Ghent University Library speaking university switched allegiances. Some 60 students enrolled. In the course 3.18 ] 1911 petition for the Dutchi­ of the year that number rose to 140. fication of the university, The armistice on November 11th 1918 with the signatures of (among brought the institution to an immediate others) Herman Teirlinck end. All the degrees and appointments (1879–1967) and Karel van were cancelled, the professors were de Woestijne (1878–1929). prosecuted and the students excluded Ghent University Archives from Belgian universities. On January 21st 1919 Ghent university reopened with French as the official language and Paul Fredericq as its rector.

16 3.19 ] The transfer of the university 3.26 ] Paul Fredericq (1850–1920) to the academic authorities and Henri Pirenne (1862–1935) of the Vlaamsche Hoogeschool were arrested on March 18th 1916 on October 21st 1916. and later imprisoned in Germany. Ghent University Library Both photographs were taken while they were prisoners. Hanging 3.20 ] Activist students from in Fredericq’s cell is a poster the Vlaamsche Hoogeschool showing the towers of Ghent. holding pamphlets, 1914–1918. Ghent University Archives

Ghent University Library

3.27 ] Programme of the ‘art ceremony’ 3.21 ] Opening of the student house at the opening of the Vlaamsche Hou ende Trou, the Vlaamsche Hoogeschool on October 24th 1916. Hoogeschool’s student organization. Ghent University Library Group photograph of the guests in the garden, June 3rd 1918. 3.28 ] Medal commemorating the Dutchi­ Ghent University Library fication of Ghent University, 1916.

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3.22 ] Group photograph of students in uniform, 1913. 3.29 ] Visiting card of a student Ghent University Archives from the Vlaamsche Hooge- school, 1916–1918. 3.23 ] Activist demonstration Ghent University Library of students from the Vlaamsche Hoogeschool in the streets 3.30 ] Programme of the university of Ghent on January 27th 1918. centenary celebration on Saturday Ghent University Library November 3rd 1917.

Ghent University Library

3.24 ] Ghent students were also mobilized in the First World War and 3.31 ] Banquet at Ghent Opera House left for the front, where 82 of on November 3rd 1917 to mark them met their death, 1914–1918. the university’s centenary.

Ghent University Library Ghent University Library

3.25 ] Poster announcing enrolments 3.32 ] German army weather station for, and the opening of the on the roof of the Institute academic year in October 1917. for Sciences.

State Archives Hasselt DEHLA Bonn

LANGUAGE 17 3.03 ] The ‘Nolf Shack’ Dutch and a third in French, and a French-speaking section, where Several days after the end the ratio would be the other way of the First World War, King Albert I round. This system was introduced made an official speech in which he in the academic year 1923–24, but it also called for a Dutch-speaking found little support. The university university in Ghent. That appeal was was nicknamed ‘Nolfbarak’ not favour­ably received by everyone, or Nolf Shack. including Ghent city council which was largely made up of ‘franskiljons’ (i.e. elitist citizens who used French 3.33 ] Poster produced in 1923 by as their main language) with their the Algemeen Vlaamsch Hoog­ experiences of the Vlaamsche Hooge­ studentenverbond — (Flemish higher school still in the back of their mind. education student union) calling Be this as it may, the debate got for a boycott of the “Nolfsche under way once again. In parliament Hoogeschool” (ref. Minister for in 1921, ten years after the ‘three crow­ Education Pierre Nolf). ing cockerels’, Frans Van Cauwelaert Letterenhuis Antwerp relaunched the proposal to gradually Dutchify the university. The proposal 3.34 ] Call by several student societies to made it to the Chamber, but not to boycott the bilingual university, 1923. the Senate. Meanwhile supporters and Ghent University Library opponents of Dutchification mounted a campaign and took to the streets. 3.35 ] Caricature dating from 1922 On November 19th 1922 an anti-Dutchi­ which was circulated after the fication march by 5,000 demonstrators, Chamber approved by a narrow later known as the paardenvijgenstoet majority Van Cauwelaert’s proposal or ‘horse figs parade’, resulted in riots of October 19th. The caricature with pro-Flemish counterdemonstrators, tried to persuade the senators who pelted the belles dames with horse to vote against it, which they did excrement. on December 22nd 1922. The Liège professor and Minister Ghent University Library for Education Pierre Nolf eventually took the bull by the horns and com­ 3.36 ] ‘Naar de Gentsche Hoogeschool’; promised. The university would have poster promoting the Dutch- two sections: one Flemish, where two- language university, 1930. thirds of the teaching would be in Ghent University Archives

18 3.37 ] Programme for the inauguration 3.40 ] Members of the Taalminnend of the École des Hautes Études Studentengenootschap ’t Zal on November 25th 1923. Wel Gaan, sporting their cap, Ghent University Library on the steps of the Aula in 1928. This student society was 3.38 ] The Ligue Nationale pour la Défense also a supporter of a Dutch- de l’Université de Gand was one language university. of the pro-French Flemish campaign Letterenhuis Antwerp organizations. With this poster dating from 1923 one of the largest 3.41 ] Promotion of the Dutchified Flemish student societies, the university, with a student wearing Algemeen Vlaamsch Hoogstudenten­ a red cap, 1932. verbond, defended its position. Ghent University Library

Letterenhuis Antwerp

3.42 ] In protest against the bilingual 3.39 ] flatten and tokken, first half c. 20 university, in 1923 Ghent frans­  Flemish liberals, Catholic and kiljons — pro-French Flemish — socialist students donned a wine-red set up a counter-university: cap known as a flat, symbolizing l’École des Hautes Études, housed their Flemish unanimity. Their in this building on the Korenlei. opponents were the French-speaking The institution still existed Ghent bourgeoisie and franskiljons after 1930 and thus thwarted — pro-French Flemish — students, the newly-Dutchified university. who wore black hats or tokken (from Ghent University Archives the French toques). Interestingly, the free-thinking opponents 3.43 ] Ceremonial hat worn of Dutchification reinforced their at Ghent university ceremonies. proposition with statements by This hat has a French-language Cardinal Mercier, while Catholic medallion; in 1930 it was replaced supporters opposed Mercier’s opinion by one in Dutch. that higher culture was impossible Ghent University Archives without French. Ghent University Archives 3.44 ] Photograph of the opening of the 1933 academic year.

Ghent University Archives

LANGUAGE 19 3.04 ] Monolingual Dutch 3.45 ] Ceremonious opening of the academic year in the Aula on October 21st 1930. Right from the start of the  In his speech, rector August bilingual system in 1923, it was Vermeylen (1872–1945) called for toler­ clear that it would not be long- ance, but Flemish nationalist students lived. The opening was boycotted: nevertheless remonstrated by singing neither Ghent city council, nor the Vlaamse Leeuw (official anthem of French-speaking students, nor Flanders) and the Wilhelmus (national the radical Flemish-nationalist anthem of the Kingdom of the Nether­ student organizations showed up. lands) during the Belgian national At the same time, the political cli­ anthem, the Brabançonne. There was mate was also evolving. In Flan­ great indignation in patriotic circles and ders the language demands rang the matter landed on the Cabinet table. out with ever-greater force, and Letterenhuis Antwerp in 1929 Flemish nationalists won the parliamentary elections. After 3.46 ] August Vermeylen and his wife Gaby several months of political wran­ at the opening of the Dutch-language gling, an agreement was reached university in 1930. which included the complete Letterenhuis Antwerp Dutchification of Ghent univer­ sity. It was approved in Chamber 3.47 ] Caricature of August Vermeylen and Senate in March 1930. That in Koekoek, Vooruit’s humorist weekly, same year, socialist politician and June 11th 1931. professor of history of art August Amsab-ISH Ghent Vermeylen opened the academic year as the new rector. 3.48 ] Caricature in Koekoek of October 5th In those first few years, incidents 1933 relating to the opening of the 1933 between students were a common academic year: Minister for Education occurrence and it was not easy August Lippens (1875–1956) conducts for rector Vermeylen to keep the the Belgian national anthem. There Dutchified university on the rails. had been no festive opening ceremonies for the last two academic years to avoid a repeat of the 1930 incidents.

Amsab-ISH Ghent

3.49 ] Bust of August Vermeylen, made by Emiel Poetou, 1932.

Rectorate Ghent University

20 3.05 ] Second World War 3.50 ] Flemish Nationalist Dietsch student conference in the Aula on April 3rd Chaos broke out when the 1941, where the foundation German army captured Ghent in of the Vlaamsche Hoogeschool, May 1940. Lectures at the university 25 years earlier, was commemorated. were suspended. Seventy of the Amsab-ISH Ghent — photograph Paul De Clercq 167 professors fled to France, along with many of the scientific staff. 3.51 ] Lookout post on the Book Tower The Nazi regime took control, — 1944–45. appointed pro-German professors  After the liberation of Ghent — including activist professors from in September 1944, the Passive the Vlaamsche Hoogeschool — and Air-raid Defence Service kept organized lecturer exchanges with an eye on the airspace, Germany in subjects like Germanic for the danger of bombing was Studies and Ethnology. Though not over until the armistice there were members of the resist­ on May 8th 1945. Captain Frans ance among the staff and students — “Loecki” — Vervenne takes up during the war, there were no his position on the Book Tower. major confrontations. A total of Private collection 25 students and members of staff lost their lives in the Second World 3.52 ] Exhibition of Albrecht Rodenbach War. Two of them, mineralogist manuscripts in de Aula at the Valère Billiet and commercial scien­ Dietsch student conference, 1941. tist Karel Verlat, died in prison Amsab-ISH Ghent — photograph Paul De Clercq after being arrested for their resist­ ance activities. After the war, legal 3.53 ] Tripod of a German army telescope action was taken against some from the Second World War, 20 professors for collaboration and left behind on the belvedere they were dismissed. One hundred of the Book Tower. In 1942 and eleven students were punished the occupiers also installed anti- in some way, ranging from a cen­ aircraft guns on the tower. sure to definitive exclusion. Ghent University Library

3.54 ] Card belonging to resistance member Alphonse Cuelenaere (1925–?), 1951.

Ghent University Archives

LANGUAGE 21 3.55 ] 1939 passport belonging to Jewish 3.06 ] Ghent University student of physics and medicine David Lustig. Under German It took a long struggle occupation, Lustig was refused to achieve instruction in Dutch entry to the university. Later on at the university of Ghent and it is he was deported; he died in 1943, an important legacy of the Flemish a victim of the Holocaust. movement. The anglicization Private collection of higher education nevertheless affected the Flemish universities. 3.56 ] Photograph of Albert Einstein The Erasmus exchange programme on his arrival in Antwerp in 1933. was established in 1988. One of Professor Jules Verschaffelt its main objectives is to offer Euro­ is the fourth from the right, pean students the opportunity to between the two ladies. immerse themselves in the language KIK-IRPA Brussels — photograph and culture of the hosting university. Jacques Hersleven The Bologna Declaration of 1999 established a system of comparable 3.57 ] Reproduction of a letter written degrees in Europe and a credit by Albert Einstein (1879–1955) transfer system, which promoted the in 1933 to professor Jules mobility of students and professors. Verschaffelt (1870–1955), in which To attract more international Einstein recommends his Jewish students, the language policy was colleague L. Hopf to rector relaxed. A package of 30 of the 180 Vermeylen. When the Nazis came units of credit at Bachelor level to power in 1933, many Jewish could be given in another language. academics lost their job. Physicist A Master’s could be offered in Verschaffelt saw it as an opportunity another language, so long as that to attract German physicists. course was also available in Dutch at GUM collection (Museum for the History another Flemish university. The uni­ of Sciences) versity now has over 4,000 foreign students, so ways of introducing even 3.58 ] Jewish restaurant more flexibility are being studied. in Jozef Plateaustraat, s.d.

Private collection

22 3.59 ] English language courses 3.62 ] Mr. Braun bears a grudge against taught at Ghent university. Flemish because it reminds him Private collection too much of his mother tongue.

Camille Huysmans pokes fun at Emile Braun’s German origins when the latter supports 3.60 ] I would like to thank you for a French-speaking university in Ghent, kindly congratulating the rector. but at the same time proposes the foundation But what a wasps’ nest! of a Flemish university in Antwerp. November 23rd 1922 Rector August Vermeylen, 1930

3.63 ] However, I am prepared to vote 3.61 ] I see some twenty poor souls, city for the creation of a Flemish and country dwellers, come out of university in Antwerp, because our University, including several very next to the poison is the antidote. young lads like Jaak, barely more Former burgomaster and MP Emile Braun than children. They are packed into at the parliamentary discussions the patrol wagon and two giants on October 19th 1922. He wanted to establish a Dutch-speaking university of German gendarmes wearing in Antwerp with a francophone university spiked, shiny copper helmets huddle in Ghent as the ‘antidote’. next to the driver. The wagon-load of misery drives off. I’ll never forget it. 3.64 ] A humorist cook, but such That became my Alma Mater complicated sauces are not to our in German hands. taste and the Flemish stomach

Paul Fredericq, February 10th 1916 will not digest them.

The later rector August Vermeylen, a socialist MP in 1923, draws on culinary jargon when referring to Minister Nolf.

3.65 ] Politics — and I say this most emphatically: all politics — must remain outside the University.

Rector August Vermeylen, 1930

LANGUAGE 23 4 ] protest in their own lives with, for example, at the protests in 1972–74 against ‘sex university controls’ in the halls of residence. and in Professors like Jaap Kruithof and the city Etienne Vermeersch, who later proved to be prominent voices in In the late 1960s some the social debate, supported some students and professors spoke student campaigns. out in the public and political Governmental cuts in the 1970s debate. The student protest led to higher registration fees, motivated by greater social changes to the grant system and commitment went beyond to modifications­ in the social sector the university walls. and in university financing. These cuts provoked fierce protest. Opposi­ In Europe student anti-estab­ tion to the increase in the regis­ lishment protests broke out in Paris tration fee in 1972 was a foretaste in May 1968 and reached Ghent of the mass protests of 1978–1979, in 1969. On March 12th of that when the registration fee for year, rector Jean-Jacques Bouckaert non-grant students was raised to banned without explanation the 10,000 Belgian francs (250 euros). use of slides in a panel discussion The campaign dragged on until entitled ‘Pornography, sense or October 1980, but in the end the nonsense?’. Students occupied the 10,000 francs were paid. Further rectory, the protest escalated but protest followed when the registra­ was dampened because of internal tion fee went up to 13,000 Belgian divisions and — more prosaically — francs (325 euros) in 1986, stuvac (STUdy VACation). However, but later increases passed more the March movement sowed the or less tacitly. seed for later protests. Students ques­ tioned the running of the university and words like democratization, involvement and participation circu­ lated. There was great disappoint­ ment in 1971 when the students were given just four representatives on the governing board. Students were also demanding greater freedom

24 4.02 ] The pirate radio station Radio 4.08 ] Meeting of the Marxist-Leninist Aktief was deployed in the protest Movement and AMADA against the 10,000 francs. (Alle Macht Aan De Arbeiders Poster from 1980. or All Power to the Workers) Ghent University Archives against the Egmont plan, March 2nd 1977. 4.03 ] Protest posters against the increase Ghent University Archives in the registration fee, 1979. Ghent University Archives 4.09 ] Hurriedly-made poster calling upon students to take part in the 4.04 ] Call for demonstration against demonstration with protesting the increase in the registration ACEC workers, 1970s. fee to 10,000 Belgian francs for Ghent University Archives non-grant students, 1978. Ghent University Library 4.10 ] Pamphlet produced by the Ghent Student Syndicate in 1965 4.05 ] Set of slides for the panel discussion calling upon students to strike ‘Pornography, sense or nonsense?’ and demonstrate against on March 12th 1969. Rector the ‘Expansion Law’, allowing Jean-Jacques Bouckaert banned the government to set up these images from being shown, new universities in Antwerp, which led to student protests. Bergen/Mons and Namur Private collection along with a department of the Katholieke Universiteit 4.06 ] Poster for a teach-in against Leuven in Kortrijk. Despite repression, 1980. Students, workers protests by the existing state and a mineworker from Mijnwerk­ universities, the expansion law ersmacht (M.W.M. or Power to was introduced. the Miners) came and gave lessons. Ghent University Archives

Ghent University Library

4.11 ] Pro-democratic 4.07 ] Debate organized by the Marxist- education badges, s.d. Leninist Movement about Ghent University Archives the rise of the far-right Flemish party, Vlaams Blok, 1988.

Ghent University Archives

PROTEST AT THE UNIVERSITY AND IN THE CITY 25 4.12 ] Truncheon, found by assistant 4.01 ] Social commitment police commissioner Walter in practice Eeckhaute in the large auditorium in the Blandijn complex during the The student involvement 1969 protests. Originally yellow, of the late 1960s and 1970s went the truncheon was used by law and beyond the university walls. From order officials in demonstrations 1969 working parties were set up probably by the Volksuniejongeren­ in several faculties in a bid to make (Young People’s Union). specialized knowledge available  In March 1969 Eeckhaute to society in general and to those was deployed by the Ghent corps in difficult circumstances in parti­ command in the student riots cular. Well-known examples on the Blandijn-berg. At the time, include the Socio-Medical Working he himself was a working student, Party (1969) — later Mordicus — studying criminology and a year in Medicine, the Engineers & later he obtained his licentiate Society Working Party (1970) in degree. It was Eeckhaute’s job to Applied Sciences, the Socio-Juridi­ escort the student demonstration. cal Working Party alias SoJuWe Everything was going well until (1969) in Law, the Critical Action one of the students recognized him Group Psychology and Pedagogy in uniform. The demonstrators (KRAPP), the Social Working started chanting: “Your place is Party History or Sowege (1973), here, your place is here!” the Free Education Working Party Private collection and the Economics Working Party (1974–1975). The Socio-Juridical Working Party was behind the ‘Law Shop’, which was set up in 1972 to provide stu­ dents with free legal advice. Much of the Law Shop’s work related to rental problems, but it also sup­ ported students prosecuted for acti- vities relating to the 10,000-franc registration fee. Ghent’s local com­ munity health centres, created in the mid-1970s, are still striving for more accessible health care today.

26 Politically engaged students were 4.16 ] Article about the Law Shop more sympathetic to socio-economic in the student magazine problems and world affairs. In the Schamper, 1976. 1960s and 70s considerable attention Ghent University Library was still being paid to capitalism and the workers’ struggle. Later on 4.17 ] Schamper 569 from 2016. the focus shifted to nuclear energy, Ghent University Library the environment, disarmament, rac­ ism, unemployment, and the emanci­ 4.18 ] Photograph of a student pation of women and the GLBT gathering with a poster community. in the background relating to an open evening about the use of contra- 4.13 ] Poster, published by the ceptives, 1970s. Abortion Committee Ghent Ghent University Library and Dolle Mina Ghent in 1978 for the debate ‘Freedom 4.19 ] In 1978 the student magazine and lack of freedom Schamper argued in favour in the sex life of women’. of the legalization of abortion. Amsab-ISH Ghent Stickers (in transparent Bible paper) were stuck over 4.14 ] Poster produced by the Ghent the addresses of abortion clinics Student Working Party Homo­ in the Netherlands to prevent sexuality (Gentse Studenten­ the threatened seizure of No. 51 werkgroep Homofilie), 1973. by the judicial authorities.

Ghent University Archives Ghent University Library

4.15 ] Poster for a party in 1984 4.20 ] Publication dating to support the Law Shop. from 1962 by Jaap Kruithof The liberal politician Jean Gol and Jos Van Ussel about was Minister for Justice the ‘sexual issue’ as regards at the time, hence the name Flemish students. ‘Gol fuif’ or ‘Gol Party’. Amsab-ISH Ghent

Ghent University Archives

PROTEST AT THE UNIVERSITY AND IN THE CITY 27 4.21 ] In 1962 Leo Apostel and Marcel Bots published the book Pluralisme en verdraagzaamheid (Pluralism and Tolerance). Leo Apostel was an advocate of free thinking. He and Jaap Kruithof set up and shaped the Moral Sciences Seminary in 1962.

Amsab-ISH Ghent

4.22 ] Abortus pro/contra. Een kritische analyse (Abortion for/against. A critical analysis) by Hugo Van den Enden and Jaap Kruithof, 1971.

Ghent University Library

28 5 ] the city as 5.01 ] The city and its doctors a laboratory In 1817 the Faculty of Medicine City and university are approached the Bijloke, the hospital inextricably linked. which for centuries had catered for The city is an important the city’s poor, with a view to giving source of inspiration its students practical training. At and a subject of research the Bijloke, professors and students for the university. of medicine witnessed on a daily basis the harrowing conditions to which Since its foundation back Ghent’s textile workers were sub­ in 1817, the university has grown jected. Several professors undertook and become firmly embedded in to improve the lot of workers and Ghent. It is spread across scores the poor through the free provision of locations in the city and its of care, new treatments and research neighbouring municipalities, into the social causes of epidemics. but also far beyond. It even has With the publication of his thesis a campus in South Korea. Verhandeling over den Druiper en de Science only makes sense if it Pokziekte (Treatment of Gonorrhoea comes down from its ivory tower, and Smallpox) in 1797, Joseph Kluys- shares and applies its knowledge, kens (1771–1843) began a crusade for and is open to its immediate the cowpox vaccination in the South­ environment. With its patients, ern Netherlands. Jacob Kesteloot (1772– mentally ill, children, pupils, 1852) strove for the distribution of workers, intellectuals, industrial­ the vaccine against smallpox. Adolphe ists, plants and animals, etc., Burggraeve (1806–1902) graduated Ghent has been an inexhaustible in 1828 with a dissertation on syphilis field of activity for all scientific and denounced the neglect of Ghent’s areas for more than two centuries. working-class districts. He called The city serves as a laboratory for preventative medicine with public for body, mind, industry and sci­ hygiene and health as the key to social ence, art and culture, fauna, flora progress and launched the idea and architecture. of a health centre. Today the involvement of these nineteenth-century doctors lives on in renewed attention to basic health care, excellent training for GPs and Ghent’s local community health centres.

THE CITY AS A LABORATORY 29 5.02 ] Portrait of Jacob Kesteloot 5.06 ] Group photograph of medical (1778–1852), physician students in their second year, 1891. and professor at the Faculty  Belgium was the first country of Medicine and man in Europe to run a university course of letters, 1844. for doctors, surgeons and Ghent University Library obstetricians.

Ghent University Archives

5.03 ] Portrait of Adolphe Burggraeve (1806–1902), professor of ana- 5.07 ] Course in surgery and pathology tomy and surgery at the Faculty by professor Victor Deneffe (1835– of Medicine in Ghent, 1857. 1908), 1874–75 academic year.

Ghent University Library Ghent University Library

5.04 ] Anatomical preparation made by Adolphe Burggraeve (1806–1902). 5.08 ] For mother and baby:  A piece of skin injected with maternity care mercury to illustrate the working in Ghent of the lymphatic vessels. The young Ghent doctor specialized In the early days, practical in making anatomical preparations training in obstetrics was given in and laid the foundations for the the provincial midwifery school, university’s valuable anatomical founded under William I to combat collection. Only a handful of Burg­ death in childbirth and to take care graeve’s preparations have been of single women. But the women preserved. of Ghent preferred a student GUM Collection (Anatomical collection) midwife to a male student during their confinement. Midwives 5.05 ] Amputation saw used and professors were at loggerheads: by surgeon Joseph Kluyskens the midwives set less store by uni­ (1771–1843) when tending versity clinical teaching. to wounded soldiers at Relations improved when a munici­ the Battle of Waterloo (1815). pal maternity hospital with school GUM Collection (Museum for the History for midwives was built. They moved of Medicine) into their new premises on the Bijlokekaai in 1866. The Moederhuis or Maternity Home was a modern building with several labour wards,

30 a bathing unit and a room for new- midwives and modernized the born babies. Elaborate rules and Moederhuis or Maternity Home regulations separated the practical in Ghent. As a supporter of the lessons, patients and medical instru­ Flemish Movement, he played ments for midwives and students. a role in the Front Movement in The old conflict flared up again when the First World War and strove for Frans Daels (1882–1974) was made the Dutchification of the university. head physician at the maternity As a member of the Vlaamsch hospital in 1924. The power struggle Nationaal Verbond (VNV, Flemish did nothing to help the reputation National Union), he got involved of the Moederhuis and the students. in collaboration in the Second Daels modernized and professional­ World War. He wrote this book ized his clinic and gave out popular for the young women of Flanders handbooks. The Clinic for Gynaecol­ during his time at the front. ogy and Obstetrics in the new It contains explicit moral lessons Academic Hospital on De Pintelaan for a ‘clean’ sex life. opened in 1964. The maternity Documentatiecentrum voor Streekgeschiedenis hospital on the Bijlokekaai Dr. Maurits Gysseling closed in 1977. 5.11 ] Skeleton of a 22-week foetus.

GUM Collection (Museum for the History of Medicine) 5.09 ] Obstetrics forceps, invented by the Ghent barber surgeon 5.12 ] The Bijloke Moederhuis Jan Palfyn (1650–1730) in 1723 (Maternity Home) to speed up childbirth. on the Bijlokekaai, GUM Collection (Museum for the History of Medicine) completed in 1866. Ghent University Archives

5.10 ] Frans Daels (1882–1974), 5.13 ] Auditorium of the women’s Voor moeder en zuigeling clinic in the Moederhuis (For Mother and Baby), with (Maternity Home) a foreword in the first edition on the Bijlokekaai. by Cyriel Verschaeve and Ghent University Library drawings by Joe English, 1920.  Frans Daels, professor of obstetrics and gynaecology, professionalized training for

THE CITY AS A LABORATORY 31 5.14 ] From municipal 5.15 ] Ward in the old Bijloke, hospital to end c. 19 – beginning c. 20. Academic Hospital Ghent University Library

The Bijloke hospital with its 5.16 ] Interior of the sixteenth- medieval infrastructure was antiquated century ‘sick house’, the first and unsuited to progress in medicine extension of the Bijloke and hygiene. Head surgeon Adolphe hospital, ca. 1900. The space Burggraeve (1806–1902) was the first was used as a ward until 1976. to champion modern, hygienic clinics. Ghent Archives (City of Ghent City architect Adolphe Pauli (1820– and OCMW Ghent) 1895) designed a ‘new Bijloke’ in neo- Gothic style. The hospital was inaugu­ 5.17 ] Entrance to the new Bijloke rated in 1878 and had 800 beds for clinic, designed by architect men, women and children. Adolphe Pauli (1820–1895) As part of the transition to a research and completed in 1878. university, the Rommelaere complex Ghent University Archives was built in 1898 opposite the Bijloke hospital. Designed by Louis Cloquet 5.18 ] Sign from the department (1849–1920), the complex housed of Paediatrics headed up modern laboratories and institutes for by professor Carlos Hooft scientific research. Ten years later the (1910–1980) in the Bijloke. university also acquired its own clinics Ghent University Archives and polyclinics on Pasteurlaan. In spite of all the annexes, the university 5.19 ] Bijloke staff in 1938, from still dreamt of an academic hospital. left to right: Dr J. Vandevelde, Building work started in 1937, but the Denise Van Doorselaer, outbreak of the Second World War sister Boniface, Dr De Breuck and a lack of financing meant that the and Dr Georges Vandeputte. work dragged on. The polio epidemics Ghent University Archives of the 1950s gave a new urgency to the building work. On November 5th 5.20 ] Enamel name plates from 1959, Ghent celebrated the official the old Bijloke hospital in opening of its Academic Hospital, Ghent. The plates refer to the Academisch Ziekenhuis, and one the various wards, laboratories, by one the medical services vacated store rooms, etc. the Bijloke site. Ghent Archives (City of Ghent and OCMW Ghent)

32 5.21 ] A bird’s-eye-view pen 5.27 ] The Academic Hospital (AZ) drawing of the Rommelaere under construction, 1939. complex, ca. 1900. GUM Collection (Museum for Flowerbed at the entrance the History of Sciences) at the opening of the Academic Hospital, 1959. 5.22 ] University clinics Ghent University Archives and policlinics on the Pasteurlaan, ca. 1900. 5.28 ] Prostheses used by Joseph Kluyskens GUM Collection (Museum for (1771–1843). the History of Sciences)  The son of a village doctor from Erpe, Kluyskens worked as apprentice 5.23 ] Operating quarters and barber with a barber surgeon in auditorium in the university Ghent. After the Battle of Waterloo clinics on the Bijloke, ca. 1917. in 1815, he organized assistance Ghent University Library Ghent University Archives for wounded soldiers in Brussels. He carried out more than 300 amputa­

5.24 ] Anatomy lesson by Professor tions to prevent gangrene in wounded Julien Fautrez (1914–1995), or shattered limbs. dissection of a foot, 1953. GUM Collection (Museum for the History of Medicine)

Ghent University Archives 5.29 ] Portrait of Joseph Kluyskens

5.25 ] Professor Fritz De Beule (1771–1843), c. 19. (1880–1949) and a student STAM with a patient during a clinical lesson in the Bijloke 5.30 ] Johan Baptist Lodewyk Maes auditorium, 1938. (1794–1856), De koepokinenting Ghent University Archives (The Vaccination against Cowpox), 1819

5.26 ] The Academic Hospital’s  The painting probably refers new buildings, ca. 1965. to the activities of the Ghent Ghent University Archives barber surgeons Guillaume Demamet and Joseph Kluyskens (1771–1843). From 1800 both strove for the general acceptance of the vaccinations.

STAM

THE CITY AS A LABORATORY 33 5.31 ] Norbert Sauvage, Dissectie van 5.33 ] Casts of the blood vessels which een Siamese tweeling (Dissection supply blood to the brain, made of a Siamese Twin), 1703. by Bertha De Vriese (1877–1958),  The Collegium Medicum ca. 1905. was established in Ghent in 1665.  After obtaining her degree This corporate organization of in 1900, five years later De Vriese doctors and barber surgeons laid added a doctorate in human the foundations for the teaching anatomy to her CV. She made of anatomy and medicine in the these casts as part of her doctoral city. In 1703 Jan Palfyn (1650–1730), research. Despite her laudable barber surgeon and member of research findings and exertions, this college, carried out a public her mandate as an assistant was dissection on a ‘Siamese’ twin born not extended. Professor Leboucq prematurely in Ghent. The analysis (1848–1934) gave precedence aroused great interest and was to his own son and later successor, captured on canvas by Norbert Georges Leboucq (1880–1958). Sauvage. The painting hung in De Vriese became head of the Collegium Medicum’s room the children’s department of in the Town Hall until 1848. the Bijloke hospital in Ghent MSK Ghent and opened a private practice for paediatrics. 5.32 ] Group photograph of the Ana- GUM Collection (Anatomical collection) tomical Conference in Jena, 1904.  Bertha De Vriese (1877–1958) 5.34 ] Classic obstetric manikin, — the first woman to graduate Pinard type, c. 19. from Ghent university as a doctor  The obstetric manikin is a model of medicine — takes her place of a female pelvis with external in the first row among all her male genitalia made of leather into colleagues. At the time De Vriese which a foetus fits. It was used to was a researcher at the prestigious teach and practise obstetric grips. Morphological School of the GUM Collection (Museum for the History Anatomical Institute on the Bijloke. of Medicine)

GUM Collection (Museum for the History of Medicine) 5.35 ] Mobile scales, used by midwives for home births.

GUM Collection (Museum for the History of Medicine)

34 5.36 ] A healthy body 5.37 ] Even today the bench and the buck, attributes from Swedish Inspired by study trips gymnastics, are essential pieces to Stockholm, Berlin, Copenhagen of equipment in every gymnasium. and Hamburg, in 1908 the doctor GUM Collection (GUSB) Florent Gommaerts (1865–1934) founded the Higher Institute for 5.38 ] Gymnasium of the Higher Physical Education. The Gymnastic Institute for Physical Education Orthopaedic Institute of Stockholm in the Emile Braun Municipal served as a model for the Ghent Primary School (old Jesuit institute. To start with, the practical monastery) on the Paddenhoek, lessons were given in the gymna- ca. 1910. sium at the Emile Braun Municipal Ghent University Archives School for Girls on Paddenhoek. From 1913 Irène Van der Bracht 5.39 ] The Higher Institute for (1891–1941), who held a licentiate Physical Education’s new sports degree, gave practical lessons to girls centre on the Watersportbaan, and in 1925 she became Belgium’s inaugurated in 1960. first female professor. Until 1931 Ghent University Archives the Higher Institute for Physical Education was unique in Belgium 5.40 ] Students from the Higher and, along with Stockholm, Institute for Physical Education it was the only university institute look on as Florent Gommaerts in Europe where physical education (1865–1934) teaches using was taught on a scientific basis. visual aids, ca. 1917. In 1960 the institute moved to the Watersportbaan. Inside view of the Clinique gymnastique-orthopédique. Florent Gommaerts (1865–1934) is in the middle, in the white coat, 1917.

Female physical education students with their teacher Irène Van der Bracht (1891–1941), 1927.

Ghent University Archives

THE CITY AS A LABORATORY 35 5.41 ] The mind 5.42 ] Registering the shape and the brain of the skull using a ‘hat’, from the Jules Van Biervliet (1859–1945) Joseph Guislain (1797–1860) collection. The hat registers graduated in 1819 and was one the circumference of the skull of Ghent’s first medical doctors by means of a pricking system. to do so. From the outset, he strove GUM Collection (Museum for the History to reform care for the ‘insane’. of Medicine) In the belief that mental illness is influenced by ‘moral pain’, he put 5.43 ] An electroshock device for the emphasis on gentle treatment treating the mentally ill, c. 20. and therapy and banned brutal Museum Dr Guislain coercive measures. His new approach led to a productive cooperation 5.44 ] Injection needles and dispensing with Canon Petrus-Jozef Triest, bottles containing Vinum aromati­ father superior of the Congregation cum and valerian, c. 20. of the Brothers of Charity. As Museum Dr Guislain a liberal local councillor, Guislain also championed the building of a new and scientifically-based mental 5.45 ] Experimental schools institution for impecunious male for children patients. Designed by Adolphe Pauli (1820–1895) and located just Pedagogues need pupils and outside the city, the Guislain Insti­ a testing ground for their teaching tute opened in 1857 and became and research. The City of Ghent put an internationally acclaimed institu­ a small school in Molenaarsstraat tion. Guislain died in 1860. Twenty at the disposal of students from the years later Jules Van Biervliet Higher Institute for Pedagogy (1927) (1859–1945), physicist and psycho­ as a demonstration school and train­ logist, founded the first ever labo­ ing centre. Part of the playground ratory for experimental psychology was turned into a vegetable garden in Belgium. He used new equip- for the children and each child was ment to study human perception given a box containing a piece of (visual illusions), attention (reaction soap, a towel and a toothbrush. The times) and above all memory. charismatic driving force behind the project, Jozef Verheyen (1889–1962), believed that physical and ‘moral’

36 education go hand in hand. The sub­ 5.47 ] Experimental school founded ject matter of lessons was inspired by the pedagogue Richard Verbist largely by what presented itself in (1911–2010), 1965–1970. the immediate surroundings, a fore­ Ghent University Archives runner of the Freinet educational concept. 5.48 ] J. Van der Plaetsen, portrait In 1948 Richard Verbist (1911–2010), of Dr Guislain, professor a pupil and assistant of Verheyen, at the Faculty of Medicine set up a new experimental school and “father of Belgian in a villa in Zwijnaarde. The Verbist psychiatry”, c. 19. School was first and foremost a Museum Dr Guislain pedagogic laboratory where teaching techniques were tried out. On Sep­ 5.49 ] Inauguration of the statue tember 1st 1960 the school moved to of Joseph Guislain (1797–1860) Henri Dunantlaan. The experiment on the Begijnhoflaan, 1887. evolved gradually and became a Ghent University Archives school for children from often elitist and intellectual circles. The school 5.50 ] Dr Guislain’s doctor’s bag. closed down in 1991. Certain pedago­ In 2006 students and staff gical ideas championed by the exper­ at Ghent University proclaimed imental school live on today in the Joseph Guislain their university’s municipal Freinet schools. greatest professor.

Museum Dr Guislain

5.46 ] Apparatus and materials used 5.51 ] Straightjacket used to restrain for psychotechnical examinations i the mentally ill, c. 20. n the laboratory for Applied Museum Dr Guislain Psychology. • Box containing writing materials according to the D’Haese method, for the first to fourth school years, ca. 1950–1960. • Wooden box containing materials for the Borelli-Oléron block- building test, 1955.

Ghent University Archives

THE CITY AS A LABORATORY 37 5.52 ] Education and school 5.55 ] Experimental school savings banks to in the municipal school elevate the populace in Molenaarsstraat, 1928. Ghent University Archives François Laurent (1810–1887), professor of jurisprudence and liberal 5.56 ] End-of-year celebrations local councillor, saw education as the in the new experimental school lever for a moral civilization. Child on the Dunantlaan, 1961–62. labour should be banned, compulsory Ghent University Archives education was the message. He firmly believed that workers could lift them­ 5.57 ] King Baudouin visits the selves out of poverty through order, experimental school on the thrift and foresight. In 1866 he intro­ Dunantlaan, May 19th 1967. duced a school savings system into Ghent University Archives Ghent’s municipal schools. Until well into the twentieth century, every Bel­ 5.58 ] Creative art class at the gian child’s school bag contained the experimental school, ca. 1964. typical savings book. In 1908 his statue Ghent University Archives was inaugurated on what is today the Laurentplein. 5.59 ] The Bollekensschool, 1970s. At the time, outdoor lessons were seen as enlightened. 5.53 ] Children of the Geluk in ’t Werk City of Ghent Education Department (Happiness at Work) circle with Professor François Laurent 5.60 ] Photograph album (1810–1887) on the right in of the experimental school the second row, ca. 1880. founded by pedagogue  Laurent made a great contri- Richard Verbist (1911–2010) bution to municipal education, in Zwijnaarde, 1950–1960. established workers’ circles Ghent University Archives and introduced school savings. Ghent University Archives 5.61 ] ‘Klein Schooltje’ (Little School), a radio documentary (5 min.) 5.54 ] Lieven De Winne, Portret made by Greet De Lathauwer van professor François Laurent in 2010 about the experimental (Portrait of Professor François school in Zwijnaarde. Laurent), 1877.

MSK Ghent 5.62 ] A laboratory in the city 5.63 ] Molecular model showing the structure of benzene as The city recognized the impor­ discovered by August Kekulé tance of scientific innovation and (1829–1896). financed a well-equipped laboratory GUM Collection (Museum for for applied chemistry in the former the History of Sciences) Emile Braun School next to the Aula. Among other things, it boasted a 5.64 ] Sketch of professor Kekulé’s photography room. François Donny chemistry teaching lab in (1822–1896), self-taught chemist and the old university on Lange amateur photographer, was made Meer (today Universiteitstraat). temporary director of the laboratory State Archives of Belgium, Brussels after the death of Daniël Mareska (1803–1858), professor of chemistry. 5.65 ] View of the Muink- As Mareska’s successor, in 1858 meersen and of Sint-Pieters­ the university recruited August Kekulé nieuwstraat, ca. 1850. (1829–1896), a young German lecturer  These photographs are from Heidelberg, for the chair of some of the oldest photographic General Chemistry. At the time Ger­ views of Ghent. man universities led the way in fun­ Ghent University Archives — photographs François Donny damental research and in developing experimental laboratories. Ghent’s 5.66 ] Wire figures for experimenting chemistry laboratory underwent with surface tension. dramatic expansion under Kekulé, GUM Collection (Museum for who turned it into a state-of-the-art the History of Sciences) research lab. The university’s teaching lab was the only one of its kind in 5.67 ] A microscope and several Belgium. The impressive room had phials and platinum instruments seven windows, a large modern labo­ from the laboratory of chemist ratory table and incinerators. At the Frédéric Swarts (1866–1940) time of the publication of Kekulé’s of the Kekulé school. discovery of the ring-shaped structure GUM Collection (Museum for of benzene in 1865, his laboratory was the History of Sciences) already world famous. However, Ghent was too small for Kekulé and he left the city for a post in the hypermodern Chemical Institute in Bonn.

THE CITY AS A LABORATORY 39 5.68 ] From working-class 5.69 ] Report by doctors Daniël Mareska area to ‘Palace (1803–1858) and Jules Heyman of the Sciences’ on living conditions in the working-class area of Batavia, 1843. City and state soon realized  They condemned the lack that the industrial city of Ghent had of healthy food and the unhygienic at its disposal ‘technical’ sciences capa­ dwellings. The Batavia area, ble of stimulating industrialization which posed a threat to public and technological innovation. Special health, made way for the Institute schools for ‘polytechnic’ courses in for Sciences. Arts and Trades, Civil Engineering Ghent University Library and Bridges and Roads were grafted onto the Faculty of Sciences. These 5.70 ] Scientific staff from the engineering courses were hugely laboratory for General Chemistry successful, not least among foreign in the Plateau building, 1898. students. In the 1860s the engineer- Ghent University Archives ing schools had more students than the four ‘ordinary’ faculties together. 5.71 ] Laboratory for Applied Chemistry A new institute for the Sciences of William-Marie De la Royère was required to meet the pressing (1856–1924) at the école Spéciale du need for buildings and laboratories Génie Civil et des Arts et Manufac­ for both the engineering schools and tures, in the Plateau building, 1890. the Faculty of Sciences. City archi- Ghent University Library tect Adolphe Pauli (1820–1895) drew up the plans for a majestic building, 5.72 ] Physics lab in the Plateau building, which necessitated uprooting more ca. 1910–1920. than 300 working-class families Ghent University Library under the pretext of public health. In November 1890 the Natural 5.73 ] Inner courtyard at the Institute for Sciences and Engineering faculties Sciences, with chemistry students moved amid festive celebration from Marc Van Montagu, Greta Coppens Voldersstraat to the new building and Hubert Sion, 1954. in Jozef Plateaustraat and Rozier. It was 1957 before the technical schools’ Laboratory for Organic Chemistry engineering courses became the Fac­ of Firmin Govaert (1902–1993), with ulty of Applied Sciences, part of which (among others) Marc Van Montagu has since moved to the Technology and Greta Coppens, 1954. Park in Zwijnaarde. Private collection Marc Van Montagu

40 5.74 ] University 5.75 ] Laboratory for Hydraulics and industry at the Technicum. Ghent University Archives — In the 1920s engineer and photograph R. Masson concrete expert Gustave Magnel (1889–1955) called for better coopera­ 5.76 ] Engineer Gustave Magnel tion between university and industry. (1889–1955) in his office. He endeavoured to achieve a special­ He had a profound influence ized laboratory where theoretical on the development teaching and experimental research of prestressed concrete could fecundate each other, for the between the wars. existing Institute for Sciences no Ghent University Archives longer satisfied the modern standards for technical labs. On Feyerick’s old 5.77 ] Gustave Magnel (1889–1955) factory grounds alongside the Muink­ (with walking stick) and fellow schelde, between 1934 and 1937 engineers visit the foundation Magnel and his colleague, steel expert works at the Basilica of the Jean-Norbert Cloquet (1885–1961), Sacred Heart in Brussels, 1920. had a new building erected to house Ghent University Archives laboratories for the Technical Schools: the Technicum. Magnel’s famous 5.78 ] Laboratory for Reinforced laboratory for Reinforced Concrete Concrete in the Technicum. was located on the ground floor.  The floor load capacity is The Ardoyen campus in Zwijnaarde impressive. In 1972 the laboratory was created in 1972 in an effort to moved to Campus Ardoyen. stimulate cooperation between univer­ Ghent University Archives sity and industry. First and foremost, the campus met the need to expand 5.79 ] Series of photographs of students the Faculty of Applied Sciences. at the Technicum, 1950s. Later on Ardoyen became a Science Private collection Park, where university and business world meet. 5.80 ] Façade of the Institute for Sciences, ca. 1900.

Ghent University Library

THE CITY AS A LABORATORY 41 View of Rozier from Sint-Pieters­ 5.84 ] Under its current name of nieuwstraat, 1936. Tech Lane Science Park (52 ha),  The Institute for Sciences Campus Ardoyen is home to is located opposite the De Vreese numerous university laboratories, working-class area where the research institutes, international Book Tower was built later on. corporate research & development Ghent University Library centres and high-tech growth companies. Every year the Science 5.81 ] Façade of the Institute for Sciences, Park welcomes ten new start-ups, ca. 1920. so it has become the natural home Ghent University Library of spin offs of VIB, Imec, VITO and Ghent University itself. Interior of the Institute for Sciences, City of Ghent ca. 1918.

Ghent University Library 5.85 ] Accumulated Students in the laboratory knowledge for Applied Chemistry, 1895–1900. and culture Ghent University Archives In 1933 the university commis­ 5.82 ] View of the Muinkkaai, 1901. sioned the internationally famous architect Henry Van de Velde View of the C. De Keukelaere wood (1863–1957) to design a new univer­ and coal merchant’s with workers’ sity library. Baudelo Chapel had houses, factories and St Peter’s been unsatisfactory as a library for Abbey in the background, 1901. years and it had developed structural Ghent Archives (City of Ghent and OCMW Ghent) problems. Built on the site of the De Vreese group of workers’ houses 5.83 ] Steel truss of the Technicum, between the Sint-Pietersplein ca. 1934–35. and Rozier, the new library was Ghent University Library to become a symbol of the ‘new-style’ Dutch-speaking university. Once Block 2 of the Technicum built again workers had to make way in the 1930s. On the left, for developments in science. It was the car park with a concrete span a difficult project from the outset. which was impressive in its day. At the time it aroused little enthusi­ Ghent University Archives asm and it was hampered by the

42 outbreak of the Second World War. Light designed by Henry The Book Tower was completed Van de Velde (1863–1957) in 1942, at the height of the war. for the large reading room It rose up above the city as its ‘fourth in the University Library. tower’, a symbol of knowledge and Ghent University Library science. More than three million books, magazines, maps and manu­ 5.90 ] The monumental work Histoire scripts are stacked up there like de Belgique (History of Belgium, beacons of knowledge and culture. seven parts, published between 1899 and 1932) by Henri Pirenne (1862–1935), ‘godfather’ of Ghent’s 5.86 ] Inside the De Vreese working-class historical school. Pirenne was area on the Blandijnberg (hill), 1929. one of the first to professionalize Amsab-ISH — photograph Jules Beheyt the practice of history. He inspired generations of committed histo- 5.87 ] Main entrances to the De Vreese rians, including Hans Van Werveke area on the Blandijnberg (hill), (1898–1974), Frans Ganshof 1936 — photograph Geo Pieters. (1895–1980), Jan Dhondt (1915– 1972) and Adriaan Verhulst Inner courtyard in the De Vreese (1929–2002). area with view of the roofs of Ghent University Library the Institute for Sciences, 1936. Ghent University Library — photograph Geo Pieters. 5.91 ] Card index box with the University Library catalogue. 5.88 ] Plan of appropriation drawn Ghent University Library up by the City of Ghent for a new university library, 1920. 5.92 ] Interior views of the new  Building work on the Book Tower University Library, 1950s. began on the De Vreese site in 1936. Ghent University Library

Ghent University Library

5.93 ] Several students in the seminar 5.89 ] Large reading room in the University library of the Faculty of Arts Library, ca. 1950 — photograph and Philosophy, 1920s. Walter De Mulder. Ghent University Library

THE CITY AS A LABORATORY 43 5.94 ] Voices from the past 5.97 ] Main wing of the newly opened Faculty of Arts and Philosophy, In the 1920s Edgard Blancquaert the ‘Blandijn’, shortly after (1894–1964) conceived a plan to have it was brought into use, ca. 1960. 141 Dutch sentences translated by good Ghent University Archives dialect speakers and accurately tran­ scribed phonetically. He started in the region where he was born, Klein- 5.98 ] A mighty, vertical Brabant in the province of Antwerp, bookcase but gradually the project was extended to the whole of Flanders and later Designed by the Ghent archi­ also to the Netherlands. Between 1923 tect and professor Henry Van and 1982 several dialect atlases were de Velde (1863–1957), the Book published. Tower is an architectural gem. Stemmen uit het Verleden (Voices from The idea of stacking the entire the Past) is the title of the collection collection of books in a high-rise of dialect tapes which the university building was inspired by several produced in the 1960s and 70s. A total American libraries and was unpre- of 783 recordings from 550 places cedented in Belgium in the 1930s. tell the life stories of hundreds of dialect For the construction and finish speakers who were born around in reinforced concrete, Van de the end of the nineteenth, beginning Velde drew on the expertise of of the twentieth century. his colleagues Norbert Cloquet (1885–1961) and Gustave Magnel (1889–1955). The 64-meter-high 5.95 ] Forms for completion for the dialect tower was erected using the inno­ study carried out by the department of vative slip forming construction Linguistics-Dialectology, 1963–1982. method. The emphasis in this modernist work of art is on the Audio recording of dialects restful integrity of the pure line. Ghent University Archives Restoration work on the Book Tower began in 2012. 5.96 ] Life-size models of human heads used in the Experimental Phonetics course to demonstrate the working of 5.99 ] Set of photographs showing the the larynx, the vocal cords, the tongue, construction of the Book Tower the oral cavity, etc. at various stages from December GUM Collection (Museum for the History of Sciences) 1936 to March 10th 1937.

Ghent University Library 5.100 ] Design sketch of the Book 5.103 ] The Coupure: from Tower by Henry Van de Velde Ghent horticulturalists (1863–1957), ca. 1933. to bioengineers Ghent University Library Back in the second half of the 5.101 ] View of the Book Tower, ca. 1960 eighteenth century, several horti­ Ghent University Library — cultural enterprises made the rural photograph Raf van den Abeele. Coupure their base. A century later Ghent’s horticulturalists built the Catalogue Room in the prestigious Casino there as the venue University Library, 1972–1973. for the large five-yearly flower show Ghent University Library held for the first time in 1839. This ‘Palace of Flora’, designed by archi­ Large reading room in the tect Louis Roelandt (1786–1864), University Library, ca. 1950. attracted new market gardening com- Ghent University Library — panies and companies specializing photograph Paul Bijtebier in ornamental plants. One of the founders of Ghent’s orna­ 5.102 ] Elks on the Vrijdagmarkt. mental plant and horticulture indus­  For archaeologists the city is try was Jean Linden (1817–1898). an archaeological treasure trove This Belgian plant hunter and busi­ of evidence and remains which nessman undertook a number of allow them to probe deep into expeditions to Central and South the past. In 1981 the antler America on behalf of the Belgian of a bull elk was found while work state, introducing hundreds of tropi­ to construct the car park beneath cal plants on his return. In 1869 Lin­ the Vrijdagmarkt was under den took over a large horticultural way. This find tells us how some company located in Stoppelstraat 40,000 to 50,000 years ago a herd off the Coupure, where he grew trop­ of elks grazed on what is today ical flowers and plants, including the city centre. The rare Gallo- camellias, azaleas and orchids, and Roman Castor hunt cup which put Ghent on the world map with is preserved in the univer-sity’s his horticulture empire. Ghent was archaeological collection is also the only European city to further evidence of the existence boast a horticultural school, which of elks in our region. attracted market gardeners and Ghent University, department of Geology GUM Collection (Archaeological Museum) florists from all over Europe.

THE CITY AS A LABORATORY 45 For more than a century the Coupure 5.106 ] Engraving of the company had been the hub and heart of Ghent owned by Ambrosius Verschaffelt horticulture, so it is hardly surprising (1825–1886), later bought that when the State Agricultural by Jean Linden, L’Illustration College was looking for a new building horticole, vol. 1 (1854). in the 1930s, they chose the site of  In the nineteenth century the Rasphuis, the old prison on the left the Verschaffelt family florist’s bank of the Coupure. business was an important centre for the European cultivation of camellias. 5.104 ] View of the Casino, which became an important place in the social and Interior of Jean Linden’s cultural life of Ghent’s bourgeoisie. winter garden, L’Illustration In 1839 the first large, five-yearly horticole, 28, 1881, plate 422. flower show was held there, heralding GUM Collection (Botanical Garden) the now famous Ghent Floralies. Ghent Archives (City of Ghent and OCMW Ghent) 5.107 ] Roots of palm trees.

GUM Collection (Botanical Garden)

5.105 ] Lithograph of the Uropedium lindenii de Lindley, La Belgique horticole, 5.108 ] Drawing of the new building Journal des jardins, des serres et of the State Agricultural des vergers, IV, 1854, plate 1–2, p 195. College on the left bank  In 1843 Jean Linden (1817–1898) of the Coupure, 1940. discovered the Uropedium lindenii Ghent University Archives and in 1846 Lindley described this extraordinary flower in Orchi­ 5.109 ] Experimental field of the daceae Lindenianae. The flower has Rijksstation voor Sierplanten­ remarkably long, almost tail-shaped veredeling (Experiment Station petals. Linden found the plant for the Improvement of Orna­ in New Granada, in the territory mental Plants, 1946–1955) of the Chiguara Indians. at the State Agricultural College on the campus Coupure Links. Jean Linden’s new winter garden, a drawing by P. De Panne­ Greenhouses belonging to the maeker, L’Illustration horticole, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences 22, 1875, plate 227. on the campus Coupure Links.

GUM Collection (Botanical Garden) Ghent University Archives

46 5.110 ] A botanical garden 5.111 ] Didactic model of a flower for scientists, by the firm Brendel, 1880. students and citizens GUM Collection (Botanical Garden)

By the end of the nineteenth 5.112 ] The library and the laboratory century the botanical garden on in the Botanical Institute the Baudelo site was derelict and in Ledeganckstraat, ca. 1905. polluted by smoke from the sur­ Ghent University Archives rounding factories. Julius Mac Leod (1857–1919), brand-new director 5.113 ] Professor Camille De Bruyne and founder of the botanical society (1861–1937) and staff of known as the Société botanique the Botanical Garden, 1931. Dodonaea, recognized the need Ghent University Library for a new location. In 1900 Ghent university’s new Botanical Institute 5.114 ] Along with master of agricultural was built in Ledeganckstraat science Walter Fiers (°1931) and opposite Citadel Park. The colour- biologist Jeff Schell (1935–2003), ful neo-Gothic building by Louis chemist Marc Van Montagu (°1933) Cloquet (1849–1920) with its was the driving force behind two modern classrooms, microscope new laboratories in Ledeganck­ room, herbarium, museum, labo­ straat: the laboratory for Molecular ratories, surrounding greenhouses Biology and the laboratory for and gardens was ready for the Genetics. It was the start of scientific changes of the twentieth pioneering research into molecular century. Today the Botanical Garden biology and bacterio­logical genetics. is a public garden for scientists, Private collection Marc Van Montagu students and plant lovers. On June 15th 1959, on the land 5.115 ] Campus Ledeganck with the next to the Botanical Garden, complex built in the 1960s and in the first stone of the Ledeganck the foreground the Botanical was laid, a new building for the Institute, which was demolished Faculty of Sciences’ kandidatuur a short while later, ca. 1965. (degree) students. Ghent University Archives — photograph R. Masson

THE CITY AS A LABORATORY 47 5.116 ] Jean Linden’s company in Ghent. 5.119 ] Design sketches for the Botanical  In 1880 Linden’s company Institute by Louis Cloquet comprised 46 greenhouses with (1849–1920). a large winter garden for large GUM Collection (Museum for plants in the centre. Other impor­ the History of Sciences) tant collections included tree 5.120 ] ferns from Australia, camellias, flower models by Brendel, ca. 1880.  azaleas, hothouse plants, orchids, Robert Brendel (1821–1898) bromelias and tropical fruit trees. started making flower models Rhododendrons and conifers in Breslau (Silesia, today Wroclaw were grown outside. The Linden in Poland) in 1866. The workshop company took part in numerous made some 200 different models international exhibitions. from all plant groups: algae, mosses,

Ghent Archives (City of Ghent and OCMW Ghent) ferns and seed plants. The models are largely made of papier mâché and materials like wood, cotton 5.117 ] Between 1937 and 1940 the State Agricultural College complex and gypsum. In the second half of appeared on the left bank of the nineteenth century and the first the Coupure. Later on it became half of the twentieth century, they the Faculty of Bioscience were used for teaching botany. Engineering. GUM Collection (Botanical Garden)

Ghent University Library 5.121 ] Box containing 100 specimens to distinguish agricultural seeds 5.118 ] Poster for L’Illustration horticole, ca. 1884. from weeds, c. 20.  In 1869 Jean Linden took GUM Collection (Botanical Garden) over the editing of L’Illustration 5.122 ] horticole, a famous horticulture Drawings of a Camellia chimera magazine which was published and an orchid by P. Stroobant for over 43 years. for the magazine L’Illustration

Ghent University Library horticole, 1881. Private collection

48 5.123 ] Zoological garden 5.124 ] Stuffed chimpanzee and skeleton of a monkey, In 1851 the Ghent Natural from Ghent zoo. History Society started a zoological GUM Collection (Zoology Museum) garden in the Muinkmeersen area. The founding committee consisted 5.125 ] Postcard of Ghent zoo of eminent Ghent citizens like sena­ featuring Betsy the elephant tor Jean-Baptiste d’Hane de Potter and her attendant, 1908. (1797–1858) and professor Adolphe Ghent University Library Burggraeve (1806–1902), and three architects: Adolphe Pauli (1820– Registers and accounts from 1895), Pierre Kerfyser (1801–1852) the zoo, 1851–1904. and Louis Roelandt (1786–1864). Ghent University Library Pauli drew up the plans. The exotic- looking buildings echoed the animal Vertebra of Betsy the elephant collection they housed. The animals GUM Collection (Zoology Museum) of prey were kept in the Byzantine- style main building, then there were 5.126 ] Ghent university’s zoological cages for birds of prey, a monkey pal­ collection on the second ace and an oriental tent for a drome­ floor of the old university dary and for Betsy the elephant. on Lange Meer (today Not all the animals were blessed Universiteitstraat) next to with a long life. Some dead animals the Aula, which now houses found their way into the university’s the Faculty of Law. zoological collection, where their Ghent University Library skeletons were preserved as didactic material. New Year card of Ghent zoo The zoo survived for barely half for the year 1890. a century. A lack of interest forced House of Alijn Ghent it to close in 1904.

THE CITY AS A LABORATORY 49 5.127 ] From cows and pigs 5.128 ] This plastinated dog’s head to small pets (Yorkshire terrier) was a didactic model used to illustrate the In 1935, on the site of the Casino structures of the throat. of Louis Roelandt (1786–1864) on  The German pathologist and the Coupure, architect August Des­ anatomist Gunther von Hagens, met (1887–1964) built a modernist famous for the controversial exhibi­ complex for vets. For a long time the tion Körperwelten (Body Worlds), building served as a reference point invented the plastination process, for veterinary clinics in Europe. whereby the fluid in a corpse Like the State Agricultural College, is replaced by a type of silicone. the Flemish Veterinary School was As well as being useful for teaching a direct result of the Dutchification and research, many of the anato­ of the university in the 1920s and 30s. mical preparations are also fascinat­ Both schools met the long-standing ing and have an aesthetic value. demand of the Flemish movement to GUM Collection (Morphology Museum) provide agricultural courses in Dutch at higher education level as the eco­ 5.129 ] Professor Eugène de Somer nomic engine for agrarian Flanders. (1885–1958), assistants and For a long time horses dominated members of staff during a scientific vets’ activities because of the crucial experiment on an animal, role they played in providing traction ca. 1940–1950. in agriculture, the army, trade, trans­ port and industry. After the Second Detail of the façade of World War, attention shifted to pigs, the Veterinary School and an economically important branch the Faculty of Zoology in Flanders. Only in 1968–69 did on the right bank of the Coupure. the veterinary course become a sepa­ August Desmet (1887–1964), rate faculty. Because of post-war uni­ professor of architecture versity expansion and further special­ and urbanism, designed the plans ization, the school’s location in the for the new brick building. city centre became untenable. In the Ghent University Archives — 1990s the Faculty of Veterinary Medi­ photograph Hilde Christiaens. cine moved to a new site in Merel­ beke. These days the majority of the students are female and many special­ ize in small pets.

50 5.130 ] Didactic wooden models of horse teeth show the evolution of a foal to a fully-grown horse, c. 20.

GUM Collection (Morphology Museum)

5.131 ] Didactic model horses designed by the German architect and sculptor Max Landsberg. They were gifted to the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, probably as reparation after the First World War, ca. 1885.

GUM Collection (department of Nutrition, Genetics and Ethology)

5.132 ] Skeleton of a baby dromedary, an ostrich and a lama from Ghent zoo.

GUM Collection (Zoology Museum)

5.133 ] Drawing of Ghent zoo in the marshy Muinkmeersen, with St Peter’s Abbey in the background, 1872.

Ghent University Library

THE CITY AS A LABORATORY 51 6 ] the city The abbey church is the laboratory debate for the city academy-to-be. As well as scope for lectures, workshops and City and university have debate, there will be work on show coexisted for 200 years, by three architectural firms, all so this is not only a time keen to shape the future of the city. to look back, but also a time The three installations reflect on to look forward and to reflect city and university as a history of on the role of the university accumulation in which the whole in the city. The debate is greater than the sum of the parts. will provide the impetus Maat-ontwerpers presents a for a city academy. manifesto with a new map of Ghent, which has 200 years of coexistence If the university reflects on metamorphose into an urban project the city, what will happen then? on the basis of four principles. The aim of the city academy is to The Cloud Collective presents those bring together researchers, students, 200 years as a paper trail of intel­ staff, policy-makers, civil servants lectual sense and nonsense which and citizens to debate the great radiates out to the city. The installa­ social challenges: homes, mobility, tion combines traces of finished energy and food, from our own work by students with new work backyard to global change. During by the city academy. the exhibition several formats Bovenbouw architecten presents will be drawn up for a city academy. 200 years of city and university as Staff and students from the Archi­ a huge layered cake, a joyful accumu­ tecture and Urban Planning depart­ lation of 200 years of building. ment are putting the programme together.

52 6.01 ] First move 200 years — (3) in a city debate on commissioning bodies 3 x 200 — 3 x ‘what if’ It was clear at the outset. The city built for the university. The architects were ‘city archi­ Accumulation tects’ and they taught at the university. They built a neoclas­ 200 years — (1) accumulated sical city with grand façades, opportunities which lent decorum to the After 200 years, the university vibrant industrial city. In 1929 is mega! Lots of students, lots the state became the property of buildings, lots of lectures, lots developer and a different, but of publications, lots of locations, equally coherent cityscape began lots of bicycles, lots of meals to take shape. A city with com­ served, lots of burnt-up energy, mercial architecture, on cam­ lots of printed pages, lots of coffee. puses alongside new motorways, And consequently lots of poten­ glowing with the optimism tial. 200 years of university is a of a welfare state in-the-making. future brimming over with stead­ Today the university builds, ily accumulated opportunities. but which city is it building?

200 years — (2) in many places The growth of the university fol­ lowed that of the city, from centre to outskirts. Spatially, in broad outline the university followed the suburban expansion of the city in a southerly direction. University buildings and campuses once surrounded by meadows are now located in the city. In its 200-year history, the university has acquired strategic locations in the city, which are becoming ever-more significant.

THE CITY DEBATE 53 The university What if — (3) the city academy as urban actor as a co-laboratory For many people their student What if — (1) playing the urban card days are their first experience The university is facing the same of urban citizenship. But does major transitions as the city. the university community really It must phase out the use of fossil engage with the city? Within fuels, it must get its employees the university, thought is being and students out of their cars, it given to major sustainability must consume more sustainably transitions. The city is being re- and keep housing affordable. drawn to meet those new chal­ What if the university played the lenges. What if the city, univer­ urban card and saw those ques­ sity, researchers, students and tions not as problems, but as citizens were to organize a long- opportunities? Opportunities to term discussion on the subject tap the accumulated value added and embrace the urban space as of density, vicinity, merged func­ a shared laboratory? tions and shared use of space.

What if — (2) shared space Historically-speaking, the uni­ versity has followed suburbani­ zation, but it has itself become urbanized in the process. Student digs dominate neigh­ bourhoods. University campuses have become functionally more diverse and will increas­ ingly serve as urban public domain. What if the university looked more to the outside world and seriously set about developing its own locations as integral parts of the city?

54 Registered publisher: Annelies Storms, AGB Erfgoed, Botermarkt 1, B–9000 Gent Translation: Alison Mouthaan / Editing: Mia Verstraete Graphic design: Dooreman & Dams please drop me in the box as you leave