116 MARITIME PEOPLE MICHAEL-W. SERRUYS 117 seen as mirrors of our very own subliminal 6 h.up·/lde wikipedia.org/wiki/V-1 Da_y_i.!LTI=_ The Belgians: a bi-maritime people. desires, created by a bricolage of maritime S!:!=- 27.03.2008. 7 http://www.spiegel.de/panorama/ motifs in an urban aesthetic of popular cul­ Belgian maritime identity and its representation 0, 1518,431872,00.html- 27.03.2008. ture. 8 Cf. Roberr Kuhn, Bernd Kreutz, Der Matrosenan­ in everyday life1 zug. Kulturgeschichte eines Kleidungsstiicks. (Dort­ Notes mund 1989) 9 Cf. Eckart Goebel, 'Distant objects of desire. 'Die schonen Matrosen. Der Seem ann als Ikone der Ho­ Michaei-W. Serruys For linguistic support I would like to thank Dr. Silke Meyer very much! This paper presents some moerotik im Film', in Mare 4 (oct.lnov. 1997), 80- aspects of my PhD thesis, for more details see Timo 86. Heimerdinger, Der Seemann. Ein Berufistand und I 0 Christoph Wulf, 'Der performative Korper. Sprache seine kulturel!e lnszenierung (I 844-2003) (Koln/ - Macht- Handlung.', in Hans Belting a.o.,(eds.), Weimar 2005), 178-284. Que! corps> Eine Frage der Reprdsentation (Miinchen 2 See also Timo Heimerdinger, 'Everyday Cul- 2002), 207-218, here 207. ture Research and the Challenges of Immediacy. 11 Sybille Kramer, 'Sprache - Stimme - Schrift: Sieben Introduction: The paradox of Belgium's ent!y agree, while others will say, with utmost Theoretical and Methodological Approaches from Thesen iiber Performativitat als Medialitat' in Erika the Perspective of Cultural Anthropology I Volk­ Fischer-Lichte and Doris Kolesch (eds.), Kulturen relationship with the North Sea satisfaction, that no such thing exists. It is skunde', in Hans-Giinter Heimbrock and Christo­ des Performativen, Sonderband Paragrana, lnterna­ The sea, and in this case the North Sea, has easy tO understand why some say there are pher P. Scholtz (eds.), Religion: Immediate Experi­ tionale Zeitschrifi for Historische Anthropologie, Vo­ without doubt played an important role in two regional (or national) identities in Bel­ lume 7, H. I, (Berlin 1998), 33-57. ence and the Mediacy of Research. Interdisciplinary the carving out of the national identities of 12 'Wo aufgefiihrt wird, ist die lterabilitat, die immer gium, as the Dutch speaking Flemish and the Studies in the Objectives, Concepts and Methodology its coastal states and a rapid tour along the French speaking Walloons from time to time ofEmpirical Research in Religion. (Gi:itringen 2007), ein Anderswerden des lterierten einschliefSt, bedeut­ 61-75. sam. Gegeniiber der gerade in der Sprachtheorie North Sea's shores will soon establish this express their mutual contempt for each other 3 Erika Fischer-Lichte, 'From Thearre to Theatrical­ gepAegren Betonung des Kreativaspektes ist daran fact. No one trying tO understand the British and their dislike at continuing to cohabit in ity. How to Construct Realiry', in 7heatre Research zu erinnern, class alle Sinngebung auf Prozeduren will omit its naval might and island status and the same nation. Nevertheless, others claim des Wiederholens beruht, die immer auch Wieder­ lnternationa/20 (1995), 97-105. Erika Fischer-Li­ whoever wants to explain the Dutch national that Belgian identity is bi-national (or bi-eth­ chte, 'Thearricali ry. A Key Concept in Theatre and holungen der Form nach sind. [... ] Die produktive identity will have to bear in mind their for­ nic), consisting of a Belgian-Flemish and a Cui rural Studies', in 7heatre Research International Kraft des Performativen erweist sich nicht einfach 2 20 (1995), 85-89. darin, erwas zu erschaffen, sondern darin, mit dem, midable maritime mercantile expansion. The Belgian-Walloon component. As this endless 4 h.up-1/www lisa-bassenge de/info html- was wir nicht selbst hervorgebracht haben, umzu­ Scandinavian peoples can link their identity debate rages on it does not help us regarding 27.03.2008. gehen.', quotation from Kramer, 'Sprache- Sri m me to the sea by remembering their forefathers, Belgian maritime identity. Neither the uni­ - Schrift', 48. 5 h.rrp:ilwww._yourube.com/watch )y-jdQrg£RlpY- the bold seagoing warriors who established tary Belgian, the Flemish, the Walloon, nor 30.10.2008. trading lines, and in a less distant past brave the bi-national identities seem to be tinged and daring fishermen. Even semi-continental by any maritime feelings at alP nations, like France and Germany, have re­ Nevertheless a paradox remains, as Bel­ gions and provinces whose inhabitants claim gium had, and still has, very strong ties with to be maritime people. the North Sea which have persisted since To a greater or a lesser degree, the North the early Middle Ages. From then on, Bel­ Sea has influenced the way people along its gium, or its predecessors, have hosted one, or shores think about themselves. At first sight more, of Europe's major port cities. Situated the identity of the Belgians does not seem along the shores of the North Sea, one of the tO have been affected by the North Sea at most navigated seas in the world, Belgium is all, though this apparent lack of maritime highly dependent on maritime trade. Brug­ identity does not appear to bother the Bel­ es, Ghent, Ostend, and especially Antwerp, gians unduly, as the whole question of their are household names for every maritime or national identity remains at best a tricky economic histOrian, ports which in 2007 issue. Belgian identity does indeed create together handled about 258,000,000 ton.4 something of a problem, some will despond- Its added value to the Belgian economy in 118 MARITIME PEOPLE MI CHAE L-W. SE RRU YS 119 incided to a large extent with that of its Anc­ explained by the attractions of the area's most ien Regime predecessor annexed by the French obvious geographical features, a multitude of Map 1: Belgium in 1795, and then by the Dutch in 1815. wetlands and a few minor towns. Zeeland­ Nevertheless most policymakers in Brussels Fianders' significance is mostly geopolitical, feared that the great European powers, in­ since possession gives the opportunity to volved in establishing the border between the control, at least partly, the Scheldt estuary, Dutch and the Belgians in the years follow­ and thus the shipping lanes between Ant­ ing the Belgian revolution, would give away werp and the North Sea. This geopolitical territory that had formerly belonged to the opportunity, which the Dutch managed to Southern Netherlands. They were quite right seize in the past, has had tremendous con­ to have such fears, as both the eastern part of sequences for the Southern Netherlands and the provinces of Luxembourg and Limbourg later for the economy of Belgium.10 It also were set outside Belgium's borders in 1839 plays an important role in the Belgians' mari­ (see map 1)." time identity. Belgian decision makers had nurtured To understand this, we must see that various territorial ambitions and in 1830 Antwerp was one of the largest and wealthi­ they claimed the area that formed the south­ est commercial port cities in Europe in the ern shores of the Scheldt estuary, nowadays sixteenth century. It was without doubt the known as Zeeland-Flanders. This area had most important city in the Low Countries been firmly Dutch since the late sixteenth under the rule of Philip II (1555-1598) of and early seventeenth century, and as with Spain. Goods not only from the Low Coun­ the eastern parts of Luxembourg and Lim­ tries themselves bur also from all over Eu­ FRANCE bourg, Belgian diplomacy failed to have it in­ rope, Asia and the Americas, were gathered '- International border corporated into their kingdom.7 These terri­ and redistributed to the known world from Provincial border River tories were however not forgotten and several Antwerp's 'W harf'. Antwerp was unques­ • City D Flemish coast attempts were made to annex them during tionably the major maritime hub of the Low • Scaldian coast the nineteenth and twentieth century.8 Countries, although a multitude of small or In 1994 the province of Brabant was reorganised in three parts, that is the province of Flemish Brabant, the province ofWalloon Brabant and Such plans were not new, as these same medium-sized harbours dotted the North Sea the autonomous region of Brussels. territorial takeover schemes could be traced coastline in Flanders, Zeeland and Holland. back to early modern times. Both the Span­ The majority of ships that carried goods to ish and the Austrian monarchies, which suc­ and from Antwerp belonged to shipmasters cessively ruled the Southern Netherlands in and merchants from Holland and Zeeland 2006 amounted to 13,997,600,000 Euros5 we must first solve the paradox of Belgium's the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, harbours but nonetheless, even the Antwerp and it is clear that Belgium maintains a very strange relationship with the North Sea. To tried to incorporate Zeeland-Flanders into merchants maintained a medium-sized fleet important relationship with the sea, albeit decipher this we will have to go back in time their dominions. Even the French waged a of small and sometimes larger vessels, that a rather odd one. Odd, because it does not to find the clues for understanding Belgium's short war against the Dutch after having an­ kept the city's maritime sector, such as ship­ seem to appear in the country's complex maritime heritage. nexed the Southern Netherlands in 1795 and building etc, very much alive.11 maze of identities. Nevertheless, the North at the Treaty ofThe Hague (1795) the Dutch Antwerp's 'Golden age' did not last, since Sea has certainly left an imprint on the way From one to two coasts were compelled to cede Zeeland-Flanders to the Low Countries entered an intense period the Belgians see and experience their coun­ When Belgium regained its independence in the French, who united it with the newly of distress in the second half of the sixteenth try.