The first Yser Tower was inaugurated on 24 August 1930 | Diksmuide, Museum aan de IJzer
The Yser Tower
The Legacy of the First World War
In 1928 a fifty-metre-high tower rose in Diksmuide on the left bank of the Yser, a monument to pro-Flemish soldiers who died in the First World War. The Yser Tower became one of the most controversial monuments in Flanders.
The Tower was built on the initiative of the Yser Pilgrimage Committee, a Catholic pro-Flemish group which since 1920 organised a commemoration for the soldiers who had died on the former Yser front. The tower also symbolised the striving for Flemish autonomy. The inauguration of 1930 gave rise to anti-Belgian protests. The Yser pilgrimages evolved from a ceremony of commemoration into a – sometimes turbulent – Flemish-nationalist demonstration.
As a result of the collaboration of the Flemish nationalists with the German occupying forces during the Second World War the tower was blown up by opponents after the liberation. After its destruction the Yser Tower was rebuilt – higher than before – with donations from pro-Flemish Catholics and with money from the Belgian government. The abbreviation AVV-VVK (‘All for Flanders, Flanders for Christ’) was fixed to it again, as was the quadrilingual message of peace ‘No more war.’
Antwerp, ADVN | Archief voor nationale bewegingen
On a pump stone in the destroyed front-line village of Merkem pro-Flemish soldiers wrote in red paint: ‘Here is our blood, when will our rights come.’ In this way they were pointing out their disadvantaged position in the army.
The Legacy of the First World War
The First World War had a great impact on the language struggle in Belgium. The German occupiers exploited the Flemish question in order to weaken Belgium. The Flemish movement became radicalised, but also divided.
In the occupied area the Germans used the so-called ‘activists’ by suggesting there would be accession to Flemish demands, even a form of independence, in the future. That was unacceptable to most pro-Flemish supporters: they felt that Flemish demands should wait until after the war and they condemned activism as treason.
There were tensions on the Yser front too. In 1914 French was the official language of the Belgian army. Some Flemish soldiers took offence: they were risking their lives for a fatherland that paid scarcely any attention to their own language. The Front movement, a group of young Catholic intellectuals, undertook all kinds of protest campaigns to highlight the problem. The movement demanded Flemish army units and self-government for Flanders.
Political Flemish nationalism emerged from the discontent of the activists and of the Front movement. In the Front party members of the Front movement and former activists joined forces. There, but also in wider pro-Flemish milieus, the Yser Pilgrimage could count on great interest. With its symbolism –‘All for Flanders’ – the Yser Pilgrimage contributed to the growth of an independent Flemish identity, separate from Belgium.
Focal points
Ghent, Liberas, AFFICHE07617
In the inter-war years the Catholic Frans Van Cauwelaert and the Socialist Camille Huysmans committed themselves to achieving the further Dutchification of Flanders. In 1921 the two parties jointly formed the city executive of Antwerp. This liberal poster, prompted by the parliamentary elections in the same year, criticises the ‘Socialo-Clerical marriage’.
Flanders Becomes Monolingual
The memory of activism, which had supported the harsh German occupation and had endangered the unity of Belgium, temporarily pushed the language question into the background. But pro-Flemish politicians from the traditional parties, united behind a programme of integral introduction of Dutch in Flanders following the principle: the local language is the official language. That was the so-called ‘Flemish minimum programme’. Catholic pro-Flemish supporters led by the Antwerp mayor Frans van Cauwelaert took the lead.
Because of violent opposition the required language laws could not be immediately passed. In the 1930s, after vehement parliamentary debates, the time was ripe. Walloon politicians agreed to the making of Flanders monolingual provided the requirement of bilingualism for the central administration disappeared. By the end of the 1930s Dutch was the official language in education, the judiciary and public administration in Flanders.
For a growing group of Flemish nationalists making a Dutch language area of Flanders was not sufficient. They felt that the language legislation had been superseded and saw no future for Flanders within Belgium. They turned not only against Belgium, but also against the liberal-democratic system on which the Belgian state was built. They were inspired by the fascist ideologies which were on the rise in Europe. That swing was also felt within the Yser Pilgrimage Committee.
Brussels, CegeSoma/State Archives, 933728
Young members of the National-Socialist Youth Flanders (NSJV) march past the Yser Tower in 1943.
Swing to the Right
Economic crisis, political instability and international tensions undermined democracy all through Europe. In 1922 the fascist leader Benito Mussolini came to power as dictator in Italy and 1933 the National Socialist Adolf Hitler established a dictatorship in Germany. The effect was felt everywhere in Europe, and in Belgium too.
In 1933 a new formation emerged from the remnants of the Front party: the Vlaams Nationaal Verbond (VNV, Flemish National League). The VNV strove for a New Order opposed to parliamentary democracy and in favour of an authoritarian political system with a strong leader. and wanted to replace parliamentary democracy with an authoritarian system and a strong leader. On the French-speaking side the Rex movement had the same aim. The latter not only found a response in Wallonia, but also among the bourgeoisie in Flanders.
During the Second World War the VNV and other Flemish Nationalists collaborated with the German occupying forces. On the Yser Pilgrimages too, which were allowed to continue under German supervision, soldiers fighting for Germany on the Eastern front were allowed to speak. For that reason the tower was blown up after the war, probably by resistance fighters.
The Yser Pilgrimage was able to survive the collaboration and in the decades after the war grew into the most important Flemish demonstration, sometimes with tens of thousands of participants. Because of its war history it remained controversial in left-wing and free-thinking Flanders. In 1986 the Yser Tower was acknowledged by the Flemish government as a ‘Memorial of Flemish Emancipation’. At the Yser Pilgrimage 2000 there was a clear condemnation of the collaboration, which for a long time had been excused. There was a break with the extreme right wing, which since 2003 has organised its own manifestation (IJzerwake, Watch on the Yser). Today the mission of both the Yser Tower and the official Yser Pilgrimage is ‘peace, freedom and tolerance’.
Discover more on this topic
Histories – de IJzertoren, een kruis voor Vlaanderen
Bron: VRT archief, Archief De Landtsheer, Liberas, Archief voor nationale bewegingen – 10 jul 2000
Journaal
Bron: VRT archief – 27 aug 2000
Journaal
Bron: VRT archief – 26 aug 1996
Histories – de IJzertoren, een kruis voor Vlaanderen
Bron: VRT archief, Archief de Landtsheer – 10 jul 2000
Non-fiction
De IJzertoren, onze trots en schande
Van Halewyck, 1997.
Van IJzerfront tot zelfbestuur
Klaproos, 1993.
De Trust der Vaderlandsliefde: over literatuur en Vlaamse Beweging 1890-1940
Antwerpen, AMVC, 2005.
100 jaar IJzerbedevaarten in affiches 1920-2000
Peristyle, 2021.
De Groote Oorlog. Het koninkrijk België tijdens de Eerste Wereldoorlog
Houtekiet/Atlas Contact, 2013.
Greep naar de macht. Vlaams-nationalisme en Nieuwe Orde. Het VNV 1933-1945
Lannoo, 1994.
De schaduw van het interbellum. België van euforie tot crisis 1918-1939
Lannoo, 2017.
Repressie met maat? De omvang en de chronologie van de strafrechtelijke repressie van het Vlaamse burgeractivisme na de Eerste Wereldoorlog
In: Nefors, P. en Tallier P.A., En toen zwegen de kanonnen, Brussel 2010, p. 305-361
De overlevenden: de Belgische oud-strijders tijdens het interbellum
Polis, 2018.
Onsterfelijk in uw steen: soldatengraven, heldenhulde en de Groote Oorlog
Vrijdag, 2016.
Onvoltooid Vlaanderen. Van taalstrijd tot natievorming
Vrijdag, 2017.
De Frontbeweging. De Vlaamse strijd aan de IJzer
Klaproos, 2000.
Frans Van Cauwelaert. Politieke biografie
Doorbraak, 2017.
Onverfranst, onverduitst? Flamenpolitik, activisme, frontbeweging
Pelckmans, 2014.
Fiction
Mijn kleine oorlog
1947.
Het huis te Borgen
1950.
Het pakt der triumviren
1951.
Het verdriet van België
1983.
De varkensput
1985.
Alleen de doden ontkomen
1947.
De vermaledijde vaders
1985.
Zwart en Wit
1948.
Nu kijken
Histories – De IJzertoren, Een Kruis Voor Vlaanderen
Histories – De geschiedenis van de Ijzerbedevaart
100 jaar Ijzerbedevaarten
Met onze jongens aan den IJzer.
Propagandafilm voor het IJzerbedevaartcomité (1928)