During the 1930s, Europe saw the emergence of fascism and national socialism. At the beginning of the 1940s, several Western European countries were attacked and subsequently occupied by a German regime. This foreign occupation touched almost every sector of daily life and society. Particularly education was considered to be important means of bringing about acceptance of the foreign regime. The German aims to (ideologically) control national educational systems, however, often clashed with those of the pre-war state or Church authorities. For the Church, for instance, the importance of the independence and further existence of denominational education even was an important incentive in concluding formal agreements with state authorities, such as the controversial concordats between the Vatican and Mussolini in 1929 and Hitler in 1933.

In Belgium, the German attempts to get a grip on education also resulted in Church-state negotiations over the future existence of the denominational educational system. As they enjoyed great independence from the state, particularly confessional schools were aimed at by the occupier’s attempts to restrain educational developments. With this, the occupier contested the long tradition of educational liberty. On the basis of article 17 of the Belgian constitution, the Episcopal and congregational authorities legitimated their independent educational system and preserved it from laic, or even ‘pagan’ interference. However, during the period of the German occupation, both the Catholic authorities and the state government faced the forced political, economic, social and cultural supremacy of a foreign occupier.

The aim of this paper is to discuss the educational aims, ideas and discourses of the German military regime in Belgium. More specifically, I will map the military regime’s plans to ideologically control (particularly, but not exclusively denominational) education. As, of course, the German military regime was accountable to the Nazi leaders in Berlin, comparisons between the Belgium and Germany are made.  In other words, this paper investigates what the occupier’s aims in relation to education were, how they tried to reach their goals and how these related to those of the national socialist authorities in Berlin.

By focussing on the Second World War, I hope to bridge the gap in current educational historiography in Belgium. In discussing the occupier’s aims in relation to education, this paper sheds light on the many ways in which education is affected by foreign occupation or war. 

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