Henri de Man
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Henri De Man (Flemish name Hendrik de Man) was a Belgian who was one of the leading socialist theoreticians of his period. He was a Flemish burgher who received trained in Germany.
He was Vice president of the Parti ouvrier belge (POB, Belgian Workers' party). Upon the death of Emile Vandervelde in 1938, he assumed its presidency.
His views on socialism were controversial. His revision of Marxism greatly affected Mussolini.
De Man was an advisor to King Leopold, and his mother Queen-Mother Elisabeth. After the capitulation of the Belgian Army in 1940, he issued a manifesto to POB's members, welcoming the German occupation: "For the working classes and for socialism, this collapse of a decrepit world, far from being a disaster, is a deliverance."
Convicted of treason in absentia after the war, he fled to Switzerland. He died in 1953 in a collision with a train.
[edit] Writings of De Man
- Après Coup, Brussels: Éd. de la Toison d'Or, 1941.
- Au-delà du Marxisme. Paris: Éd. du Seuil, 1974.
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