Herman Van Breda

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Herman Leo Van Breda (born Leo Marie Karel) (28 February 1911, Lier, Belgium – 4 March 1974, Leuven) was a Franciscan, philosopher and founder of the Husserl archives at the Higher Institute of Philosophy of the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium.

On 19 August 1934, he was ordained as a priest and in 1936 he started studying philosophy at the Catholic University of Leuven, where he obtained a PhD in 1941 with a dissertation on the phenomenology of Edmund Husserl. Later he became a professor at the Catholic University of Leuven, where he stayed until his death in 1974.

[edit] Husserl Archives

Van Breda saved the extensive writings and manuscripts of Edmund Husserl from destruction by the Nazis.

For the preparation of his PhD thesis he traveled to Freiburg, Germany in 1938, where he found, in the legacy of Edmund Husserl (1859-1938), more than 40000 stenographic manuscripts. The political situation in Germany at that time convinced him of the necessity to transport these manuscripts and Husserl’s private library to Leuven. But he needed not only the support of the rector of the Catholic University of Leuven, but also of Belgian politics to smuggle the documents out of Nazi Germany. The Belgian Prime Minister at that time, Paul-Henri Spaak, allowed that these documents were smuggled from the Belgian embassy in Berlin to Leuven. Van Breda had to bring them first from Freiburg to Berlin, after which they were brought to Belgium by diplomatic couriers.

He could also convince the former assistants of Husserl, Eugen Fink and Ludwig Landgrebe to collaborate on the editing of these documents in Leuven. At the beginning of World War II the documents were kept in the university library in Leuven, which burned to ashes on 17 May 1940. Fortunately Van Breda had decided a week before, to bring the documents to the Higher Institute of Philosophy.

In 1943 the documents were, for safety, distributed over different locations in Leuven, among which a shelter in the cellar of the Institute of Philosophy and to a monastery in Postel. After the war they were brought back to the Institute of Philosophy, where they form the basis for the Husserliana, which is the complete works project of Edmund Husserl.

For his work on spreading Husserl’s work he was awarded a "honoris causa" doctorate from the Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg.