Adolphe Max

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Adolphe Max

Adolphe Eugène Jean Henri Max (Brussels, 30 December 1869–6 November 1939) was a Belgian liberal politician and Mayor of Brussels from 1909 until his death.

He graduated in law at the Universite Libre de Bruxelles, and entered the legal profession, besides doing journalistic work. When he was 25 years old, he was appointed provincial counsel for Brabant, and became a communal counsel in 1903. After he had worked as a magistrate, he was elected burgomaster of Brussels on 6 December 1909.

During the German occupation of Brussels in the First World War, Max refused to cooperate with the occupying forces. As a result he was arrested and held in captivity, first at Namur, and then at Glatz, until he escaped on 13 November 1918. Charles Lemonnier was acting mayor during his captivity. On his return to Brussels he was greeted as a hero.

In 1919 he was elected to the Belgian Chamber of Representatives, where he campaigned for universal adult suffrage, a goal not achieved until after his death.

Among the monuments from Max's time in office as mayor of Brussels are parts of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium and the Heysel exhibition park built for the Expo of 1935, begun to mark the centenary of the Belgian Revolution of 1830.

Adolphe Max was an honorary Minister of State and a member of the Institut de France.

[edit] See also

List of mayors of the City of Brussels

[edit] Source

Grojean, O., Adolphe Max, in : Le Flambeau, I, 1918, nr. 6, p. 178.
Seyl, A., Un grand citoyen : Adolphe Max, in : Revue de Bruxelles, april 1958, p. III.
Vierset, A., Adolphe Max, in : Cahiers Historiques, Série IV, 1964, nr. 33, p. 83.
Cooremans, Lucien, Adolphe Max, bourgmestre des heures tragiques et des heures glorieuses, in : De 1830 à 1958. Douze bourgmestres libéraux ont fait de Bruxelles une des plus prestigieuses capitales, s.l., s.n., s.d., s.p.