The Royal Military Museum: a lively place for history

Conference-debate in Dutch with guest Wannes Devos. 

A talk led by Bruno De Wever.

This is not a museum, “but a cluttered repository whose manual has been lost”. In 2017, in the daily De Standaard, journalist Geert Sels was particularly critical of the Royal Museum of the Armed Forces and of Military History. A clean slate and a phoenix-like rise from its ashes: this seemed to be the only way out of this museum impasse, which translated in political terms into the transformation of the Military Museum into the War Heritage Institute.

With Clio in militaire dienst? Het Koninklijk Museum van het Leger (en van (de) Krijgsgeschiedenis): een geschiedenis, 1911-2017 ( « Clio in military service? The Royal Museum of the Armed Forces and of Military History: A History, 1911-2017 »)the Military Museum's historical manual sought by Sels was finally written in 2024. The dissertation spans over a hundred years of history and brings to life an institution mostly unknown (and unloved?) in Flanders. The unique insight into the life of one of the nation's largest museums leads to an honest and disarming picture. It holds up a mirror to the museum, contextualizes both the glorious periods and the lesser times, and finally offers a critical analysis of an institution trying to survive between the political hammer and the military anvil.

During this public history meeting, walk with us through the mysterious corridors of the Royal Military Museum, a fascinating place where history is alive but rarely really heard. Discover not only a century of museum history, but also an unseen perspective on Belgium's past. In war and peace, in freedom and occupation, rich in historical discoveries and never-before-told stories, this presentation takes you to a terra incognita. A journey that shows how museums are not only places of memory, but also of confrontation, (backroom) politics and oblivion.

Wannes Devos will present the results of his research on Thursday March 13. The debate, which already promises to be fascinating, will be moderated by Bruno De Wever. This event will take place in the CegeSoma conference room in partnership with the non-profit organization 'Les Amis du CegeSoma'.

Wannes Devos holds a master's degree in Business Economics and a doctorate in History (UGent). He has worked in the museum and heritage sector for more than fifteen years and was, among other things, a member of the Flemish assessment committee Landelijk Musea. As a public historian, he specialized in museum (re)presentation of conflicts and of the past, leading to his dissertation on the Belgian Military Museum. Today he is attached to the BELvue Museum, where he is working on the future museum project.

Bruno De Wever is Professor Emeritus at Ghent University. A historian specialized in the history of the Flemish movement, collaboration during WWII and public history, he authored numerous books, such as Greep naar de macht. Vlaams-nationalisme en Nieuwe Orde. Het VNV 1933-1945 (1994). Dissertation advisor of Wannes Devos, he is also a member of the Scientific Committee of the Royal Museum of the Armed Forces and of Military History. He is Vice-President of CegeSoma's Scientific Committee.