A native of Liège, Maurice Wilmotte grew up between a scholarly mother and frail health, developing an insatiable passion for books and languages from an early age. A brilliant but solitary pupil, he initially seemed ill-suited to teaching... before becoming himself the founder of studies that were completely new in our country.
In this episode, discover this determined intellectual who, faced with the political and academic obstacles of his time, chose to create his own path: to introduce to Belgium a discipline that did not yet exist, Romance philology. Between his travels to Paris and Germany, his pedagogical innovations and his personal ambition, Wilmotte became a man of commitment, polemic and, at times, contradiction. He was also involved in politics, fervently defending the French language and weaving networks throughout Europe.
Behind the scholar lies a proud man, concerned with his image, oscillating between idealism, strategy and the quest for recognition. Come and discover the man for whom the French language became an issue, a culture and even a battle.
Les Grands Petits Belges is a podcast produced by Eve Filée - Modernitas, Faculty of Letters, Translation and Communication - highlighting Belgian personalities, famous or forgotten, who have shaped our country. Told as a story, each episode focuses on a key figure in Belgium’s history, drawing on existing literature as well as new, little-explored archives. This project invites the general public to rediscover Belgium’s rich human heritage, often little-known even to its own inhabitants.
Research carried out with the support of the MSH Seed-Money grant and as part of the ARC project ’The Artist, The Scientist, The Industrialist’, led by the Modernitas research center, housed at the ULB MSH
Archives :
Delforge, Paul. "Maurice Wilmotte," Dictionnaire des Wallons. Connaître la wallonie Lejeune, Rita. "Wilmotte (Maurice-Guillaume-Albert). Biographie nationale, 1983-1984, t. 43, col. 765-783.