Lecture: Cultural Collaboration in Flanders during the Second World War

“I’m just an actor, after all,” says Hendrik Höfgen, the protagonist of Klaus Mann’s 1936 novel Mephisto, who capitalized on his talent in Nazi Germany.

In Flanders, too, artists did not fare badly during the German occupation—provided they aligned themselves with the New Order. But does being a successful artist automatically make one a cultural collaborator? Where is the line between opportunistic adaptation and outright collaboration? To what extent did the New Order shape cultural production? And in what ways was culture molded according to its ideology?

Bruno De Wever is a historian, professor, and author specializing in Belgian history, with a particular focus on collaboration during the Second World War.

The lecture is free with the purchase of a museum ticket.