By Dr. Karen Shelby
Picture 1
Since the creation of the Belgian state in 1831, some members of the Flemish community have maintained citizenship as Flemings rather than as Belgians and have located their desire for independence from Belgium directly within the concept of a long-suffering and thus martyred history under Belgian (i.e. French-speaking) rule. This ideology is clearly articulated in two sets of stained glass windows located in the unusual and controversial IJzertoren Memorial Museum in Diskmuide, Belgium. Conceived as a memorial to the Flemish men who died at the Belgian front during the Great War, the memorial, and much of the symbolism ascribed to the site, has functioned as a physical manifestation of the idea of a distinct Flemish ethnicity as opposed to Belgian nationalism. This becomes evident, for instance, in the tower’s physical structure which evokes the tombstones designed for the Flemish soldiers containing the Flemish “AVV-VVK” inscription: “All for Flanders – Flanders for Christ”, which encodes the ideology and symbolism of the Flemish Movement within the language of martyrdom and perseverance (Picture 1).