eea Flemish club ...in Vermeylen's spirit.

By Jeroom f. j. Depraetere Chairmaner of the Flemish Club for Arts, Sciences and Letters
In the light of history, 50 years are of little significance; In a time like ours full of evolution, 50 years is already a whole era.
And we could easily tell a lyrical story here about 50 years of the Flemish Club in Brussels; about the exceptionally rich past of the Club, about the great achievements that have been made, about this stage that has become an indispensable part of the capital. could be heard and experienced by anyone who had something to say in the cultural and scientific life of the Netherlands. And it would be a true story.
 

But we want to stay down to earth.
 

We only want to reflect on what the Flemish Club is now, and, by remembering our founder and first chairman, pay tribute to those who, in more difficult circumstances than now, gave birth to Flemish friendship in a spirit of tolerance and shaped it. given to the cultural presence of the Flemish community in this capital.

When August Vermeylen founded the Club in 1923, together with other Flemish prominent figures of various political and philosophical persuasions, this was completely in line with his personal attitude: namely the ineradicable desire. making people friends, and through the rediscovery of fameand splendor of Flanders' past to raise the new Flanders to greatness again in a national and European context. European avant la lettre, Vermeylen was a bridge builder, not only among his own people but in a European dimension. Socially minded, he wanted to stand among his people and talk, laugh and cry with them. He was concerned to restore Flanders to an honorable place in the Western cultural community. Himself a bearer of a high culture, he wanted Flanders' windows on the world
throw it open. Although the idea of a Flemish Club came from Professor Hegenscheidt, born in the most working-class district of Molenbeek but from Oosten-
rich origins, yet it was August Vermeylen who gave shape to this idea, a concrete form.
The basic principles laid down by Vermeylen were not touched for 50 years. And this is called conservatism or an easy solution,
for us it is loyalty to the source, to the foundation. The Flemish Club for Arts, Sciences and Letters wants its own
maintain identity. We are a CLUB and that is to say
people who meet each other in an atmosphere of friendship and tolerance in Vermeylen's spirit. We want to affirm that life is not a symbol of loneliness, but above all an integration imbued with love and tolerance.
We are a FLEMISH club, and that means that we continue to believe in the splendor and fame of the culture of the Netherlands; and that we want to commit ourselves to completing the honorable mission of the Flemish community, today in our own country, tomorrow in the unified Europe.
We are the Flemish Club BRUSSELS,
and trust that Brussels will honor
for a long time also the “modern face of
Flanders will want to show a face of now and forever, a face to love." And however ambitious it may seem, our entire program is contained in that one sentence that August Vermeylen wrote in 1896:
<< My Friend, we will make this country cleaner. >>