Gerard Jan Florimond De Paep (Melsele, 22 November 1898 – Beveren, 18 August 1985) was a Belgian physician, surgeon, and Flemish nationalist politician for the VNV, DeVlag, and Volksunie.
Biography.
Early life and education.
Gerard De Paep was born as the eleventh child in a wealthy, Catholic, and Flemish-oriented farming family in Melsele. He was the only child in the family allowed to pursue higher education. From 1912 to 1918, he attended Sint-Jozef-Klein-Seminarie in Sint-Niklaas, which was then a French-speaking institution. There, he became a member of various student organizations inspired by Albrecht Rodenbach, such as the "Wase Studentengilde" and the Beveren student association "Vlaams en Vrij". In September 1918, De Paep enrolled in medical studies at the Ghent University (which had been temporarily Dutchified under German occupation as the so-called von Bissing University). However, the university closed just eight days later due to its activist wartime reputation. In February 1918, he also participated in a large activist demonstration in Antwerp. After the war, when Flemish universities reopened with French as the primary language, De Paep was blacklisted as a student. To continue his medical studies, he enrolled under his second name, "Jan De Paepe," at the ULB, where he graduated in 1925.
Medical career.
In 1925, Gerard De Paep established himself as a surgeon in Beveren, where in 1927, in collaboration with the Sisters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul, he founded the Sint-Anna Clinic in an old convent building, without municipal support. Under his initiative, between 1931 and 1933, a modern operating room, a maternity ward, and a children's home were constructed. In 1932, De Paep also established an evening nursing school connected to the clinic, where he himself taught. Due to the professional yet warm approach of De Paep and his team, the hospital quickly gained popularity and was modernized and expanded under his leadership from the 1950s onward.
Political career.
As a 21-year-old student, De Paep co-founded the Waasland branch of the Flemish nationalist Frontpartij in 1919 (which ran in Beveren as the "Catholic Flemish People's Party"). In 1929, at the request of Amedee Verbruggen, he led the East Flanders list for the provincial elections and was elected. After difficult negotiations with the Catholic Party, he served as Permanent Deputy from 1930 to 1932, becoming the first-ever Flemish nationalist deputy in Belgium. He was responsible for public welfare and health and was known for his pragmatism and restraint.
From 1932 to 1936, De Paep was a municipal councilor in Beveren, first for the Front Party and from 1934, when the pluralistic Front Party gradually merged into the right-wing authoritarian VNV (VNV), for the Vlaamsch Nationale Volkspartij, the name of the municipal VNV lists. In the parliamentary elections of November 1932, he led the Front Party list for the Chamber in the arrondissement of Sint-Niklaas but was not elected. However, with 1,924 preferential votes, he was elected a week later as the first substitute to the East Flanders provincial council. When De Paep was the lead candidate for the provincial council elections in 1936, the "Vlaamsch Nationaal Blok" (a cartel list of VNV and independent Flemish nationalists) nearly doubled its votes. He extended his provincial mandate and took office as deputy for the second time, once again in a coalition with the Catholic party.
Although he was elected as the lead candidate for the "Katholiek Vlaams Concentratieblok" (a cartel of VNV and the splinter group Christian Middle Class Federation) in the 1938 municipal elections, De Paep did not take his seat due to incompatibility with his office in the provincial executive deputation.
During the German occupation in World War II, De Paep remained a member of the VNV, which collaborated with the Germans, and its paramilitary wing, the Dietsche Militie - Zwarte Brigade. He was also a 'cell leader' of the DeVlag. On August 21, 1940, the occupier appointed him as commissioner-mayor, but as this was incompatible with his provincial mandate, municipal official Armand Claes succeeded him. At the end of 1941, he became chairman of the East Flanders provincial cultural service, which aimed to streamline cultural life within the framework of the New Order. From March 30, 1943, he served as interim provincial governor. Opinions on De Paep’s role during the war vary. He provided the population with extra food or coal, intervened to protect citizens, and prevented the execution of seven members of the Beveren Witte Brigade. At the same time, he cooperated with the occupier. The extent of De Paep’s involvement in a razzia by the Feldgendarmerie (German military police) in the municipalities of Burcht, Zwijndrecht, and Beveren on the night of April 27-28, 1944, was never fully clarified and was ultimately not included in his criminal file.
After the liberation in 1944, De Paep was suspended as a provincial councilor and deputy and was sentenced to three years in prison for political collaboration. He served his sentence in the Internment camp Lokeren, Dendermonde, Ghent, and Sint-Gillis. However, his case was reopened, and in February 1949, he was sentenced by the Military Court to five years' imprisonment, later increased to twelve years. He was also ordered to pay compensation to widows of several men who had perished in a concentration camp due to his actions. He was released early in 1950, and in 1962, he was rehabilitated and cleared of all blame by the Court of Appeal.
After his release, De Paep resumed his medical practice at the Sint-Annakliniek. He continued performing surgeries until the age of eighty, totaling more than 60,000 procedures over his career. Due to his self-proclaimed "ongoing struggle for social justice for the farming community," he became a promoter and co-founder of the "General Farmers' Syndicate" in November 1962, and re-entered politics, this time for the Volksunie. From 1965 to 1974, De Paep served in the Senate as a directly elected senator for the arrondissement of Dendermonde-Sint-Niklaas. In the elections of 1965, 1968, and 1971, he obtained a high number of preferential votes. From December 1971 to March 1974, he also served in the Cultural Council for the Dutch Cultural Community due to the then-existing dual mandate. In 1974, he retired from politics due to his advanced age. By the end of his political career, he believed that the Volksunie had become too progressive. Besides his professional and political activities, De Paep was also a board member of the Eural Savings Bank in the 1970s.
Tribute.
Gerard De Paep passed away on August 18, 1985. In his eulogy and memorial card, written by his personal friend and poet Anton van Wilderode, he was praised as a skilled and people-oriented physician and a conscientious Flemish nationalist.