Famous Belgian Intellectuals & Academics

Son of a shoemaker, Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator was initially supposed to be a priest. His 1569 world map paved the path for the Mercator projection, which helped people ascertain the exact ratio of latitude and longitude of a particular place. He also coined the term “atlas.”

Belgian politician and former prime minister of Belgium Herman Van Rompuy has also served as the President of the European Council. Initially an economist at the National Bank of Belgium, he later joined the Christian Democratic Party and eventually led it as its president. He has also been the Belgian budget minister.

Ernest Mandel was a Belgian Trotskyist activist and theorist, Marxian economist, and Holocaust survivor. During the German occupation of Belgium, Mandel fought against the Nazis in the underground resistance. He served as an editor of Het Vrije Woord, an underground newspaper during the Second World War. During his life, Mandel published some 30 books and 2,000 articles in various languages.

Bart De Wever is a Belgian politician who has been serving as the leader of the nationalist and conservative political party, New Flemish Alliance, since 2004. In 2007, he played an important role in the Belgian government formation. Since 2013, Bart De Wever has also been serving as the Mayor of Antwerp.  

Fernand Khnopff was a Belgian painter whose works gained him recognition and helped achieve a cult status during his lifetime. He was honored with the prestigious Order of Leopold for his immense contribution to Symbolism.

Godfried Danneels was a Belgian cardinal who worked for the Roman Catholic Church. From 1979 to 2010, he served as the chairman of the episcopal conference of Belgium and the Metropolitan Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels. As primate of Belgium, Godfried Danneels officiated at several Royal baptisms, funerals, and marriages at the royal court.

Chaïm Perelman was a Polish-born philosopher of law who spent most of his life in Brussels, Belgium. He is counted amongst the most important argumentation theorists of the 20th century. He studied at the Université Libre de Bruxelles and was appointed a lecturer in the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the same institute. He was married to Fela Perelman. 

Dutch painter and poet Karel van Mander was a significant part of the Mannerist movement. Best known for his Het Schilder-boeck, or The Book of Painters, a biographical work on artists and painters of northern Europe, he was patronized by the Haarlem city council.

Born to a Polish father and a Belgian mother in Paris, anthropologist and academic Eliane Karp later studied in Jerusalem, before moving to Stanford. The wife of former president of Peru Alejandro Toledo, she was dragged out of court, while cursing, after Toledo was denied bail in a bribery case.

Hungarian banker and economist Alexandre Lamfalussy was not just an Oxford doctorate but had also taught at institutes such as Yale. He was also associated with the Bank for International Settlements and was the Frankfurt-based European Monetary Institute’s first president. He had also been a BIS economic advisor.

Camille Gutt was a Belgian politician, economist, and industrialist. He is best remembered for designing a monetary reform plan that helped recover the Belgian economy post World War II. Camille Gutt also played an important role in the development of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), serving as its first Managing Director from 1946 to 1951.

One of the most prominent figures of Belgian politics, Philippe Moureaux also taught economic history at the Université Libre de Bruxelles. A Socialist Party politician, he had been the minister of the interior, the minister of justice, and the Minister-President of the French Community. He received a Belgian knighthood, among other honors.

Dutch poet Philips of Marnix is best remembered for his translation of the Psalms. He managed to anger the Roman Catholics with his works such as The Beehive of the Roman Catholic Church and thus spent a year as a prisoner. It’s believed that he wrote the Dutch national anthem, Wilhelmus van Nassouwe.

Jef van de Wiele was a Belgian Flemish politician who gained notoriety as the leader of a pro-Nazi wing during the Nazi occupation of Belgium. A staunch supporter of Adolf Hitler, Van de Wiele co-founded and edited a magazine named Nieuw Vlaanderen, which spread and promoted Nazism during the Second World War.

José Comblin was a theologian. He has a doctorate in theology from the Catholic University of Leuven. He worked as an advisor to the Young Catholic Workers and was a professor at the Dominican Theological School in São Paulo. He played a major role in the creation of rural seminaries in Pernambuco and Paraíba. He authored around 65 books. 

Wenceslas Cobergher was a Flemish engineer, architect, painter, numismatist, antiquarian, and economist. He is best remembered for overseeing the draining of De Moeren on the Franco-Belgian border. Wenceslas Cobergher is also credited with introducing to the Southern Netherlands the Flemish Baroque style of architecture.

William of Moerbeke was a translator best remembered for translating important scientific, medical, and philosophical written materials from Greek to Latin. He is credited with translating some of Aristotle's works, including Politics. William of Moerbeke's translations were influential and his works are still revered by modern scholars.