Flamenpolitik

A sign saying (in broken Dutch): "Flemings come on over, the Germans will not shoot."

Flamenpolitik (German: "Flemish policy") is a policy practiced by German authorities occupying Belgium during World War I and World War II. The ultimate goals of these policies was the dissolution of Belgium into separate Walloon and Flemish components and Germanisation.

The German authorities aimed to exploit the longstanding linguistic problems in Belgium, particularly the systematic discrimination towards the Dutch language that existed before World War I. The policy was also based on Pan-Germanism. The German policy of fostering separatism in Flanders was a failure because it did not win popular support.[1]

  1. ^ E.H. Kossmann, The Low Countries: 1780-1940 (1978) p 528