Félix Alexandre Fuchs (1858–1928) was a Belgian colonial

civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service offic ...

and

lawyer A lawyer is a person who is qualified to offer advice about the law, draft legal documents, or represent individuals in legal matters. The exact nature of a lawyer's work varies depending on the legal jurisdiction and the legal system, as w ...

who served as

Governor-General Governor-general (plural governors-general), or governor general (plural governors general), is the title of an official, most prominently associated with the British Empire. In the context of the governors-general and former British colonies, ...

of the

Belgian Congo The Belgian Congo (, ; ) was a Belgian colonial empire, Belgian colony in Central Africa from 1908 until independence in 1960 and became the Republic of the Congo (Léopoldville). The former colony adopted its present name, the Democratic Repu ...

between 1912 and 1915. A lawyer by profession, Fuchs joined the administration of the

Congo Free State The Congo Free State, also known as the Independent State of the Congo (), was a large Sovereign state, state and absolute monarchy in Central Africa from 1885 to 1908. It was privately owned by Leopold II of Belgium, King Leopold II, the const ...

in 1888 as a

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyzes and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal education in law (a law degree) and often a Lawyer, legal prac ...

and quickly rose through the ranks. Considered a Liberal, Fuchs's civilian background and attitudes distinguished him from the majority of colonial administrators who had begun their careers in the military. Rising to the highest ranks of the administration in the late 1890s, Fuchs eventually became Governor-General after the Congo's annexation by Belgium and presided over the Congo's entry into

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

Career

Fuchs was born into a family of

Prussian Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, the House of Hohenzoll ...

origin in

Ixelles (French language, French, ) or (Dutch language, Dutch, ) is one of the List of municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. Located to the south-east of Pentagon (Brussels), Brusse ...

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

on 25 January 1858. He was naturalised as a Belgian citizen in 1862 and, in 1876, went to study

Law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...

at the Free University of Brussels. He later practiced as a

at the

court of appeal An appellate court, commonly called a court of appeal(s), appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to Hearing (law), hear a Legal case, case upon appeal from a trial court or other ...

in Brussels. In 1887, Fuchs began working for the

foreign service Foreign Service may refer to: * Diplomatic service, the body of diplomats and foreign policy officers maintained by the government of a country * United States Foreign Service, the diplomatic service of the United States government **Foreign Service ...

of the

, a state in

personal union A personal union is a combination of two or more monarchical states that have the same monarch while their boundaries, laws, and interests remain distinct. A real union, by contrast, involves the constituent states being to some extent in ...

with Belgium's monarch Leopold II, which had been created in 1885. In 1888, he left Belgium for the Congo where he took a senior post at the Department of Justice and as a supplementary judge at the Congo's court of appeal. After a return to Belgium in 1889, Fuchs was sent as an envoy to negotiate the Congo's frontiers with

Portuguese Angola In southwestern Africa, Portuguese Angola was a historical Evolution of the Portuguese Empire, colony of the Portuguese Empire (1575–1951), the overseas province Portuguese West Africa of Estado Novo (Portugal), Estado Novo Portugal (1951–1 ...

and was named Secretary-General of one of the Congo's three administrative departments. By 1892, Fuchs had become Director-General of the Department of the Interior and, in 1893, State Inspector (''Inspecteur d'état'') and thus the deputy to the Congo's senior civil servant, the

. Involved in the trials of the colonial officer in the Stokes Affair of 1895, Fuchs was promoted to the presidency of the Congo's Appeal Tribunal, giving him a status equivalent to the Congo's Vice-Governors-General and remained in the Congo on senior government functions. In 1908, in the face of international pressure, Belgium officially annexed the Congo Free State, creating the

. Fuchs, however, retained his position in the administration. When

Théophile Wahis Lieutenant-General Baron Théophile Wahis (; 27 April 1844 – 26 January 1921) was a Belgian soldier and colonial civil servant who served as Governor-General of the Congo Free State and, subsequently, the Belgian Congo for two terms between 18 ...

, the incumbent Governor-General and Fuch's rival, resigned in May 1912, Fuchs was designated to replace him as the senior civil servant in the colony. During Fuchs's tenure as Governor-General,

broke out. Despite the German invasion and occupation of Belgium in August 1914 and Fuchs tried to preserve the Congo's

neutrality Neutral or neutrality may refer to: Mathematics and natural science Biology * Neutral organisms, in ecology, those that obey the unified neutral theory of biodiversity Chemistry and physics * Neutralization (chemistry), a chemical reaction in ...

in accordance with the

Congo Act of 1885 The Berlin Conference of 1884–1885 was a meeting of colonial powers that concluded with the signing of the General Act of Berlin,

. His attitude was criticised by many of the Congo's Belgian settlers. However, after a skirmish between German and Belgian forces on

Lake Tanganyika Lake Tanganyika ( ; ) is an African Great Lakes, African Great Lake. It is the world's List of lakes by volume, second-largest freshwater lake by volume and the List of lakes by depth, second deepest, in both cases after Lake Baikal in Siberia. ...

at the border between the Congo and

German East Africa German East Africa (GEA; ) was a German colonial empire, German colony in the African Great Lakes region, which included present-day Burundi, Rwanda, the Tanzania mainland, and the Kionga Triangle, a small region later incorporated into Portugu ...

, Belgian forces became actively involved alongside Allied troops in the East African Campaign. In March 1915, he was recalled to Belgium by the Minister of the Colonies,

Jules Renkin Jules Laurent Jean Louis Renkin (3 December 1862 – 15 July 1934) was a Belgian politician who served as Prime Minister from 1931 to 1932. He also served as the minister of colonies for the Belgian Congo from 30 October 1908 to 21 November ...

, and ordered to resign in September. He was replaced in the function by

Eugène Henry Eugène Henry (22 December 1862 – 27 December 1930) was a Belgian civil servant and governor-general of Belgian Congo from 5 January 1916 until 30 January 1921. He is buried in the Brussels Cemetery in Evere Evere (; ) is one of the 19 ...

in January 1916 but continued to hold an advisory post in the Ministry of the Colonies.

References

Bibliography

* * *

External links

Inventory of the Fuchs archive
at the

Royal Museum for Central Africa The Royal Museum for Central Africa (RMCA) (; ; ), communicating under the name AfricaMuseum since 2018, is an ethnography and natural history museum situated in Tervuren in Flemish Brabant, Belgium, just outside Brussels. It was originally b ...

Félix Alexandre Fuchs

Archive Félix Fuchs
Royal museum for central Africa {{DEFAULTSORT:Fuchs, Felix Alexandre 1858 births 1928 deaths Belgian civil servants Governors-general of the Belgian Congo 19th-century Belgian judges Congo Free State officials People from Ixelles Belgian people of German descent Belgian people of World War I Free University of Brussels (1834–1969) alumni