Martin Rutten (1876–1944) was a Belgian colonial

civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

and

lawyer A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solic ...

who served as

Governor-General of the Belgian Congo This is a list of European colonial administrators responsible for the territory of the Congo Free State and Belgian Congo (today the Democratic Republic of the Congo). International Association of the Congo Prior to the creation of the Congo F ...

from 1923 to 1927.

Biography

Martin Rutten was born in the village of

Clermont-sur-Berwinne Clermont-sur-Berwinne ( wa, Clairmont-so-Berwinne) is a village of Wallonia and a district of the municipality of Thimister-Clermont, located in the Liège Province, province of liège, Belgium. The village is a member of the association ''Les Pl ...

in Belgium's

Province of Liège A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outs ...

in 1876. His father was originally from Belgian Limburg and his mother was Walloon. Rutten studied Law, gaining a doctorate, and later practiced as a

in Verviers. In 1901, Rutten enlisted in the colonial civil service as a magistrate. He was posted to

Katanga Province Katanga was one of the four large provinces created in the Belgian Congo in 1914. It was one of the eleven provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo between 1966 and 2015, when it was split into the Tanganyika Province, Tanganyika, Hau ...

and later sent to Bas-Congo to head the Prosecutor's Office ( ''parquet général'') at the Appeals Court in Léopoldville (now Kinshasa). He was posted back to Katanga after the creation of a second appellate court at

Élisabethville Lubumbashi (former names: (French language, French), (Dutch language, Dutch)) is the second-largest city in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, located in the country's southeasternmost part, along the border with Zambia. The capital and pr ...

(now Lubumbashi) as prosecuting magistrate (''procureur général''). In October 1918, Rutten was promoted to the rank of Vice-Governor General. For two years, he was given responsibility for the administration of Katanga. Rutten was appointed to Governor-General in 1923 following the resignation of Maurice Lippens after differences between him and the Ministry of the Colonies. Rutten's appointment marked a change in colonial policy as previously most governors had been selected from military backgrounds. Louis Franck, however, selected Rutten because of his civilian background and because of his long personal experience in the Congo. His term coincided with

trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...

unrest among colonial civil servants. He returned to Belgium at the end of his term in 1927. In retirement, Rutten was involved in colonial associations in Belgium including the

Royal Belgian Colonial Institute The Royal Academy for Overseas Sciences or RAOS (french: Académie royale des sciences d'outre-mer, or ARSOM; nl, Koninklijke Academie voor Overzeese Wetenschappen, KAOW) is a Belgian federal academy that contributes to the progress of scientifi ...

. He retired definitively in 1934 and died in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

on 31 December 1944.

References

Bibliography

External links

Gouverneurs du Congo

Archive Martin Rutten
Royal Museum for Central Africa {{DEFAULTSORT:Rutten, Martin 1876 births 1944 deaths 19th-century Belgian lawyers Belgian civil servants Governors-General of the Belgian Congo People from Liège Province Governors of Katanga Province Governors of provinces of the Belgian Congo 20th-century Belgian judges