Paul Louis Adrien Henri Hymans (23 March 1865 – 8 March 1941), was a

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct languag ...

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking ...

associated with the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

. He was the second president of the

League of Nations The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...

and served again as its president in 1932–1933.

Life

Hymans was the son of the Belgian writer and historian Louis Hymans. He became a lawyer and professor at the Universite Libre de Bruxelles. As a politician, he became Belgian Minister for Foreign Affairs from 1918 to 1920 (and again from 1927 to 1935), Minister of Justice from 1926 to 1927 and member of the Council of Ministers from 1935 to 1936. In 1919, together with

Charles de Broqueville Charles Marie Pierre Albert, 1st Count de Broqueville (4 December 1860 – 5 September 1940) was the prime minister of Belgium, serving during World War I. Before 1914 Charles de Broqueville was born into an old noble family with its roots in ...

and

Emile Vandervelde Emile Vandervelde (25 January 1866 – 27 December 1938) was a Belgian socialist politician. Nicknamed "the boss" (''le patron''), Vandervelde was a leading figure in the Belgian Labour Party (POB–BWP) and in international socialism. Career Emi ...

he introduced

universal suffrage Universal suffrage (also called universal franchise, general suffrage, and common suffrage of the common man) gives the right to vote to all adult citizens, regardless of wealth, income, gender, social status, race, ethnicity, or political stan ...

for all men (''

one man, one vote "One man, one vote", or "one person, one vote", expresses the principle that individuals should have equal representation in voting. This slogan is used by advocates of political equality to refer to such electoral reforms as universal suffrage, ...

'') and compulsory education. As foreign minister during the

Great War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, Hymans was successful in securing promises from the Allies that amounted to co-belligerency. Britain, France and Russia pledged in the Declaration of Sainte-Adresse in February 1916 that Belgium would be included in the peace negotiations, its independence would be restored and it would receive monetary compensation from Germany for the damage. When the war began, Hymans also received major promises of relief support from the United States that were approved by President

Woodrow Wilson Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...

. Relief was directed primarily by the American

Herbert Hoover Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was an American politician who served as the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 and a member of the Republican Party, holding office during the onset of the Gr ...

and involved several agencies: the Commission for Relief in Belgium, American Relief Administration, and Comité National de Secours et d'Alimentation. At the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, Belgium officially ended its longtime neutral status and became the first in line to receive reparations payments from Germany. However, Belgium received only a bit of German territory and was rejected in its demands for all of Luxembourg and part of the Netherlands. However, it was given colonial mandates over the German colonies of Rwanda and Burundi. Hymans was the leading spokesman for the small countries at Paris and became the president of the first assembly of the new League of Nations. He helped to form the

customs union A customs union is generally defined as a type of trade bloc which is composed of a free trade area with a common external tariff.GATTArticle 24 s. 8 (a) Customs unions are established through trade pacts where the participant countries set up ...

of Belgium and

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

( Belgium-Luxembourg Economic Union) in 1921 and played a leading part in negotiating the

Dawes Plan The Dawes Plan (as proposed by the Dawes Committee, chaired by Charles G. Dawes) was a plan in 1924 that successfully resolved the issue of World War I reparations that Germany had to pay. It ended a crisis in European diplomacy following Wor ...

in 1924. In 1928, he signed the Kellogg-Briand Pact for Belgium.Holger H. Herwig, and Neil M. Heyman, eds. ''Biographical Dictionary of World War I'' (Greenwood, 1982) p 192-93. A

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

and a freemason, he was a member of the lodge '' Les Amis Philanthropes'' of the Grand Orient of Belgium in Brussels. He is interred in the

Ixelles Cemetery Ixelles Cemetery (french: Cimetière d'Ixelles, ; nl, Begraafplaats van Elsene), located in Ixelles in the southern part of Brussels, is one of the major cemeteries in Belgium. ''Ixelles Cemetery'' also refers to a neighbourhood with a lot of ...

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 ...

Bibliography

* Paul Hymans, ''Pages liberales'' (E: Liberal Notes), 1936

Notes

References

Paul Hymans
* Helmreich, J.E., Paul Hymans and Henri Jaspar : Contrasting Diplomatic Styles for a small power, in : Studia Diplomatica, XXXIX, 1986, p. 669–682. * Willequet, J., Les mémoires de Paul Hymans, in : Le Flambeau, 1958, nr. 9-10, p. 565–573.

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hymans, Paul 1865 births 1941 deaths Belgian Ministers of State Foreign ministers of Belgium Burials at Ixelles Cemetery Belgian Ministers of Justice