ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the five years between the end of the First World War and the introduction of mandatory bilingualism at the University of Ghent in order to explore how opponents of flamandisation marshalled references to the war to instil a sense of urgency to this opposition. It details the debate over the University of Ghent before the war, which was often framed around the prestige and well-being of the city itself. The chapter looks at the war and occupation, the experiences of which introduced new issues and concerns as well as emotional urgency into the debate over the university. It discusses the rhetoric of martyrdom that emerged from the war, as the very fact of being targeted by the Germans made the French-language University of Ghent and its staff sacrosanct in the eyes of its supporters. Despite the efforts of Jacques Pirenne and the Ligue, on 16 October 1923 the University of Ghent opened under the Nolf formula.
