Face of Flanders: Herman Van Goethem

“Antwerp is not a great metropolis, though it is regarded that way in Flanders,” he said. “As a university, we have to be more daring in adopting the profile of a great city. I have the feeling we haven’t exploited that identity enough.”

Van Goethem was born in nearby Mortsel in 1958 and studied both law and history in Antwerp at the same time – the latter without attending any lectures. He wound up with a doctorate in law and a Master’s in history. Now considered a historian, his interest in human rights is clearly a result of both studies.

In 2008, Van Goethem became involved with the creation of a Holocaust museum in Mechelen on the site of the former Dossin Barracks, which had been the transit point for thousands of Jews and Roma picked up by the Nazi occupier across Belgium and northern France. The museum, now called the Kazerne Dossin Memorial Museum and Documentation Centre on the Holocaust and Human Rights, was opened in 2012 by Flanders’ then minister-president Kris Peeters, architect Bob Van Reeth and curator Van Goethem, as well as members of the Jewish community.

The university’s gain, then, would be Dossin’s loss. “The two functions would be difficult to combine,” he said. “It will be hard to leave it behind, but becoming rector of UAntwerp is of another order.”

Shortly after Van Goethem announced his candidacy, so did vice-rector Johan Meeusen. The deadline for submission of candidacies is now closed. The election takes place in March. 

Photo by Katrijn Van Giel / ImageDesk