Belgians in the context of "Wehrmacht foreign volunteers and conscripts"

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⭐ Core Definition: Belgians

Belgians (Dutch: Belgen [ˈbɛlɣə(n)] ; French: Belges [bɛlʒ] ; German: Belgier [ˈbɛlɡi̯ɐ] ) are people identified with the Kingdom of Belgium, a federal state in Western Europe. As Belgium is a multinational state, this connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural rather than ethnic. The majority of Belgians, however, belong to two distinct linguistic groups or communities (Dutch: gemeenschap; French: communauté) native to the country, i.e. its historical regions: Flemings in Flanders, who speak Dutch, West Flemish and Limburgish; and Walloons in Wallonia, who speak French or Walloon. There is also a substantial Belgian diaspora, which has settled primarily in the United States, Canada, France, and the Netherlands.

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👉 Belgians in the context of Wehrmacht foreign volunteers and conscripts

Among the approximately one million foreign volunteers and conscripts who served in the Wehrmacht during World War II were ethnic Belgians, Czechs, Dutch, Finns, Danes, French, Hungarians, Norwegians, Poles, Portuguese, Swedes, Swiss along with people from Great Britain, Ireland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and the Balkans. At least 47,000 Spaniards served in the Blue Division.

Many Soviet citizens (Russians and other non-Russian ethnic minorities) joined the Wehrmacht forces as Hiwis (or Hilfswillige). The Ukrainian collaborationist forces were composed of an estimated number of 180,000 volunteers serving with units scattered all over Europe. Russian émigrés and defectors from the Soviet Union participated in the formation the Russian Liberation Army. Thousands of White exiles also fought and served within German units of the Wehrmacht both on the Eastern Front and in Europe. Non-Russians from the Soviet Union formed the Ostlegionen (literally "Eastern Legions"). The East Legions comprized a total of 175,000 personnel. These units were all commanded by General Ernst August Köstring (1876−1953). A lower estimate for the total number of foreign volunteers that served in the entire German armed forces (including the Waffen SS) is 350,000.

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Belgians in the context of The Adventures of Tintin

The Adventures of Tintin (French: Les Aventures de Tintin [lez‿avɑ̃tyʁ tɛ̃tɛ̃]) is a series of 24 comic albums created by Belgian cartoonist Hergé (pen name of Georges Remi). The series was one of the most popular European comics of the 20th century. By 2007, a century after Hergé's birth, Tintin had been published in more than 70 languages with sales of more than 200 million copies, and had been adapted for radio, television, theatre, and film.

The series first appeared in French on 10 January 1929 in Le Petit Vingtième, a youth supplement to the Belgian newspaper Le Vingtième Siècle. The success of the series led to serialised strips published in Belgium's leading newspaper Le Soir and spun into a successful Tintin magazine. In 1950, Hergé created Studios Hergé, which produced the canonical versions of ten Tintin albums. Following Hergé's death in 1983, the final instalment of the series, Tintin and Alph-Art, was released posthumously.

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Belgians in the context of Maurice Grevisse

Maurice Grevisse (French: [mɔʁis ɡʁevis]; 7 October 1895 – 4 July 1980) was a Belgian grammarian.

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Belgians in the context of Flemish people

Flemish people or Flemings (Dutch: Vlamingen [ˈvlaːmɪŋə(n)] ) are a Germanic ethnic group native to Flanders, Belgium, who speak Flemish Dutch. Flemish people make up the majority of Belgians, at about 60%.

Flemish was historically a geographical term, as all inhabitants of the medieval County of Flanders in modern-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands were referred to as "Flemings" irrespective of their ethnicity or language. The contemporary region of Flanders comprises a part of this historical county, as well as parts of the medieval Duchy of Brabant and the medieval County of Loon, where the modern national identity and culture gradually formed.

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Belgians in the context of White Africans of European ancestry

White Africans of European ancestry refers to citizens or residents in Africa who can trace full or partial ancestry to Europe. They are distinguished from Arabs, Berbers, indigenous African Greeks, and Copts in North Africa, who are sometimes identified as white, but not European. In 1989, there were an estimated 4.6 million white people with European ancestry on the African continent.

Most are of Anglo-Celtic, Dutch, French, German, and Portuguese origin. To a lesser extent, there are also those who descended from Belgians, Greeks, Italians, Scandinavians, and Spaniards. The majority once lived along the Mediterranean coast or in Southern Africa.

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Belgians in the context of Victor Horta

Victor Pierre Horta (French: [viktɔʁ ɔʁta]; Victor, Baron Horta after 1932; 6 January 1861 – 8 September 1947) was a Belgian architect and designer, and one of the founders of the Art Nouveau movement. He was a fervent admirer of the French architectural theorist Eugène Viollet-le-Duc and his Hôtel Tassel in Brussels (1892–93), often considered the first Art Nouveau house, is based on the work of Viollet-le-Duc. The curving stylized vegetal forms that Horta used in turn influenced many others, including the French architect Hector Guimard, who used it in the first Art Nouveau apartment building he designed in Paris and in the entrances he designed for the Paris Metro. He is also considered a precursor of modern architecture for his open floor plans and his innovative use of iron, steel and glass.

Horta's later work moved away from Art Nouveau, and became more geometric and formal, with classical touches, such as columns. He made a highly original use of steel frames and skylights to bring light into the structures, open floor plans, and finely-designed decorative details. His later major works included the Maison du Peuple/Volkshuis (1895–1899), Brussels' Centre for Fine Arts (1923–1929) and Brussels-Central railway station (1913–1952). In 1932, King Albert I conferred on Horta the title of Baron for his services to the field of architecture.

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Belgians in the context of Rape of Belgium

The Rape of Belgium (French: Viol de la Belgique, lit.'Violation of Belgium', Dutch: Verkrachting van België) was a series of systematic war crimes, especially mass murder and deportation, by German troops against Belgian civilians during the invasion and occupation of Belgium during World War I. The neutrality of Belgium had been guaranteed by the Treaty of London of 1839, which had been signed by the German Confederation (of which Prussia was a member). However, the German Schlieffen Plan required that German armed forces advance through Belgium (thus violating its neutrality) in order to outflank the French Army, concentrated in eastern France. The German Chancellor, Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg, dismissed the treaty of 1839 as a "scrap of paper".

Throughout the war, the German army systematically engaged in numerous atrocities against the civilian population of Belgium, including the intentional destruction of civilian property; German soldiers murdered over 6,000 Belgian civilians, and 17,700 died during expulsions, deportations, imprisonment, or death sentences by court. The Wire of Death, a lethal electric fence maintained by the Imperial German Army to hinder civilians from fleeing the occupation to the Netherlands, resulted in the deaths of over 3,000 Belgian civilians. Some 120,000 were forced to work and deported to Germany. German forces destroyed 25,000 homes and other buildings in 837 communities in 1914 alone, and 1.5 million Belgians (20% of the entire population) fled from the invading German army.

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Belgians in the context of Luis Siret

Luis Siret y Cels (26 August 1860, in Sint-Niklaas – 7 June 1934, in Las Herrerías) was a Belgian-Spanish archaeologist and illustrator.

He was born in Belgium, but when he was 21 he went to Cuevas del Almanzora (Almería) when he was contracted as a Mining Engineer in the Sierra Almagrera.

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