Monument Henri Bragard Malmedy

In a park at the intersection of Rue Clément Scheuren and Rue Henri Bragard in Malmedy, is the memorial monument of the Walloon poet and Nazi victim Henri Bragard.

The facts
Henri Bragard was born on January 27, 1877 in Malmedy. At that time, the city of Malmedy belonged to the German Empire. Although the region was Walloon and there was historically a Walloon dialect and culture, especially during the Kulturkampf of Bismarck, the German government strongly focused on a 'Germanization' of the region. For example, primary education was given in the German language. A well-known champion of the struggle to preserve the Walloon identity was led by abbé Nicolas Pietkin. Henri Bragard was his cousin and it is not surprising that Henri became a fierce champion of this Walloon individuality.
In 1898 he founded the 'Club Wallon d'Mâmdi' with the aim of preserving and promoting the Walloon language and folklore through study and practice. The association flourished. Bragard became a full member of the (Belgian) Assemblée Walonne in 1905. Although he was compulsorily mobilized in the German army in 1914, he would already campaign militantly in 1918 for the annexation of Malmedy to Belgium.
Not everyone agreed and the German influence, however, remained in the area. During the interwar period, the association fought against Nazi ideas and organizations in Malmedy. When the Club Wallon took a socialist course, Bragard split with a new socio-cultural association, 'Chantecler', and would publish in Walloon until 1939.
When the German army occupied Malmedy in 1940, Bragard fled to Brussels. On June 2, 1943, he was arrested by the Gestapo for anti-Nazi sympathies while visiting his daughter in Spa. Bragard was taken to the concentration camp of Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg (Germany). He would die there on March 31, 1944 as a result of the hardships.

About the monument
Already during the war Bragard was given the status of hero among the people of Malmedy. In 1950 a street in the new town was renamed after him and a plaque still reads 'Rue Henri Bragard. Poete wallon. Mort pour la patrie 1977-1944'.
The monument described here was unveiled in 1952 at the initiative of the Club Wallon. On a spacious park in the same street, a boulder from the region was placed, provided with a bronze plate with the image of the poet and the Walloon rooster. Although the monument no longer refers to Bragard's tragic, patriotic death, the inauguration transcended the cultural aspect due to the presence of numerous patriotic associations and even national military authorities and the spirit of the speeches was not devoid of Walloon patriotism '. That same day, a less veiled plaque was unveiled, affixed to Bragard's home in the Avenue des Alliés: 'De cette maison en 1940 est parti pour les bagnes nazis, Henri Bragard, ....'.
In 2011, another commemorative plaque was added to the La Fraternité room (rue de Tanerie, 1). This happened in the context of 'les lieux de mémoire de la Wallonie'. Here too, in addition to its significance for Walloon culture, his struggle 'contre la violence nazi' is mentioned.

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Source

• Text: Jan Rymenams
• Photos: Jan Rymenams
• Remacle, J., La Mémoire de la seconde guerre mondiale à Malmedy de 1945 à nos jours, Malmedy, 2020