The Greatest Belgians
Who is the greatest Belgian of all time? In 2005, the Flemish and Walloon public broadcasters compiled lists and had people vote. The Flemish list people could vote on was largely selected by commission, while the Walloon list was more democratic from the start. This resulted in the former having more “Great Men” and the latter more celebrities.
On this page, I will cover the top 10 of both polls, starting with the Flemish winners, and then continuing with the Walloon winners who didn't overlap.
Father Damien
Father Damien (1840-1889), born Joseph De Veuster, was a Catholic missionary known for his work in a leper settlement in Molokai, an island of Hawaii, eventually succumbing to the same disease. Sectarian criticism and debate after his death culminated in a passionate defense by Scottish novelist Robert Louis Stevenson.
Testament to his importance to Hawaii, one of the state's allotment of two statues in the United States Capitol is filled by a statue of Father Damien, a cast of an original statue by Marisol Escobar at the Hawaii State Capitol.
Damien's story is dramatized in the 1999 movie Molokai: The Story of Father Damien.
He came first in the Flemish list and third in the Walloon list.
Paul Janssen
Paul Janssen (1926-2003) was the doctor who founded Janssen Pharmaceutica, which merged with Johnson & Johnson in the 1960s. Since Janssen is just the Dutch equivalent of Johnson, that really worked out well!
Johnson & Johnson's own website notes this cool bit of trivia about Janssen: he helped preserve the Terracotta Army of China!
He appeared second on the Flemish list, and was not even selected for the Walloon list.
Eddy Merckx
Eddy Merckx (1945-) is universally considered the greatest cyclist of all time. His relentless pursuit of victory and dominance earned him the nickname "The Cannibal".
He came third in the Flemish list and fourth in the Walloon list.
Ambiorix
Ambiorix (around 53 BCE) was a Gallic king who led the Belgae in revolt against Julius Caesar, as mentioned in Caesar's Commentarii de Bello Gallico. He was fished up from the dustbins of history when the newly independent Belgium sought its own national myths separate from the Netherlands from which it seceded.
He came fourth in the Flemish list and 50th in the Walloon list.
Adolf Daens
Adolf Daens (1839-1907) was a priest who, together with his brother Pieter (1842-1918), became figureheads of the early christian-democratic movement. Often rejected by the conservative wing of the Catholic party, their new Christian People's Party often joined forces with Socialists and Liberals to fight for more rights for laborers and Dutch-speakers.
After the First World War, their party split, with its social wing joining the reformed Catholic party, and its regionalist wing joined the nascent Flemish nationalist movement which descended into fascist collaboration.
Adolf appeared fifth on the Flemish list, and was not selected for the Walloon list.
Andreas Vesalius
Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564) was a physician and anatomist who is considered the founder of modern human anatomy, challenging the prevailing medical theories of Galen.
He came sixth in the Flemish list and nineteenth in the Walloon list.
Jacques Brel
Jacques Brel (1929-1978) was famed for his French chansons. His songs have been covered by Nirvana, David Bowie, Cyndi Lauper, Céline Dion, Ray Charles, Nina Simone, Shirley Bassey, Judy Collins, Andy Williams, John Denver and Frank Sinatra, among many others.
He came seventh in the Flemish list and first in the Walloon list.
Gerardus Mercator
Gerardus Mercator (1512-1594) was the cartographer who created the Mercator projection, to display our globe on a flat surface. While this projection had been superseded by more accurate projections in modern times, it saw a revival as the standard for webmaps as the “Web Mercator projection”.
He came eighth in the Flemish list and 47th in the Walloon list.
Peter Paul Rubens
Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) was a baroque artist, scholar, and diplomat. He was famed for his altarpieces, one of which featured in the tragic ending of A Dog of Flanders (a story more known in Japan than in the country it was set in)
He came ninth in the Flemish list and 21st in the Walloon list.
Hendrik Conscience
Hendrik Conscience (1812-1883) was a novelist who sought to establish Flemish Dutch as a cultural language in Belgium. His most known book was The Lion of Flanders, which is often considered the Flemish “national epic”.
He appeared tenth on the Flemish list, and was not selected for the Walloon list.
Baudouin
Baudouin (1934-1993) was a King of the Belgians. A devout adherent of the Catholic Charistmatic Renewal, and also someone who tragically remained childless despite a clear desire to have them, he refused to sign the 1990 law depenalizing abortion. The constitutional crisis that followed was resolved with typical Belgian maneuvering: the King was deemed unfit to reign for a day, and the government signed the bill.
Despite all that, he was a beloved figure in Belgium. His wife, Queen Fabiola, was known for the fairytales she wrote, one of which (The Indian Water-lilies) is depicted in Dutch theme park The Efteling.
He came second in the Walloon list, and sixteenth in the Flemish list.
Sister Emmanuelle
Sister Emmanuelle (1908-2008) was a Belgian nun lived among the poor in the slums of Cairo for decades. After returning to Europe in 1993, she occupied herself with helping homeless and undocumented immigrants in France.
She came fifth in the Walloon list, and was not selected for the Flemish list.
José van Dam
José van Dam (1940-2026) was a Belgian opera singer who performed worldwide.
He came sixth in the Walloon list, and was not selected for the Flemish list.
Benoît Poelvoorde
Benoît Poelvoorde (1964-) is an actor and comedian. His work on Man Bites Dog led to Quentin Tarantino putting him in the Cannes Film Festival Jury in 2004.
He came seventh in the Walloon list, and was not selected for the Flemish list.
Hergé
Hergé (1907-1983) was the creator of the famous comic Tintin. He was a pioneer of the “ligne claire” style, and his work has been praised for its meticulous research and attention to detail. The Tintin comics have been translated into many languages.
He came eighth in the Walloon list, and 24th in the Flemish list.
René Magritte
René Magritte (1898-1967) was a surrealist painter. His rather whimsical work has often been copied and parodied, most notably inspiring countless album covers.
He came ninth in the Walloon list, and 18th in the Flemish list.
Georges Simenon
Georges Simenon (1903-1989) is the author who created the famous detective Maigret, the French counterpart to Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot.
He came tenth in the Walloon list, and 77th for the Flemish list.
Assessment
In hindsight, some names feel vastly overstated, like Baudouin or Poelvoorde. And someone like Ambiorix shouldn't really be here in the first place.
Is anyone missing? I'd say so, and I will name them!
Leo Baekeland (1863-1944), who invented Bakelite and was thus the father of the plastic industry. Georges Lemaître (1894-1966), a priest and scientist, who first formulated the Big Bang theory. Ernest Solvay (1838-1922) whose Solvay process is now the main method by which Sodium carbonate is made. That name might not say much to you, but it's used to make glass, soften water, and it's a crucial ingredient for certain Chinese, Japanese, and German dishes.
There's Robert Cailliau (1947-), who together with Tim Berners-Lee developed a little something called the World Wide Web. As for some more cultural-oriented names: how about Adolphe Sax (1814-1894), inventor of the saxophone, or Suzan Daniel (1918-2007), a film critic who founded the first LGBT movement in Belgium, though she quickly left it because of the misogyny of its gay members.
There are few women, of course. Many simply weren't allowed to be consequential, and those who were have often been overlooked or forgotten.