Auguste Swaen
Auguste Swaen's rectorship was marked by the outbreak of the First World War. For the year 1913-1914, the University had 2884 students. In August 1914, the central building was hit by shells and German soldiers invaded the premises, turning them into dormitories and stables. The buildings were ransacked and the art collections looted.
Born in Verviers in 1847, physician Auguste Swaen succeeded Voltaire Masius as Professor of Human Anatomy (Lecturer in 1872, Professor Extraordinaire in 1874, Professor Ordinaire in 1877), while also spending time in foreign laboratories (Germany, Austria, France, Italy).
Along with his colleagues Voltaire Masius, Constant Vanlair and Édouard van Beneden, he worked to reform science teaching and played an active role in setting up new institutes, including the anatomy institute that would bear his name. His scientific work on the development of the digestive system, in particular, would long serve as a benchmark for future treatises on embryology.
Appointed rector in 1913 - he inaugurated his mandate with a speech on the future role of universities in Belgium - the following year he saw his establishment occupied and then literally pillaged by the German army. Classes were suspended. He was unable to hand over to his successor Eugène Hubert until January 1919, when classes reopened.
Awarded emeritus status in 1917, this worthy member of the Académie de Médecine died in Liège in 1929.
Il m’a paru qu’il serait opportun de proclamer une fois de plus quel rôle important doivent jouer les universités et combien il est urgent de leur assurer une existence plus libre et plus large surtout. […]
De plus en plus […] s’imposera avec une indiscutable évidence, la conviction que la science est un des facteurs dominants, le plus puissant peut-être, du progrès et de la civilisation moderne. De plus en plus aussi, les nations comprendront que les universités sont les grands laboratoires de cette science et qu’elles ont un intérêt vital à en posséder d’aussi parfaites que possible. Enfin, dans notre pays si riche, où le merveilleux épanouissement du commerce et de l’industrie démontrent l’intelligence, l’énergie, l’initiative de se enfants, dans notre pays s’édifient aussi des richesses exceptionnelles et, parmi les hommes qui savent les acquérir, s’en rencontrent qui, comprenant les services immenses qu’ils peuvent rendre à leur patrie en favorisant son développement scientifique, se font un devoir et un honneur d’y contribuer. Les exemples des Solvay, des de Lovenjoul, des Montefiore ne peuvent pas rester sans influence et, pour le plus grand bien de notre pays, susciteront, j’en suis persuadé, de nobles émulations.
Discours de rentrée, 1913
In October 1915, the German authorities called for the resumption of classes, but the Academic Council refused, despite threats and a demagogic promise by the occupier to increase professors' salaries. The University of Liège remained closed throughout the war, its activities at a complete standstill for four years, its scientific momentum shattered.
Philippe Raxhon, Memory and foresight. University of Liège (1817-2017), Presses universitaires de Liège, 2017, p. 93.
See also: The University of Liège and the centenary of 14-18 and Carte blanche Philippe Raxhon in Liège U, The centenary of the Great War.
Illustration : Florimond Van Loo, to Mr Aug. Swaen, Professor à university of Liège, lithography, 1878, Wittert ULiège museum, inv. 2951.
