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Municipal flag of Malmedy - Image by Arnaud Leroy, 18 December 2005
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The municipality of Malmedy (11,878 inhabitants on 1 January 2007; 10,057 ha; municipal website) is located in the Eastern Cantons of Belgium, a region close to the border with Germany eventually incorporated to Belgium in 1920 only. The municipality of Malmedy is made since 1976 of the former municipalities of Malmedy, Bellevaux-Ligneuville and Bevercé. The town of Malmedy proper, built on the confluency of the rivers Warche and Warchenne, covers one fith of the municipal territory, which includes 38 villages and hamlets.
In the middle of the 7th century, Remacle, a monk from Aquitaine
(southwest of France), founded the abbey of Stavelot-Malmedy with the
support of the Frankish kings Sigebert III (634-656) and Childéric II
(662-675). The abbey followed the Benedictine rule and was made of two
monasteries of equal status (at least in theory): Stavelot, located in
the Bishopric of Tongeren (later transferred to Liège), and Malmedy,
located in the Bishopric of Cologne. Therefore, the temporal was
exerted by the Abbot, whereas the spiritual was exerted by two vestis
appointed by the Bishop of Tongeren and the Archbishop of Cologne,
respectively.
The monastery of Malmedy is considered by the historians and the
hagiographers as slightly older than the monastery of Stavelot. The
older charts mention Malmedy earlier than Stavelot; the commission appointed
in 670 by Childéric II in order to delimit the abbey territory started
from Malmedy (de Monasterjo Malmunderio). Afterwards, the territory of
the abbey was increased westwards, so that Stavelot became the
geographical center and the capital of the Principality of Stavelot-Malmedy, which
existed until the French Revolution.
The site of Malmedy was probably already settled before the foundation
of the abbey, even if the etymology of the name of Malmedy seems to
indicate a place not suitable for settlement. Mal(u)mund(a)-arium was
"a place with winding waters", or, most probably, Malmund-arium, a "bad
confluency". Before the strenghtening of the banks of the Warchenne
and its partial canalization, Malmedy was indeed very often flooded.
The town of Malmedy developed around the monastery. Until the end of
the 10th century, the villagers used the St. Laurent chapel, an
apsidiole of the abbey church. In 1007, the St. Géréon parish church
was consecrated. The main population increase occurred in the XVIth
century with the development of tannery; there were only 216 houses (c.
1,000 inhabitants) in 1544 but 633 houses in 1635.
City walls with watch towers and seven gates were finished in 1601, but
mostly destroyed by the French troops in 1658. On 4 October 1689,
Marquis de Catinat, the chief of the French garrison of Luxembourg,
ordered to burn the town. Some 600 out of the 660
houses of the town were destroyed and it took more than one century to
completely rebuild Malmedy.
Two political symbols were erected on the Market square (today the
Albert Ier square): the perron, symbolizing the rights of the people,
and the obelisk, symbolizing the authority of the Prince-Bishop. During
the French Revolution, the perron was replaced by a liberty tree but,
ironically, the obelisk was not suppressed. The local Société des amis de la liberté et de l'égalité was cautiously conservative and no extremist measure was taken, as it was the case for instance in
Stavelot. In spite of the opposition of the local notables, Malmedy was
incorporated to the French Republic by the Decree of 9 Vendémiaire of
the Year IV (1 October 1795). The abbey church of Malmedy was bought by
the manufacturer Henri Steinbach, who ceded it to the municipality in
1817.
During the French Empire, leather and paper industry thrived in
Malmedy, with increased outlets.
At Christmas 1813, following the defeat of Leipzig, the French
administration left the town. Malmedy was occupied by the Swedes and
the former Principality was incorporated in 1814 to the Grand Duchy of
Lower-Rhine. The next year, the Congress of Vienna separated Stavelot,
allocated to the Netherlands, and Malmedy, allocated to Prussia.
Malmedy was incorporated to the Regierungsbezirk of Aachen. The
creation of a new border and the associated taxes caused the decline of
the cloth, leather and paper industries. The local tanneries could not
follow the competition with the bigger German factories. Today, the
main industry in Malmedy is still paper, with the two factories of
Steinbach and Pont-de-Warche and the National Paper Museum.
Malmedy was formally annexed to Prussia in 1822, which was also the
last year of the administration by Mayor Jean-Georges Delvaux,
appointed in 1801. Delvaux did not want to place Prussian eagles on the
town hall and ordered to put them on the top of the obelisk, claiming
that it was the original location of the double-headed eagle of the
Holy Roman Empire. Delvaux found all kinds of reasons to open conflicts
with the Prussian administration. There were also in the town a lot of
veterans of Napoléon's Grande Armée, who caused a lot of trouble to the Prussian police, to Delvaux' great pleasure.
In 1853, King of Prussia Friedrich-Wilhelm IV visited Malmedy and said
he was so happy to have in his kingdom "a small country where people
speak French". In 1862, Bismarck was appointed Chancellor. The
suppression of the French language in all administrative documents was
required in 1863. The Municipal Council, presided by Mayor Gustave
Piette, officially protested and quoted a text of the Prussian
government from 12 August 1823, which recognized that French had always
been the mother language in Malmedy. In March 1866, a "magistral"
letter from the Regency ordered the Municipal Council to translate its
proceedings in German, which was received with another protestation. In
September, the President of the Rheinzprovinz announced that the
Minister of the Interior had cancelled the previous Decrees and that
the use of French in the administrative documents was allowed again.
However, the Regency asked again in August 1867 the German translation
of the documents. Mayor Piette resigned and was succeeded in March 1868
by Anton Andres. A German-speaker from Büllingen (Bullange), the new mayor allowed the debates to be made in French and provided German translations to the Regency.
After the victory of 1870, Bismarck increased the pressure on the
national and linguistic minorities, launching the Kulturkampf in
1878. The last proceedings of the Muncipal Council of Malmedy written
in French are dated 9 March 1879. The teaching of French in school was
forbidden. The Club Wallon, still active today, was founded in 1897,
constituting a small group of activists bugging the German
authorities but without popular support. However, the two local
newspapers were still published in French, La Semaine since 1848 and
L'Organe de Malmedy since 1880. An attempt to found a German
newspaper failed.
The Treaty of Versailles, signed on 28 June 1919, stated in Article 34
that the territories of Eupen and Malmedy-Sankt Vith would be
retroceded to Belgium on 10 January 1920, provided the population would
have agreed. On 12 August 1919, the Belgian army replaced in Malmedy
the British troops. Priest Nicolas Pietkin, parish priest in Sourbrodt
(now in the municipality of Waismes) but born in Malmedy, was decorated as a great defender of
the "Romanity" during the Kulturkampf. Lieutenant-General Baron Herman
Baltia, the King's High Commissionner, was appointed Governor of the
Territories of Eupen and Malmedy on 10 January 1920 by the Prussian
Landrat, which left a few days later. On 10 June 1925, the territories
were incorporated to the Province of Liège and Baltia left.
The short-lived Bishopric of Eupen-Malmedy existed during that period.
It was suppressed in 1925 and incorporated to the Bishopric of Liège.
However, the Sts. Pierre, Paul and Quirin abbey church, built in 1775
and transformed into the parish church in 1819, has kept the rank of
cathedral.
Malmedy was annexed again to Germany from 1940 to 1944. Priest Joseph
Peters organized the passive resistance again the Nazi regime. He
exposed the propaganda of the Hitler's Youth and help several young
people to hide and desert. Arrested in October 1942, Peters was
beheaded in Aachen on 1 July 1943.
The town was severely damaged during the Battle of the Bulge in
December 1944. Bombings killed 219 and destroyed most of the historical
houses of the downtown. The Baugnez crossroads, southeast of the town
of Malmedy, was the place of the event known as the Malmedy massacre.
Nearly 80 American prisoners of war were shot by the armoured group of
the 1st SS Panzer Division, commanded by Colonel Joachim Peiper.
Recovery of the remains to confirm what had happened was made in order
to gather and preserve evidence for a possible war crimes
investigation. The Malmedy massacre is considered as a milestone in
mortuary affairs operations.
Due to its relative geographical isolation and complicated history,
Malmedy has preserved a very specific culture and Walloon dialect. The
main festivals are the carnival (Cwarmê), St. Géréon's Day
(Tribolèdje), St. Martin's Day, the Epiphany (Heye dès Rwès)
and the Potato Harvest. The traditional, yearly meeting of a
school class is called in local Walloon Jahrgang, a German word relic
of the German period. Every public or private celebration includes a
speech or a poem in Walloon (rimè è walon) and everything is bilingual
French/Walloon in the town, including of course the street names but
also the parkingmeter user's instructions. During the May Night (Lu Nut
du May), every lover is expected to sing under her lover's windows the
famous song Nuit de Mai composed by Florent and Olivier Lebierre,
from Malmedy.
Malmedy has also a specific gastronomy, whose main specialities are the
Malmedy kiss (baiser de Malmedy) and the Russian salad (salade russe);
this (very) mixed salad is made only during the carnival and
recommended to get rid of hangover.
Alpine skiing, cross-country skiing and sled can be practiced in winter
on the plateau of Hautes-Fagnes, in the resorts of Malmedy, Chodes,
Mont, Arimont and Xhoffert.
[Aperçu historique de Malmedy par Robert Christophe - Malmedy Art & Histoire 87-97; Brève histoire de la ville de Malmedy et de la Wallonie Malmédienne, by Léon Halleux-Petit, Vice-President of the Société Royale d'Histoire Malmedy-Folklore; Mortuary Affairs Operations At Malmedy - Lessons Learned From A Historic Tragedy, by Major Scott T. Glass. Quartermaster Professional Bulletin, Autumn 1997]
Ivan Sache, 18 December 2005
The flag of Malmedy is horizontally divided
black-yellow-green.
According to Armoiries communales en Belgique. Communes wallonnes, bruxelloises et germanophones [w2v03a], this is a traditional flag using the colours of the coat of arms of the town, "Or a dragon sable on a terrasse vert". The greater arms of Malmedy are surmounted by a miter and a crozier and
sword crossed in saltire behind the shield, which are evident
references to the episcopal Principality of Stavelot-Malmedy.
![[Flag]](../images/b/be-wlgm1.gif)
Erroneous flag of Malmedy - Image by Arnaud Leroy, 18 December 2005
However, the geometrical arrangement of the stripes on the flag of
Malmedy is still a matter of controversy. Raymond Jacob, President of
the aforementioned Société Royale d'Histoire Malmedy-Folklore
communicated to Pascal Vagnat in July 2005 an article he had published
in the aforementioned local newspaper La Semaine.
The first description of a flag for Malmedy dates back to 1881 and was
published by the local historian Arsène de Noüe in La Semaine.
However, Noüe himself subsequently published different versions of this flag.
Accordingly, different flags with the three colours of the arms were
used, arranged either horizontally or vertically and with random
arrangement of the colours.
On 26 June 1969, the Municipal Council followed a suggestion made by Mr.
Lang, President of Malmedy-Folklore, and fixed the municipal flag: the
three colours shall be placed perpendicularly to the staff (that is
horizontally), from top to bottom, black, yellow and green.
The flag is hoisted over the obelisk standing on the Albert Ier square;
Raymond Jacob reports in his article that the flag hoisted there in
the late spring 2005 was erroneous, having vertical instead of
horizontal stripes. However, images recently seen in the RTBF TV
program Télétourisme show the correct flag hoisted over the obelisk.
Arnaud Leroy, Pascal Vagnat & Ivan Sache, 18 December 2005
