Philip Blommaert

Who was Philip Blommaert?

Philip, Esquire Blommaert was a Flemish writer.

He earned his living as a private scholar and was as a friend and comrade of Hendrik Conscience with whom he promoted the use of Dutch in Belgium.

In 1834 he had poems written for the Flemish magazine Vaderlandsche Letteroefeningen in Dutch, but with little success because of their rough language. Together with Jan Frans Willems he worked for several Belgian magazines against the influence of the French language in Flanders, and in 1840 was one of the co-authors of the Vlaams petitionnement to support the Flemish cause in Belgium.

Of more importance was the publication of Dutch poems from the 12.-14. Century, such as Theophilus, and Oudvlaemsche gedichten, as well as a Dutch translation of the Nibelungenlied in iambic verse.

His most famous work was the Aloude geschiedenis der Belgen of Nederduitschers, where he gave his opinion that the Low German areas are destined, despite their political divisions, to the fulfillment of a high cultural-historical idea.