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AbbéNorbert Wallez (French:[valɛz]; 19 October 1882 – 24 September 1952) was a BelgianCatholic priest and journalist. He was the editor of the newspaperLe Vingtième Siècle (The Twentieth Century), whose youth supplement,Le Petit Vingtième, first publishedThe Adventures of Tintin.
Wallez was born inHacquegnies,Frasnes-lez-Anvaing. He studied at theUniversity of Leuven. Ordained a priest in 1906, he devoted himself to teaching, interrupted when he enlisted as a volunteer during theFirst World War. After the armistice, he continued his teaching career at the religiousBonne Espérance school and at the School of Commerce inMons. In 1924, by order of CardinalDésiré-Joseph Mercier, he assumed the leadership of the conservative Catholic newspaperLe Vingtième Siècle.
His ultraconservative ideology was influenced byCharles Maurras and the nationalistAction Française. He was also a great admirer ofMussolini, whom he had visited during a trip to Italy in 1923; he had a signed portrait of the dictator on his office wall. His ideal, as expressed in his bookBélgique et Rhénanie. Quelques directives d'une politique (1923), was the federation ofBelgium and theRhineland, a region of Germany that he considered essentially Catholic, in contrast to ProtestantPrussia.
In 1927 the young journalistGeorges Remi started working forLe Vingtième Siècle. A year later, Remi became editor-in-chief ofLe Petit Vingtième. In 1929, Remi began publishingTintin in the Land of the Soviets, the first ofThe Adventures of Tintin, in the eleventh issue ofLe Petit Vingtième, under the name Hergé. Wallez was crucial in the choice of the first three destinations of Tintin:Soviet Russia,Belgian Congo andUnited States. They were all motivated bypropaganda motifs, to"inform" young readers about the benefits ofcolonialism and criticizecommunism.[1] He also facilitated Remi's marriage in 1932 to Germaine Kieckens, who was Wallez's secretary.[2] Hergé's comic seriesQuick & Flupke also began inLe Vingtième Siècle, in 1930.
In 1933, Wallez was removed from his position as head ofLe Vingtième Siècle on the orders of his superiors, and named to head the preservation of the ruins ofAulne Abbey.
With theGerman invasion of Belgium in 1940, he resumed writing, and supported theRexist Party led byLéon Degrelle.
In 1947, he was accused ofNazi collaboration, and sentenced to four years in prison and a fine of 200,000 francs. He remained jailed inCharleroi until 1950. After being released, dying of cancer, he was met by Remi and his wife. He died on 24 September 1952 inSaint-Servais, Namur.
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