Marie Haps (29 April 1879 – 14 March 1939) was a Luxembourg-born Belgian educationalist, the founder of what subsequently became the

Institut Libre Marie Haps The Institut libre Marie Haps (ILMH) was a former French language, French-speaking institution of higher education in Brussels, Belgium, founded by Marie Haps in 1919. Since 1995 it has become a constituent part of Haute École Léonard de Vinci ex ...

(now part of the

Haute École Léonard de Vinci ''Haute École Léonard de Vinci'' is a Catholic institution of higher education of the French Community of Belgium, based on 3 campus (two in Brussels and one in Louvain-la-Neuve). It offers short-type courses (bachelor), long type (master) and ...

) and the

Marie Haps Faculty of Translation and Interpreting The Marie Haps Faculty of Translation and Interpreting (TIMH, in French: ''Faculté de traduction et interprétation Marie Haps'') is a faculty of Saint-Louis University, Brussels (UCLouvain) located on its own campus in Brussels' European Qua ...

(

Saint-Louis University, Brussels UCLouvain Saint-Louis Brussels is an autonomous university campus specialized in social and human sciences part of UCLouvain and based in Brussels, Belgium. Established in 1857, Saint-Louis University, Brussels (officially, in French Universi ...

Life

Born at

Diekirch Diekirch (; ; or (locally) ; from ''Diet-Kirch'', i.e. "people's church") is a Communes of Luxembourg, commune with List of towns in Luxembourg, town status in north-eastern Luxembourg, in the Diekirch (canton), canton of Diekirch and, until its ...

Luxembourg Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...

on 29 April 1879, Marie Julie Frauenberg married the Belgian financier Joseph Haps and moved to Brussels. In 1914, she set up a soup kitchen, and in 1920 was one of the founders of a seaside resort for working-class women in

De Panne De Panne (; ) is a town and a municipality located on the North Sea coast of the Belgian province of West Flanders. There it borders France, making it the westernmost town in Belgium. It is one of the most popular resort town destinations within ...

. The achievement for which she is best remembered is the establishment in 1919 of a school of higher education for young women. In 1930 this school took her name as its own, and in 1932 it was accredited by the

University of Louvain UCLouvain (or Université catholique de Louvain , French for Catholic University of Louvain, officially in English the University of Louvain) is Belgium's largest French-speaking university and one of the oldest in Europe (originally establishe ...

. Marie Haps died 14 March 1939.

Views

Rather than provide professional education for women, as was available in teacher training colleges and nursing colleges, Marie Haps wished to establish an institution that would provide general education to middle-class women whose futures would lie in their social roles as wife and mother. She regarded educated homemakers, the intellectual equals of their husbands, as having an important contribution to national reconstruction after the First World War. Her institute only began to provide professional education after the Second World War, first in training psychological assistants (from 1946) and then translators and interpreters (1955). She gave an exposition of her views at the sixth Catholic Congress in Mechelen in September 1936, in a lecture that was subsequently published in the congress proceedings.Marie Haps, "L'Enseigenment supérieur des jeunes filles. II. Hors de l'Université", ''Actes du VIe congrès catholique de Malines'', vol. 5, Culture intellectuelle et sens chrétien (Brussels,

937 Year 937 ( CMXXXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * A Hungarian army invades Burgundy, and burns the city of Tournus. Then they go southwards to Italy, pillaging the environs of ...

, pp. 321-327.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Haps, Marie 1879 births 1939 deaths Belgian educational theorists Belgian feminists Luxembourgian educational theorists Luxembourgian educators Luxembourgian feminists People from Diekirch 20th-century Belgian educators Belgian women educators Luxembourgian women educators Luxembourgian emigrants to Belgium