Paul Hymans

Paul Louis Adrien Louis Hyman ( born March 23, 1865 in Ixelles / Elsene, † March 6, 1941 in Nice ) was a Belgian liberal politician and several ministers.

Hyman was born in a well-off middle-class family. He earned a doctoral degree in law and practiced in a Brussels law firm. Later he also gave lessons at the VU Brussels and worked as a journalist. He joined the Liberal Party and became leader of its left wing. From 1900 to 1941 he represented the constituency of his residence in Brussels in the Belgian parliament.

After the outbreak of the First World War, he took in 1914 on a diplomatic mission to the United States in part. 1915 was appointed Special Representative in the British government in London. In 1917 he took over the post of Minister of Economic Affairs and the beginning of 1918 the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Belgian government. He led the Belgian delegation at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 and in 1920 was the first chairman of the League of Nations ( until 1921 ). In the twenties he was a member of the League Council and several foreign minister ( 1924-25, 1927-35 ) in the negotiations with Germany involved (including the Dawes Plan in 1924, the Treaties of 1925 Locarno, Kellogg-Briand Pact, 1928). At Hymans have plans to go back to an economic union between Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, which are regarded as precursors of the Customs Union in 1944 (see Benelux).

Hyman died in 1941 in Nice in exile and was later buried in the cemetery of his native town.