Saturday, February 7, 2009
Happy Birthday!
Today is the birthday of somebody special I admire. He was born exactly 100 years ago today. His father was a blacksmith. Daniel had three brothers and two sisters, and was to get one more younger brother later.
When he was five years old, the terrible tragedy, later named "The Great War" made his family have to leave all possessions behind, and flee to France. Being the youngest, he was lucky enough to go to school with his little brother Max. But not with the rest of the family, who was living near Paris. It was too dangerous, as the Germans bombed the environment with "Grosse Bertha"
After the war the family continued to live for a while near Paris, where Daniel practised his first trade; together with his parents, his sisters and some brothers he took care of the family business of herding the cows used for milking.
In 1923 his parents constructed two houses in Belgium, only to return to France in 1926. There his parents had a farm, where the reduced family (parents, Daniel and his brothers Max and Pol) lived untill 1931, when his father died. During that period, Daniel started working in the automobile sector. This was an emerging business, and he worked in different garages to learn the mechanics.
He took his mother back to Belgium, where in 1933 he erected together with his youngest brother Max his own garage on the premises of his oldest brother Gaston.
Starting with the modest Renault and Fiat, but in the beginning even doing bikes, he slowly grows and buys the houses around his business, untill the place really becomes too small. During the war his garage was claimed by the Germans, so during one of this very cold winters, when he was supposed to take care of the German trucks, he "accidentally" forgot that water could freeze. The Germans were not pleased with their trucks having broken engines, but luckily he survived.
In 1936 Daniel got married to Ghisele, and in 1937 they had their first child. The couple would be blessed with 6 more children of which one died at 3 weeks, the latest being born in 1948.
In 1954, the people hadn't forgotten about the war yet, he took the gamble to start with a German car: Mercedes. And it seemed to be the correct choice, his business would flourish untill his death. It allowed him to start some other businesses, some of which had a longer life then others.
Finally in 1974, at the age of 65, he finished his major work. He had finished building a new garage outside the city on a large ground. It would establish his name as a big businessman in the wide region. During the odd 20 years of the rest of his life, we would employ lots of people, sell lots of cars and trucks, and acknowledged for his work.
A year after his death in 1992, his sons would sell the garage, although 2 of the 3 would keep working there for a short while. In 2002, when nodoby of the family worked there anymore, the business Daniel Vanbiervliet erected 68 years before, would finish to exist.
Happy birthday, grandfather!
Labels: History
posted by Vince | 10:06 PM
2 Reacties:
Thanks!
You're welcome :-)
I wanted to have a more in-depth article on www.vanbiervliet.org, but alas, I lack the time.
You should see why later in this blog ;-)
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