Karel van de Woestijne

Karel van de Woestijne (1878-1929) did not complete his secondary education, but he nevertheless became a professor at the University of Ghent in the 1920’s. Prior to this, however, his life was characterised by a consistent lack of financial means. His marriage in 1904 and the arrival of a first child made the need to provide for his family all the more pressing. In 1906, he became Brussels correspondent for the Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant (New Rotterdam Newspaper) and he combined this function with a job as a minor civil servant.