What is a Norwegian Chalet doing behind the royal palace in Brussels?

The Brederodestraat is the short street behind the royal palace in Brussels. Number 16 is the back entrance to the palace and also the official address for anyone wishing to write a letter to the king. A little further along, at number 10, is a curious stone building with a wooden superstructure that conjures up the image of an alpine hut.

Architecturally, it is a complete anomaly in this neighbourhood, a curiosity with a remarkable and, unfortunately, not an innocent past. Even today the building is still called the Norwegian Chalet.  This is linked to its prominent builder's weakness for the country of Norway. In 1906 King Leopold II had the chalet built by the Norwegian Finn Ivar Knudsen.

Scandinavia was more than a fleeting whim for the ageing monarch. In his typical romantic style, the Norwegian architect had already been commissioned to build a summer residence and horse stables on the Belgian coast. But the chalet had a less frivolous purpose. It became the Brussels headquarters of the Congo Free State and was situated on the Brederodestraat, in the middle of the colonial district, among the respectable headquarters of all kinds of colonial companies.

King Leopold only had to exit through his backyard to govern a colony 80 times the size of Belgium. Only, things did not turn out as he desired. It was exactly in the year of its construction that his colonial exploits became so discredited that he decided to cede his colony to the Belgian state.

The Congo Free State

The Congo Free State was founded on 1 June 1885, with King Leopold as its sovereign monarch. He was no longer merely the king of Belgium; he now also became the autocrat of a country the size of western Europe. At last, his hunger for power, prestige and fortune could be satisfied. But work had yet to begin, because Congo had to be conquered and occupied. A state apparatus had to be built, transport infrastructure constructed, and an economy established, or at least traditional trade had to be absorbed.

In order to gain an effective hold on this immense country, the Force Publique or Public Force was set up, a veritable colonial army, but at the same time a force to conquer and police the territory. Gradually, it became clear that building a colony was no easy feat. Leopold encountered an unruly terrain with equally unruly inhabitants. It cost him lots of money and the potential bankruptcy of his megalomaniac plan was never far off .

Under pressure, he introduced a unilateral exploitation system that made virtually all natural resources state property. Little remained of the free trade envisaged at the International Berlin Conference of 1885. Private companies were given districts in concessions, allowed to operate them and share the profits with their shareholders. They were given not only a trade monopoly, but also administrative rights and even the right to maintain order and own arms and ammunition. 'Without an exaggeration these were companies that plundered and looted', the words with which Congolese Belgian historian Mathieu Zana Etambala described them.

Rubber changed everything

Leopold's salvation came at the end of the century in the form of a sticky tree sap, rubber. The production of car and bicycle tyres had exploded the demand for rubber. At last, the Congolese equatorial forest could be lucratively exploited thanks to huge reserves of wild rubber. The indigenous population was forced into the rubber production, to tap rubber in inhuman working conditions deep in the jungle.

Concessionaries, officials and officers, were pressurised as much as possible to maximise production and impose quotas on Congolese workers. It was the beginning of a ruthless system of exploitation, intimidation and abuse of power. To break any resistance, local leaders applied a regime of terror that included beatings, executions and raids.

In remote areas, they could go about their business with impunity. Congo was heading for total disruption. Deprivation and epidemics also contributed to a demographic catastrophe, while Leopold and a growing conglomerate of colonial companies counted their fortunes.

Protest against the many abuses in Congo

Around the turn of the century, protests against what was going on in Congo were brewing. British shipping agent Edmund Morel launched an international campaign against the abuses after he saw a cargo of rubber arrive at the port of Antwerp and weapons and ammunition leave for the return journey.

Also crucial was an investigative report by British consul Roger Casement, full of testimonies about the atrocities. Casement had been alerted by a conversation he had once had with a Belgian captain, Willem Van Kerckhoven. The latter told him, deadpan, how he compensated his men, who were mostly native Congolese, for every severed head they brought to him.

An investigation in Belgium too followed, reluctantly allowed by King Leopold. Now, albeit cautiously, abuses were confirmed. Opposition grew, led by progressive liberal Georges Lorand, Jesuit Arthur Vermeersch, financier Félicien Cattier and socialist leader Emile Vandervelde. From the outset, the socialists saw the colonial project as an excess of capitalism. Among Catholics and liberals, too, divisions were strong.

But all felt increasingly embarrassed by persistent reports of atrocities, and by the unconstitutional power the king had usurped thanks to his personal African plaything. Even Albert Thys, colonial businessman and Leopold's erstwhile confidant, was fed up with the king's autocratic rule. Consensus grew on a solution: the king had to cede his colony so that the Belgian state could take over all responsibility.

The Belgian Congo

On 15 November 1908, Belgium acquired Congo and was allowed to call itself a colonial power. A Colonial Charter laid down the country's new organisation and made a break with the past. The country's image needed some polishing: conditions for a new economy and a legal framework for the police force were defined. With the introduction of medical policies, for the first time, investments were made in the well-being of the Congolese people. In Belgium, the Ministry of Colonies was established. It soon employed several hundred civil servants. Rubber mania passed but was replaced by mining and resource hunting.

Although banned, profit ensured forms of forced labour persisted. Nervous colonisers continued repressive practices, colonial researchers Amandine Lauro and Benoît Henriet argue, due to the clear fear among the colonisers of a potential revolt.

For almost two years, Leopold had resisted the takeover and kept Belgian politicians on a leash with all sorts of counter conditions. He only succumbed when other powers and especially the British threatened to intervene. Leopold was left embittered and sad. His popularity had fallen below zero, though less because of his colonial exploits than for his reputation in the national and international press as an amoral and contemptible fool.

Still, he hardly showed himself in public and most of the time he stayed in the South of France. Indeed, the Belgian government should have urged the king to be present more often  in Belgium. Leopold rarely appeared in his newly built Norwegian Chalet in the Brederodestraat. After the colony was taken over by the Belgian state, the building was immediately repurposed as an administrative office for the newly established Ministry of Colonies.

The five-pointed star of the Congo Free State in the wooden panelling remains and still hangs there today. The chalet is now also fully visible once again. For a long time, the view was obstructed by buildings that have now been demolished. When the chalet became too small for the colonial department, it housed the Dynasty Museum for a time. In 1979, the Royal Trust bought the building and today it is leased to French luxury brand Hermès.