The former People's House

From Leuven, where the socialist movement was stronger than in Aarschot, a branch of the socialist cooperative De Proletaar was founded. The first store was founded in 1907 at what was then Kortstraat 31 (today Jozef Tielemansstraat). A few years later, in 1910, the store moved to a new building in the Bonewijk. It was a fully-fledged 'people's house', characteristic of the presence of the socialist movement in town or village, a social meeting place for workers.

People's houses provided a place for recreation and education, but were also important for the development of the labour movement and its social struggles. A people's house was the epicenter of the socialist movement in the city. There was also a bakery in Aarschot. The principle of the cooperative was not to be cheaper. The bread was even slightly more expensive, but this money could be used to offer other services, such as support in case of illness or unemployment.

During the war days of 1914, the people's house went up in flames along with nearly 400 other houses in the city. The socialist leaders were part of the more than 190 civilians who were shot.

In the following years, with great difficulty, a new people's house would be built. The architect was Camille Herpoel from Leuven. In that post-war period, there was a scarcity of materials and workers, and prices were constantly rising. The first plans that were made in 1920 looked much more luxurious than the final design. The building was not inaugurated until 1923. In addition to a cooperative shop, bakery, brasserie, kitchen, warehouse and warehouse, there was a large banquet hall and there were several meeting rooms and offices for various socialist associations.

During the interwar period, De Proletaar's sales figures declined sharply. The economic recession and the bankruptcy of the Bank of Labour were no strangers to this. The Second World War exacerbated this bad situation and Het Volkshuis was sold to the 'Mena' brewery from Rotselaar. The socialist movement rented the meeting rooms and by 1948 the trade union, the health insurance fund and the library were housed there. Due to the excessively high rent, the socialist party left this location in 1951 and the meetings took place in the nearby cinema and banquet hall Palace. After that, they would regularly move to other places in the city and in 1974 they ended up in the hall of Café Germinal again. Several socialist people's houses had a café with this name. It refers to a novel by Emile Zola, in which the writer describes the hard life of a miner in the north of France. In all likelihood, this is the last café of socialist origin in Flanders with that name.

Jan Rymenams