Lode Craeybeckx

François Ferdinand Louis Craeybeckx, better known as Lode, was born in Antwerp in 1897. His father was a policeman from Limburg, while his mother came from Liège. He studied at the Athenaeum of Antwerp before going to the new University of Ghent in 1917. For collaborating with the German occupiers during the First World War, he was sent to prison for five years, but he was released after two years.^[1]

Lode Craeybeckx married Irma Lauwers in 1921. They had two children, Hilda and Herman. From 1925 until 1931, he worked as a journalist for the newspaper Volksgazet [nl].^[1]

In 1932, Craeybeckx started to work as a lawyer and entered the world of politics. He became a councillor in Deurne for the Belgian Socialist Party. The same year, he entered the Belgian Parliament, where he would stay until 1968. He was the successor of Willem Eekelers [nl] as mayor of Antwerp in 1947, and remained in that position for nearly thirty years, a record for the city.

When Lode Craeybeckx died in 1976,^[1] the first Alderman Leo Delwaide [nl], Christian democrat and collaborationist mayor of Antwerp under Nazi occupation, took over ad interim, until a new mayor was sworn in. Frans Detiège Alderman for Social Affairs, socialist, and longtime companion of Craeybeckx, fulfilled the position until the end of term. At the 1976 municipal election, the sitting coalition of socialists and Christian democrats were re-elected and Mathilde Schroyens took office as Mayor of Antwerp in 1977.

During his run as mayor, Antwerp was massively changed. The Rijksuniversitair Centrum Antwerpen [nl] (RUCA) university (1965) and the UIA university (1971) were founded (both were merged with the older UFSIA in the University of Antwerp in 2003). The Middelheim, an open-air museum for modern sculptures, was created in 1951. The city got improved traffic infrastructure and the city and Port of Antwerp were massively expanded.^[1]

During this period, many of the older buildings of the city, ranging from the Middle Ages to the 19th century, were replaced by modern high-rise buildings, of which many have been criticized for being bland or ugly.^[1]