A small but fascinating museum is located in a restored brewery in the village of Koekelare, near Ypres.
It tells the story of Pieter Kollwitz, one of the many young students who joined the German army at the beginning of World War One and died in the ‘Massacre of the Innocents’ on 23-24 October 1914.
The museum displays about 70 works by Pieter’s mother, the expressionist artist Kathë Kollwitz. After the war, overcome with grief, she spent many years struggling to create a sculpture of two grieving parents, modelled on her and her husband. It now stands in Vladslo Cemetery, not far from the museum.
Derek Blyth’s hidden secret of the day: Derek Blyth is the author of the bestselling “The 500 Hidden Secrets of Belgium”. He picks out one of his favourite hidden secrets for The Brussels Times every day.
