About Frère-Orban
The Maison Frère-Orban is the house where Minister Frère- Orban lived until his death in 1896. Frère-Orban was one of the great liberal ministers of the 19th Century in Belgium. Minister for the first time at the age of 35 in 1847, minister of finance and several times prime-minister he remained throughout his 45 year career a most influential politician who defended liberal values and policies.
He fought for the secularism of publicly funded education, created the core financial institutions which remained to this day the pillars of Belgian finance (Banque Nationale, Crédit Communal, Caisse Générale de Retraite, Crédit Foncier), passionately supported free trade abolishing all internal trade barriers, and fought radicalism of right and left while caring about the more vulnerable members of society.