Hardly anyone in Den Bosch remembers who the philosopher Jacob Moleschott was. Still, historian Frans van Gaal thinks he should get a bust in the city where he was born nearly 200 years ago. Moleschott was committed to good food, education and equal opportunities for all. “That was not common at the time,” says Frans. “He was the first to argue for the right to vote for women and the right to divorce.”
Jacob Moleschott was a thinker, scientist and physician who made an international contribution, especially in Italy. Almost two hundred years after his birth, Frans does not think it is surprising that the residents of Bossche do not know him.
“Den Bosch was not much in the nineteenth century. That was a poor town. If you wanted to practice science, you had to leave the city for that. And so he did,” he says. “Moleschott is a big name in Europe, but he left nothing behind in his hometown.”
“I’ve always had a taste for history.”
Because of his love for history and Den Bosch, Frans heard about the philosopher years ago. “I was in the archive of Den Bosch at the end of the 1980s. Then an employee pointed me to Jacob Moleschott, he says. “I have a thing for our city, Italy and history. I could completely agree with Moleschott’s free thinking.”
Frans believes that the philosopher deserves recognition. After his retirement in 2013, he decided to commit himself to a memorial site. “Many of his thoughts and writings are worthy of being a source of inspiration for the city where he was born and raised,” the entrepreneur says with passion. “I hope that more and more people, especially residents of Den Bosch, know who Moleschott was. But above all what he has meant.”
“I want to put a copy of his bust from Rome in Den Bosch.”
Frans did not yet know how the Bossche philosopher should be commemorated. Until a trip to Rome four years ago. “At Universitá Sapienza, where Moleschott was once a professor, I got to know one of his successors. There he showed me a bust of Moleschott,” says Frans. “I want to make a copy of that bust from Rome and put it in Den Bosch. That way you connect cities and history.”
Earlier this year, Frans, together with six philosophers from Brabant, requested the Bossche city council to place a bust. The council approved a memorial for Moleschott on Tuesday evening. In what form is not yet known.