Fredegardus Jacobus Josephus (Jef) van de Wiele (Deurne, Belgium, 20 July 1903 – Bruges, 4 September 1979) was a Belgian Flemish Nazi politician.
[1] Van de Wiele became a staunch admirer of Adolf Hitler and before long Devlag had moved radically to the far right and began to campaign for the incorporation of Flanders into the Third Reich.
[4] At home however he had struggled to gain influence from the far-right but pro-independence Flemish National Union and clashed repeatedly with its leaders Staf De Clercq and Hendrik Elias, who maintained ambiguous attitudes towards the Nazis.
[1] Indeed, he was isolated from the wider Flemish right to such an extent that his closest political ally became Rexist leader Léon Degrelle, with whom he toured Wallonia in 1943.
[1] In December 1944 he was also designated the head of the theoretical "Reichsgau Flandern" and given the nominal title Leider van het Vlaamsche Volk ("Leader of the Flemish People").
[7][8] Joachim von Ribbentrop also recognised van de Wiele as leader of the Vlaamsch Bevrijdingscomité (Flemish Liberation Committee) around the same time.