Eugène Jungers

Eugène Jungers (1888–1958) was a Belgian colonial civil servant and lawyer. Beginning his career in the Belgian Congo as a colonial magistrate, Jungers rose rapidly through the judiciary and became the colonial governor of the League of Nations Mandate of Ruanda-Urundi from 1932 to 1946. In 1946, Jungers was further promoted to Governor-General of the Belgian Congo, the senior administrative position in the colony, which he held from 1946 to 1952.

Jungers was born in Messancy, a small Belgian town on the border with Luxembourg, on 19 July 1888 to a family of Luxembourgish ancestry. He studied at the University of Liège, graduating with a doctorate in Law in 1910.

Joining the Belgian colonial service, Jungers arrived in the Belgian Congo in 1911 where he took up a position as junior magistrate. Posted around the colony, he quickly rose through the ranks of the colonial judiciary. In 1932, he was promoted to the rank of Vice Governor-General and was given responsibility for the Belgian League of Nations mandate of Ruanda-Urundi (modern-day Rwanda and Burundi), replacing Charles Voisin. He held the position until 1946; a tenure which included World War II.

In 1946, Jungers was promoted as the replacement for Pierre Ryckmans as Governor-General of the Belgian Congo, the most important administrative position in the colony. He held the position until 1952 after which he took a board position at the Office des Transports du Congo (OTRACO). He received a noble title in 1956 and died in Brussels in 1958.