The bicultural capital of Brussels was maintained as special district under the authority of a Reichskommissar.
The German High Command hoped to exploit the ethnic tension between the Flemish and Walloons, and envisioned a post-war German protectorate in Flanders, while Wallonia was to be used for industrial materials and labour along with much of northeastern France.
As governor-general von Bissing executed the German Flamenpolitik during which he netherlandized the Ghent University