62,000 workers were conscripted as forced labour on local military projects in poor conditions. The deportation of Belgian workers proved insufficient to meet German industrial needs and had little effect economically. Politically, however, it led to widespread condemnation in Belgium and internationally, helping the rise of the resistance. In late 1917, under pressure from neutral powers, most of the Belgian deported workers were returned. Flemish Movement and the Flamenpolitik In the years leading up to the outbreak of the war, the Flemish Movement had become increasingly prominent in Belgian politics. French had traditionally been the dominant language of government and the upper class of Belgian society. After a period of marginalisation, the Flemish Movement succeeded in achieving increased status for Dutch language, one of the movement's chief objectives, culminating in the legal recognition of Dutch as a national language in 1898. In 1914 new laws were passed giving further concessions to the movement, but the outbreak of war meant that their implementation had been postponed. Numerous grievances were left unaddressed. Among the outstanding grievances was the University of Ghent which, though situated in largely Dutch-speaking Flanders, taught exclusively in French. In 1915, the Governor General decided to launch the Flamenpolitik (Flemish Policy) to use the animosity between the two language groups to facilitate the administration of the territory and to portray the occupation regime as the liberation of Flanders. It was also hoped that it would give Germany some form of influence within the neutral Netherlands. The policy was especially advocated by pan-Germanists, like the Alldeutscher Verband, who believed that the Flemish shared racial traits with the Germans that the Walloons did not. The policy achieved support among some demographics, particularly among young Flemish students within the Flemish Movement. Initially, the Flamenpolitik was restricted to implementing the 1914 language laws, but became increasingly more radical. The Germans also reached out to the comparable Walloon Movement, but with much less success. In 1916, the Germans opened a new university in Ghent, dubbed Von Bissing University, in which all teaching was in Dutch. The new university was welcomed by some but encountered opposition from within the Flemish Movement and few ever enrolled in it. The policies divided the Flemish Movement between the radical "activists" (activisten or maximalisten), who welcomed the German measures and believed German support was essential to realising their objectives, and the "passivists" (passivisten), who opposed the Germans and worried