On July 19, 1941 – 80 years ago today – the BBC World Service began using the first four notes of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 of 1808 as a “linking” device on its broadcasts into Nazi-occupied Europe. Why the BBC chose to use music by a German-born composer, and what those four notes meant makes for quite a story. Although he gets credit for it, Churchill himself didn’t dream the gesture up. Rather, it was “created” by a Belgian politician and government minister named Victor Auguste de Laveleye (1894-1945). After the defeat of Belgium, Laveleye fled to London, where he became the director of and served as an announcer on Radio Belgique – “Radio Belgium” - which broadcast from London back into occupied Belgium. It was in his capacity as director of Radio Belgique that Laveleye made the following announcement to occupied Belgium on January 14, 1941…

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