Disasters together unity in the Netherlands in the 19th century
It is early February 1825. A disastrous combination of storm, spring tide, high inland water and neglected dikes leads to dike breaches and flooding along the Wadden Sea and the Zuiderzee. Almost the entire coast of Gelderland will be under water if, among other things, the sea dike at Kampen breaks. There are 397 deaths, including 29 in and around Elburg. The skipper Menzo Bokhorst lives there. Together with thirty other skippers, he sails into the storm to rescue people from roofs and houses from the cold seawater. Their action earns a hero status.
Six months later, the skippers receive an honorary medal from the Maatschappij tot Nut van ‘t Algemeen as a thank you. The rector of the Latin school, Hendrikus Hoefhamer, also speaks during the ceremony in the Grote or Sint-Nicolaaskerk. “His story about the heroism of the skippers quickly turns into a hymn of praise for the entire Dutch nation, glorifying the steaminess of his compatriots,” says Fons Meijer.
Meijer is a historian. He obtained his doctorate at Radboud University in June for his dissertation Connected door ascending. Disasters and nation building in the 19th century Netherlands. In this, Meijer examines how the Dutch used disasters in the 19th century to give shape and meaning to national feelings. “Hendrikus Hoefhamer was part of an army of disaster publicists in the period 1800 and 1890 that, after many designed disasters, took the opportunity to cultivate the national ideology and invited contemporaries to feel with the nation.”
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What made you look specifically at disasters?
“In research into nation building, political benchmarks and wars are often chosen. For the Netherlands is mainly meant to the French time, when the Netherlands was occupied and part of France. World War II was also such a time when members of a nation were forced into each other’s arms.
“But what if the ‘enemy other’ was not a foreign power, but a dyke breach? In my research I have shown that natural disasters were part of everyday life in the 19th century. This applies in any case to small-scale disasters, for example irregularities often take place. But there were also major disasters every decade. How do people express and shape national situations at such moments? I got a quick idea that if you understand that, you can also dive deeper into how nation building works. Poets, journalists, preachers and authors of commemorative books were the drivers of disaster nationalism.”
How did they do that?
“The national media compositions of local and regional calam national disasters. In the case of Hendrikus Hoefhamer, who sang about the skippers, the heroism was used to tell a greater story: ‘Less by the richness of soil, than by simplicity of manners: less by greatness of power, than by vapors of his hamburgers. less by the glory of arms, than by the schooners or of his benevolence. Happy Netherlands!’ It became a national story about the Damenzame Netherlands.”
“Authors also appropriated the development of kings as father of the nation or protector against calamity. Dutch kings look their best. King William III, for example, was regularly found in flooded areas at the beginning of his reign.”
“Another important image that has been created is that of the Netherlands as a charitable nation. Sermons, speeches and poems constructed the image of the Netherlands as the most charitable nation in Europe and perhaps the world. The image was only a dyke by breaking that of a bus ship to explode somewhere and the Dutch started and collect from their own money.”
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Were they really that charitable?
„I especially want it to be a image used to be. Money was not generally raised. Most of the money came from the west of the country and, at the beginning of the century, especially from the larger cities.”
How did that happen?
“Societal life was organised, people were well developing charity networks. The west had long been the heart of the Netherlands in the 17th and 18th centuries. In the 19th century there was especially strong loyalty with the Dutch state there.”
Were there any groups that were excluded from charity?
“Also that they are so charitable, but why do they collect less money from a colonial in the ien? There were people who said that the money should only go to Christians – Muslims wouldn’t give them anything. Towards the end of the century money was sometimes collected only for Europeans, not the indigenous population.”
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And the core?
“Around the turn of the year 1880/1881 the Meuse flooded for a third time in a short period of time. The dike at the special Nieuwkuijk, a village near ‘s-Hertogenbosch, broke then. Money was collected again, but from various media such as the Arnhem newspaper and orthodox Protestant papers, conspiracy theories were spread. People dykes who have ever stabbed. There was criticism of the amount of money raised. It about certain idea was that there was not applicable anyway. I don’t have many examples of anti-Catholic imagery, but great daily newspapers do emerge and result in public debate.”
I am reminded of the flood in Limburg last year. Did you see parallels with the disaster nationalism of the 19th century?
“I think there was also catastrophic nationalism after the floods in Limburg. There were floods not only in the Netherlands, but also in Belgium and Germany. In fact, there the consequences were much more disastrous. But I came across an ad that mainly featured a Dutch driveway was made. The slogan was: ‘This driveway in Limburg is looking for us all.’ ‘Us’, which referred to the inhabitants of the Netherlands. This also became clear from the way in which the giro number was intended, namely as a Dutch tricolor. The advertisement did not appeal to humanity, but to nationality: we help our compatriots.”