Stockholm during the Age of Liberty

Stockholm during the Age of Liberty (1718-1772) is the period in the history of Stockholm when Sweden was governed by weak kings and a strong Riksdag where the Hats and Caps were fighting each other for influence. The Age of Grand Power ended with Great Northern War, the death of Charles XII, the Stockholm treaties of 1719 and 1720.
During 1720–1850 Stockholm was a city in stagnation. Financial resources were during this period being transposed from countryside to cities, which benefited rural areas dominated by free-holding peasants. The Mälaren region, with its many large mansions, lost in influence to the benefit of western Sweden. Welfare dwindled in Stockholm, and more so among the wealthy, which caused social classes to approach each other.
Urban development.
In 1723 a devastating fire destroyed large parts of the parish of the Catherine Church, an event which resulted in the city's first building code in 1725. Produced by City Architect G J Adelcrantz (1668–1739), the assistant of Nicodemus Tessin the Younger, it attempted to improve fire safety by prohibiting wooden buildings in the old town, and ameliorate the city's appearance by implementing the rectangular 17th century city plan.
The royal palace had been ruined by fire in 1697, but as the king lost in influence during the Age of Liberty, the work on the new palace was postponed until 1727. Under the leadership of Carl Hårleman (1700-1753) and Tessin the Younger's son Carl Gustaf Tessin, a group of skilled artists and craftsmen from both Sweden and elsewhere gathered around the royal construction work and the newly founded Academy of Arts which was to be of tremendous importance for the visual arts and architecture during the century that followed.
In 1727, J E Carlberg (1683–1773) was appointed new city architect — a position which he was to hold for almost 50 years, a period marked by dwindling resources and growing needs. As an architect, Carlberg was industrious and designed structures of all sizes all over town, few of which were ever built and considerably less have survived. His most notable surviving deed is the present Baroque exterior of the Storkyrkan church, a product of the reconstruction 1736-42 which amalgamated the appearance of the medieval church with that of the new palace.
As a city planner, Carlberg reworked the building code at several occasions which resulted in wooden buildings being prohibited on the ridges surrounding the medieval city. Notwithstanding these precautions, two devastating fires in the 1750s destroyed large parts of the buildings on the ridges. Some of the structures built following these fires are today, together with Djurgårdsstaden, the best preserved 18th century neighbourhoods in Stockholm. To the straight boulevards proposed by his predecessors, Carlberg added new squares and open spaces surrounded by uniformly designed façades with colours limited to various shades of yellow and grey — still a characteristic of large parts of Stockholm. One of Carlberg's adepts was Erik Palmstedt (1741–1803). Palmstedt was able implemented many of the renewal plans Carlberg have had for the medieval city, including the Stock Exchange Building and the small open space Tyska Brunnsplan, both still preserved. In 1744–53, the area around the Karl Johanslussen sluice was redesigned by an aged Christopher Polhem (1661–1751).
Population.
Following the Treaty of Nystad in 1722, Sweden's roll as a major European power was over, and the decades that followed brought even further disaster; Black death and the sufferings caused by the Great Northern Wars made Stockholm the capital of a shrinking nation, a despair which would deepen even further as Sweden lost Finland in 1809. Notwithstanding Sweden managed to recover with the union with Norway in 1814, during the period 1750–1850 Stockholm was a city in despair with a dwindling population, widespread unemployment, marked by ill-health, poverty, alcoholism, and ramping mortality. While population in Stockholm grew from 60.000 to 90.000 during the period 1750-1850, most of this growth occurred after 1810, and other major cities in southern and western Sweden grew more rapidly, why Stockholm lost much of its hegemony while remaining the largest Swedish city.
There was a surplus of women during the period, not exclusively in Stockholm but more pronounced there, much due to wars and alcohol abuse. A side effect of this was widows outnumbering widowers 6:1 in 1850; and the number of unmarried people increased (not only in Stockholm but in Swedish cities overall.) Falling short of the social security a marriage meant at this time, infant mortality was severe, and as most people who moved into the city were adults, there were few children. average length of life was 44 (compared to 70 today), which mostly reflects the high infant mortality. People who managed to survive infancy were likely to get about as old as people do today, especially if they had the luck to be able to avoid hard labour.
Average household.
The average household was composed of 3,5 individuals, which is very low both in international and national contexts (rural Sweden=4). However, these figures are based on the contemporary notion of a household which excluded children over 16 as they were liable to taxation. With all individuals living together included, households in Stockholm virtually corresponded to those in other Swedish cities. There were local differences as well, with the poorest areas of Södermalm having an average of 5 individuals per household. With a shortage of men, at least 30–40 per cent of household were led by women during the first half of the 19th century. However, in the Katarina district on Södermalm, approximately 70 per cent of households were led by women in 1810, which reflects women there being in majority and older than average. In the wealthier central city districts it was uncommon with women as head of household. In today's old town, an average household included grandparents, a maid or a journeyman, and often a relative — in all 3–4 adults and 1 child; often with a surplus of men. From the mid 19th century, a modernization of employment contracts caused journeymen to set up their own households and throughout the century the number of household including lodgers increased from one to two third, much because of a housing shortage.
Social stratification.
A stratification into three social groups can be made for this era :
Women were associated with their husbands status. However, as craftsmen saw their status sink with the introduction of industrialism, the proletarian class grew during the period. There also was an economic segregation in the city, with the present old town and the lower parts of Norrmalm being the wealthiest (more than 150% above average); and the suburbs (today part of central Stockholm) were poor (50% below average).
Education.
Detailed regulations controlled what items should be produced and sold by the guilds, and what was permitted to be sold by retail sellers. Stockholm compared to other Swedish cities had a varied market with a great variation of craftsmanship. This society was built on the burgher class, they were the only "proper" citizens in Swedish cities, i.e. they were given a franchise ("burskap"), the right to undertake bourgeois activities — trade and craftsmanship — a right tied to an obligation to pay taxes. While the craftsmen's guilds dated back to the 16th century, the trader's societies were largely established during the 18th century. The freedom of trade act of 1846 abolished the guilds which were replaced by crafts associations organizing all craftsmen. Becoming a master craftsman required 3–5 years as an apprentice followed by an examination of a qualifying piece of work. After several years as a journeyman, a masterpiece would be examined by the guild, after which the oath could be sworn before the board of trade; a faith many journeymen would have to wait for many years. In contrast, to become a trader, the act of 1743 required an education of twelve years, an examination period of one year, seven years as a pupil, and four years as a swain at a stall. Manufacturers, however, where not subject for any similar requirements. They had to prove their skills in the trade, but no length of schooling was stipulated.
Social development.
The period saw a new bourgeoisie climb the ranks — the so-called "Skeppsbroadeln" — which made a fortune on the emerging industry and had palaces built on the prestigious quay Skeppsbron and slightly more modest estates on the still rural ridges — many of which has survived in their original states.
Culture and science.
The period also saw several scientific novelties: The masonry heater, developed in 1767, revolutionised heating and Serafimerlasarettet, the first modern hospital in Sweden, was inaugurated just north of the present-day City Hall in 1752. In 1753 the Stockholm Observatory was completed by the newly founded Academy of Sciences.
Trade.
During the 18th century the economic model introduced the previous century was further developed, and Stockholm became the vital centre of trade as governmental departments related to trade were located there: (1) The Mines Authority ("Bergskollegium"), an independent, public authority founded in 1630 and dissolved in 1857 when replaced by the National Board of Trade ("Kommerskollegium"). (2) The "Manufacture Office" ("Manufakturkontoret"), department of the Riksdag of the Estates who gave economic support. i.e. loans and bounties, to manufacturers for the advancement of Swedish trade. The intention with these institutions was to substitute import of expensive goods, such as high-quality textiles, with a domestic production - thus effectively limiting import to raw materials not possible to produce in Sweden, and to keep import of items produced by Swedish manufactures out by means of customs, while promoting import of raw materials needed by the manufactures with bounties and other relieves. Factories were built that could produce goods at a larger scale than traditional handicraft, for example large-scale farming to produce wool of high quality. To this end, rural areas in Sweden (including Finland) were divided into "spinning districts", each of which was controlled by a monopoly often held by a manufacture in Stockholm. During the later part of the 18th century, annually, approximately 6.000 households on the Swedish countryside were busy spinning wool for these manufactures. During the period, Sweden was the dominant producer of top-quality iron and Stockholm remained the most important transit point for iron trade with bar iron from Bergslagen being delivered to the international market by the wealthy wholesalers at Skeppsbron.
Chartered companies.
Following the Greater Wrath, Russian occupation of Finland 1714-21, trade and shipping in Stockholm had virtually ceased to exist with the trade fleet reduced to a hundred vessels of moderate size. Notwithstanding the seemingly hopeless situation, the Age of Liberty (1718–72) was an era of prosperity and prospects. As soon as export could be taken up again, demand for iron, copper, and tar remained constantly high. At the same time, domestic shipping was promoted by lighter custom duties and by a mercantile act introduced in 1724 which limited goods imported by foreign ships to import goods originating from the ship's native country. There was, however, a lack of domestic capital; a shortage solved by cash input from foreign trade houses and wholesale companies in Stockholm and Gothenburg. During the 17th century, traders in Stockholm made several failed attempts to establish chartered companies to promote foreign trade. For example, the Levant Company was founded in 1738 but was however discontinued in the mid-1760s due to limited economic progress. Swedish colonization of St Barthélemy resulted in the creation of the West India Company in 1786; a successful enterprise during the Napoleonic era dissolved in 1805 when free trade bared it from its privileges.
The more successful Swedish East India Company (1731-1813) was, like most of the chartered companies, initiated by traders with a foreign background (Henrich König, Germany; Colin Campbell, Scotland; and Frans Bedoire, France) and its headquarters were located in Gothenburg. The company, however, was of significant importance to Stockholm because of the shipbuilding yards, the trade houses, and the exotic products imported by the company. In order to make the trips financially interesting the ships had to be made large, and to make the trips safe the ships had to be heavily armed. Shipbuilding facilities in Stockholm were adapted to achieve this, and shortly after the foundation of the company a fourth shipyard — "Djurgårdsvarvet" — with suitable capacity was built in Stockholm and in the mid-1730s the oldest shipyard in the city — "Stadens stora skeppsvarv" — was enlarged under a direction which included several of the founding members of the company. The company's whereabouts are difficult to trace due to its secretive nature, but preserved historical records unveils 26 of the company's 37 ships were built at the shipyards in Stockholm, most of them around the 1740s. The ship "Terra Nova", built in 1771 at the large "Terra Nova" shipyard just north of Stockholm, was in service until 1786, and was centuries later used as a prototype for the East Indiaman Götheborg built 1995-2003, and "Götheborg", built at the same shipyard in 1738 and lost in 1745. "Clasons varv", inaugurated in 1725 on Blasieholmen where Vasa was built a century earlier. covered most of the area were today is Nationalmuseum and produced at least four ships for the company. These ships were full-rigged, the shipyards were large employers and dozens of subcontractors in the city were tied to them. Furthermore, before these ships left Stockholm some 100-150 men per ship were recruited, most of them in the city, and as a single trip to China would take 1–2 years the company had a huge impact on Stockholm during this era.


Annelies Maas

Annelies Maas (born January 25, 1960 in Wageningen) is a former freestyle swimmer from the Netherlands, who competed in two consequentive Summer Olympics for her native country, starting in 1976.
At her second Olympic appearance she won the bronze medal in the 4×100 m freestyle relay, alongside Conny van Bentum, Reggie de Jong and Wilma van Velsen. Her best individual finish was the fourth place in the 200 m freestyle at the Montreal Games (1976).


Amsterdam Centraal station

Amsterdam Centraal Station ( ; abbreviation: Asd) is the largest railway station in Amsterdam in North Holland, Netherlands. A major international railway hub, it is used by 192,000 passengers a day, making it the second busiest railway station in the country after Utrecht Centraal and the most visited Rijksmonument of the Netherlands.
National and international railway services at Amsterdam Centraal are provided by NS, the principal rail operator in the Netherlands. Amsterdam Centraal is the northern terminus of Amsterdam Metro routes 51, 53, 54, and stop for 52 operated by municipal public transport operator GVB. It is also served by a number of GVB tram and ferry routes as well as local and regional bus routes operated by GVB, Connexxion and EBS.
Amsterdam Centraal was designed by Dutch architect Pierre Cuypers and opened in 1889. It features a Gothic, Renaissance Revival station building and a cast iron platform roof spanning approximately 40 metres.
Since 1997, the station building, underground passages, metro station, and the surrounding area have been undergoing major reconstruction and renovation works to accommodate the North-South Line metro route, which was opened on 22 July 2018. Amsterdam Centraal has the second longest railway platform in the Netherlands with a length of 695 metres.
History.
Amsterdam Centraal was designed by Pierre Cuypers, who is also known for his design of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. While Cuypers was the principal architect, it is believed that he focused mostly on the decoration of the station building and left the structural design to railway engineers. The station was built by contractor Philipp Holzmann. The new central station replaced Amsterdam Willemspoort Station, which had closed in 1878, as well as the temporary Westerdok Station used from 1878 to 1889. The idea for a central station came from Johan Rudolph Thorbecke, then the Netherlands Minister of the Interior and responsible for the national railways, who, in 1884, laid two proposals before the Amsterdam municipal council. In the first proposal, the station would be situated between the Leidseplein and the Amstel river. In the other, it would be built in the open harbour front allowing for the station to be connected to the existing main lines in the area to the west and the south, but also to a projected new northern line.
Cuypers' design of the station building in many ways strongly resembled his other architectural masterpiece, the Rijksmuseum, of which the construction had begun in 1876. It features a palace-like, Gothic/Renaissance Revival facade, with two turrets and many ornamental details and stone reliefs referring to the capital city's industrial and commercial importance. Cuypers' station reflects the romantic nationalistic mood in the late nineteenth-century Netherlands, with its many decorative elements glorifying the nation's economic and colonial power at the time.
As with the Rijksmuseum, the station's overall architecture reminded many contemporaries of medieval cathedrals. For that reason, as well as for the fact that it became increasingly clear that the national government wanted the station to be built at the city's waterfront effectively separating the city from the IJ lake, the plan was highly controversial. In his book on the history of city, Amsterdam historian Geert Mak writes that:
Almost all of Amsterdam's own experts and others involved thought this to be a catastrophic plan, 'the most disgusting possible attack on the beauty and glory of the capital'. Nevertheless, the building of the Central Station in front of the open harbour was forced through by the railway department of the Ministry of Transport in The Hague, and the Home Secretary, Thorbecke. Finally, the plan made its way through the Amsterdam municipal council by a narrow majority.
Construction works started in 1882. The station is built on three interconnected artificial islands in the IJ lake. These islands were created with sand taken from the dunes near Velsen, which had become available as a result of the excavation of the North Sea Canal. The islands together are known as "Stationseiland" (Station Island). Like many other structures in Amsterdam, the station was built on wooden piles (8,687 pieces). The construction of the station was delayed because of the instability of the soil, which set back the completion of the work by several years. The station building was completed in 1884, but the commission to Cuypers did not include the roofwork of the platforms. Therefore, the station did not yet feature its distinctive station roof. This roof, consisting of 50 curved trusses and a span of almost 45 meters, was designed by L.J. Eijmer, a civil engineer with the private railroad company Staatsspoorwegen. The roof was manufactured by Andrew Handyside and Company of Derby, England. Cuypers did design the decorations for the trusses and the gable ends. On 15 October 1889, the station was officially opened, drawing large numbers of crowds. The visitors were charged 0.25 guilders to see the station; in the first two days after the opening, several dozens of thousands paid. The opening of the central station marked the city's transition from a waterfront city to an inland city, spurring further redevelopment activities in the city centre which included the realignment of streets and the filling up of canals. The waterways would soon be replaced by tramways and cars as the primary modes of transport in the city.
In 1920, the East Wing of the station (the lower end of the building) was demolished and replaced by "The East", a postal service building designed by Cuypers' son Joseph. A second, narrower and longer but similar roof on the north side of the station was completed in 1922. In the 1950s, a pedestrian tunnel was created between the station and the road in front of it, which terminated inside the station. With the construction of the metro tunnel in the late 1970s, both the pedestrian tunnel and the road in front of the station disappeared. In the early 1980s, the central hall and middle tunnel were considerably widened and modernized. In the 1990s, a new signaling post was built on the western side of the station. In addition, the number of tracks on that side was expanded in order to increase capacity in the direction of Sloterdijk station. In 1996, a third, 'centre roof' designed by Jan Garvelink, architect at Holland Rail Consult, was built between the two existing roofs, whereby all platforms at the station were now covered.
Since 1997, the station has been continuously undergoing reconstruction works because of the development of the North-South Line of the Amsterdam Metro, which was originally planned to be completed in 2014. Due to several setbacks, some at the Amsterdam Centraal building site, the line was fully completed in 2018. Construction works at the station include a renovation of the station building, including the reconstruction of original station features which had disappeared over the years, a redevelopment of the "Stationsplein" (Station Square), and a new bus station on the north side of the station. In 2000, the new western passenger tunnel opened replacing the main tunnel in the centre of the station which was shut down enabling the construction of the new metro line. In 2004, platforms 10-15 were extended to accommodate international high-speed rail services. Construction works for the bus station commenced in 2003, opened in 2009 and finished in 2014. It includes the construction of a fourth station roof and a station hall with space for shops and restaurants. It replaces 5 small bus stations and several isolated bus stops across the Station Island. With all buses eventually moving to the new bus station on the north side, the Station Island should only be accessible to pedestrians, cyclists and trams.
The three passenger tunnels underneath the station were upgraded and provided with convenience stores and kiosks. In addition, two new passageways were created enabling the hosting of larger retail stores, geared towards passengers who have more time to spend at the station.
On 4 February 2020, the Minister of Infrastructure and Water Management, Cora van Nieuwenhuizen, and the UK Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps, announced that juxtaposed controls would be established in the station. According to the announcement, starting from 30 April 2020, Eurostar passengers travelling to the UK would clear exit checks from the Schengen Area as well as UK entry checks (conducted by the UK Border Force) in the station before boarding their train (without having to disembark at Brussels-South station, go through the juxtaposed controls there, and re-board the train before continuing their journey to the UK). However, the launch was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The inauguration of juxtaposed controls in the station subsequently took place on 26 October 2020.
Modernisation.
From 2017 there will be further reconstruction works at the station. A number of platforms will be widened making use of the tracks which do not currently have platforms. This means that alterations will be made in the tunnels under the platforms again. Furthermore, the eastern tunnel will be made wider, based on the example of the middle tunnel. The old railway bridges to the east of the station will also be replaced.
Railway services.
Amsterdam Centraal is a terminus station on many historical railway lines in the Netherlands: the Amsterdam–Rotterdam railway (1839), also known as the "Oude Lijn", via Haarlem, Leiden and The Hague (Den Haag); the Den Helder–Amsterdam railway (1865), also known as the "Staatslijn K", from Den Helder to Amsterdam via Alkmaar and Uitgeest; the Amsterdam-Zutphen railway (1874), also known as the "Oosterspoorweg", via Hilversum, Amersfoort and Apeldoorn; the Amsterdam-Elten railway (1856), also known as the "Rhijnspoorweg", via Utrecht and Arnhem; and the Amsterdam-Schiphol railway (1986), also known as the "Westtak Ringspoorbaan".
As of December 2014, Amsterdam Centraal is served by 8 international rail routes and 22 national rail routes.
National rail.
National rail services at the station are provided by NS, the principal rail operator in the Netherlands. NS offers four types of rail service from Amsterdam Centraal: Intercity Direct operating on the HSL-Zuid high-speed rail line, long-distance InterCity services, local "Sprinter" services, and the "Nachtnet" night service.

Railway station layout.
Amsterdam Centraal has 15 tracks, 11 of which are alongside a platform: four island platforms with tracks along the full length on both sides (tracks 4/5, 7/8, 10/11, 13/14); one side platform with one track along the full length (track 15); and one bay platform with two tracks (tracks 1/2). Platforms 2-15 have an A-side (to the west) and a B-side (to the east). This means that there are 21 places where a train can be positioned for passenger access, with scissors crossings in the middle enabling trains to pass each other. Track 1 terminates short of the western end of the station building, which fronts track 2. Tracks 3, 6, 9, and 12 have no platform.
Diagram (platforms are yellow, tunnels are grey, north is up):
Other transport.
Metro services.
Amsterdam Centraal metro station (called "Centraal Station" on the Amsterdam Metro system) opened in 1980. It is the terminus station of three routes: Route 51 (Amsterdam Centraal - Isolatorweg), Route 53 (Amsterdam Centraal - Gaasperplas), and Route 54 (Amsterdam Centraal - Gein). In July 2018, the new Route 52 (Noord Station - Zuid Station) opened.
The metro station is only accessible with an OV-chipkaart smart card, the national fare system for public transport in the Netherlands. Disposable cards for one-hour, one-day or multiple-day use are available at ticket machines in the metro station hall.
As of 2018, the following metro services call at Centraal Station:
Tram services.
Tram services at Amsterdam Centraal are provided from two tram stations on "Stationsplein" (Station Square), situated in front of the station's main entrance. Tram routes 2, 12, 13 and 17 call on the west side ("Westzijde", Platform B) of the square, the other routes call on the east side ("Oostzijde", Platform-A).
Bus services.
City services.
As of July 2018, GVB city bus routes 18, 21 and 22 and 48 depart from the new bus platform G on the lake side of the station ("IJzijde" or 'IJ side').
City nightbuses.
Night bus services operate daily, starting around midnight and running until around 6 AM. From Monday to Thursday, night buses run once per hour. On Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, they run twice per hour. As of December 2014, all night buses depart from platform G on the lake side of the station and call at all main entertainment areas in Amsterdam's city centre, including Leidseplein and Rembrandtplein.
Noord Holland services.
EBS (part of Egged) regional bus services depart from a new bus station on the IJ lake side of the station (beyond platform 15). This can be reached from the main central walkway via escalators. Connexxion bus services depart from the Kamperbrug bus stops on the city centre side of the station.
Ferry services.
Free of charge ferry services from Amsterdam Centraal to the borough of Amsterdam North across the IJ lake depart from the quay on the northern side of the station at the "De Ruijterkade".
Just behind the station is the EYE Film Institute Netherlands, easily accessible with a free ferry.


Sanne van Paassen

Sanne van Paassen (born 27 October 1988) is a Dutch former professional cyclo-cross racing cyclist. In 2011, she won the UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup, after winning the Cyclo-cross Pilsen. She won several silver and bronze medals at the national and European cyclo-cross championships. She won 19 cyclo-cross races in her career.
On the road she became second behind Kirsten Wild in the 2013 Gent–Wevelgem.
She rode her last cross in Oostmalle on 21 February 2016.


Selma Engel-Wijnberg

Selma Engel-Wijnberg (born Saartje "Selme" Wijnberg; 15 May 1922 – 4 December 2018) was one of only two Dutch Jewish Holocaust survivors of the Sobibor extermination camp. She escaped during the 1943 uprising, hid in Poland, and survived the war. Engel-Wijnberg immigrated to the United States from Israel with her family in 1957, settling in Branford, Connecticut. She returned to Europe again only to testify against the war criminals of Sobibor. In 2010 she was in the Netherlands to receive the governmental honor of Knight in the Order of Oranje-Nassau.
Early life.
Wijnberg was born into a Jewish family in Groningen, Netherlands. She was raised in Zwolle, where her parents owned and managed the "Hotel Wijnberg". There she attended local schools. Five days before Wijnberg turned 18, the Germans invaded the Netherlands on 10 May 1940. They soon began persecution of Jews. In September 1942 Wijnberg first hid in Utrecht, and later in De Bilt.
Holocaust years.
While hiding she used the name "Greetje van den Berg". She was rounded up by Nazi forces on 18 December 1942. Two months later she was transferred to Camp Vught, then to the transit Camp Westerbork, and finally deported to Sobibor extermination camp on 9 April 1943, along with 2019 other Jewish men, women and children. She survived the selection at arrival, and was assigned to the "arbeitshaftlinge" unit in Lager II. There she was forced to sort the clothes of gas chamber victims so that they could be sent to German civilians disguised as charitable donations. When guards were looking the other way, she would surreptitiously slash fine items to prevent them from being of use.
In the sorting barracks Wijnberg met her future husband, Chaim Engel (10 January 1916 – 4 July 2003), a Polish Jew from Brudzew, who was six years her senior. They were able to communicate in German. He helped her survive; for instance, when she contracted typhus and was weakened, he carried her to the latrines and helped her rest when the guards weren't looking.
During the revolt in Sobibor on 14 October 1943, Wijnberg and Engel escaped together. She provided Chaim with a knife, with which he stabbed a Nazi guard, and the couple fled under gunfire through the main gate and into the forest. They found shelter with two Polish farmers, named Adam and Stefka, a married couple, whom they paid for hiding them. They survived for nine months in a barn's hayloft until the retreat of Nazi Germany from occupied Poland in July 1944 during Operation Bagration, the Red Army counter-offensive. By that time, Selma was pregnant.
The couple married, and they journeyed through Poland via Chełm and Parczew, where their son Emiel was born, then to Lublin. They crossed the Ukraine by train to Chernivtsi and to Odessa, and soon left by boat for Marseille, France. Chaim had to be smuggled aboard the ship, because Poles were not allowed to go to France. Because of this, Selma was nervous, and couldn't give any breastmilk to her son Emiel. She went to the kitchen, and asked for milk. She got given 'very heavy creamy milk', which she fed to her son. Because of this, the child got ill, and died within 24 hours. His body was buried at sea near Naxos. From Marseille, the couple traveled north by train to Zwolle and returned to Selma's parents' home, Hotel Wijnberg, in the Netherlands.
After the Second World War.
In the Netherlands Chaim and Selma married again on 18 September 1945. The police of Zwolle decided that Selma, by marrying Engel, a Pole, had lost her citizenship and become a Polish citizen. The couple could not be returned to Poland because the latter's government no longer accepted the return of Polish citizens expelled from foreign countries. Officials decided against interning the Engels in a displaced persons camp for foreigners near Valkenswaard because the holding center was full, and Wijnberg was a Dutch native.
While they lived in Zwolle, Engel-Wijnberg gave birth to two more children, a son and a daughter. They set up a velvet fabric and fashion store. In a 2015 interview, she said she and Chaim hated the Netherlands for their treatment after the war, when they tried to deprive her of her nationality and intended to deport them. The family made aliyah (migrated to Israel) in 1951, where they moved several times. However, Engel did not feel comfortable there, so in 1957 they decided to emigrate to the United States. They settled in Branford, Connecticut. They returned to Europe only to testify against the war criminals of Sobibor.
On 12 April 2010, Minister Ab Klink apologized to Engel-Wijnberg for her treatment after the war, on behalf of the Dutch government, during the Westerbork Camp remembrance ceremony. Despite rejecting the apology, Engel-Wijnberg accepted the government's honor of Knight in the Order of Oranje-Nassau. This occasion was the first time since she had left in 1951 that she returned to the Netherlands. Chaim Engel died in Branford, Connecticut in 2003. Engel-Wijnberg died in Branford, Connecticut, on 4 December 2018 at the age of 96.


Tymon de Weger

 Tymon de Weger (b. 1955 in Delft) is a Dutch politician.
De Weger was an Alderman of Enschede, Utrecht and Breukelen.


History of Amsterdam

Amsterdam has a long and eventful history. The origins of the city lie in the 12th century, when fishermen living along the banks of the River Amstel built a bridge across the waterway near the IJ, which at the time was a large saltwater inlet. Wooden locks under the bridge served as a dam protecting the village from the rising IJ waters, which often flooded the early settlement. The mouth of the river Amstel, where the Damrak is now, formed a natural harbor, which became important for trading-exchange from the larger koggeships into the smaller ships that sailed the merchandise deeper into the hinterland.
The oldest document referring to the settlement of "Aemstelredamme" (Amsterdam) 'dam in the river Amstel' comes from a document dated 27 October 1275 CE. Inhabitants of the village were, by this document, exempted from paying a bridge toll in the County of Holland by Count Floris V.
Excavations between 2005 and 2012 found evidence that the origins of Amsterdam are much older than 'only' the twelfth century. During the construction of the Metro "Noord-Zuid lijn" archaeologists discovered, some 30 meters below street level, pole-axes, a stone hammer, and some pottery, all dating from the Neolithic era (New Stone Age). This would mean Amsterdam, or its predecessor would have seen human habitation since about 2600 BCE.
Medieval feudalism.
In 1204, the inhabitants of Kennemer penetrated the first "aggrem Aemestel", the castle at the Amstel dike, thus resulting in the destruction of the house of Gijsbrecht van Aemstel, who, by name of the Bishop of Utrecht, ruled the area. This event was later used by the Dutch poet Joost van den Vondel to write a historical play, the Gijsbrecht van Aemstel, which since then has been staged every first week of the new year.
A hundred years later (1304), his descendant, Gijsbrecht van Aemstel VI, tried to claim his alleged rights over the Amsterdam regions, but found himself and his family banished to Flanders.
A more important year in the history of Amsterdam was 1275. While "Aemstelland" fell under the administrative jurisdiction of the Prince-Bishopric of Utrecht, Count Floris V of the County of Holland -the hindland of Aemstelland, granted traders, sailors and fishermen exemption from tolls. This "Gift Letter" document, dated 27 October 1275, is the oldest recorded usage of the name "Aemstelredamme" - Amsterdam. This meant the inhabitants from the vicinity of "Aemstelredamme" acquired a right to travel freely through the County of Holland without having to pay tolls at bridges, locks, and dams. This was the very start of the later richness of the young evolving city: by not having to pay tolls, traders could sell merchandise, shipped to Aemstelredamme harbour from everywhere (Scandinavia, Denmark, Germany), at a more competitive price in Amsterdam and the hinterland. After the murder of Count Floris V in 1296, "Amstelland" again belonged to the "Sticht". By 1327, the name had developed into "Aemsterdam".
In 1306, Gwijde van Henegouwen, bishop of Utrecht, gave Amsterdam city rights. After his death (1317), Count Willem III inherited the Aemstelland, whereby Amsterdam fell under the County of Holland.
In 1323, Willem III established a toll on the trade of beer from Hamburg. The contacts laid through the beer trade formed the basis for subsequent trade with cities of the Hanseatic league in the Baltic Sea, from where during the 14th and 15th centuries the Amsterdammers increasingly acquired grain and timber. In 1342, Count Willem IV awarded the city "Groot Privilege", which greatly strengthened the position of the city. During the 15th century, Amsterdam became the granary of the northern low countries and the most important trading city in Holland.
According to legend, on 12 March 1345, the miracle of Amsterdam occurred and Amsterdam became an important pilgrimage town. The town grew considerably thanks to the pilgrims. A Roman Catholic procession (Stille Omgang) occurs every year to celebrate the miracle.
Two great fires swept through the city in 1421 and 1452. After the second, when three quarters of the city were destroyed, Emperor Charles decreed that new houses were to be built from stone. Few wooden buildings remain from this period, a notable example being the "Het Houten Huys" ("The Wooden House") at the Begijnhof.
Religious strife and revolt.
In the first half of the 16th century, with the appearance of Protestant Reform, an important Mennonite (usually called Anabaptist) community formed in Amsterdam. Religious tension grew throughout the Empire until in 1534 the anabaptists of Munster rebelled and emperor Charles V decreed a persecution of all members of this church. In two years, the authorities of Amsterdam executed 71 mennonites and exiled many others. Executions would continue more sporadically until the 1550s.
The second half of the 16th century brought a rebellion of the Low Countries against the Hapsburg king Philip II of Spain. The uprising was mainly caused by the lack of political power for the local nobility and by the religious conflict between Protestants and Catholics, the latter supported by the Crown. Although Amsterdam began the war on the Crown's side, it changed sides with the Alteratie of 1578 and gave its support to William I of Orange. The rebellion led to the Eighty Years' War and eventually Dutch independence.
One of the results of the uprising was that Amsterdam enjoyed a certain degree of religious tolerance. Officially, only Calvinist worship was permitted, but in practice Catholic "clandestine churches" at private homes were tacitly tolerated, as were Lutheran and Mennonite ones. In the city, a large Roman Catholic minority remained, but the majority of the people belonged to the Calvinist Reformed Church and other Protestant denominations. However, the holding of any public office was restricted to members of the official Reformed Church.
During these years religious wars raged throughout Europe and many people fled to the Dutch Republic and Amsterdam, where they sought refuge. Wealthy Jews from Spain and Portugal, Protestants from Antwerp and the Huguenots from France sought safety in Amsterdam.
The "Golden Age" (1585–1672).
The 17th century was Amsterdam's Golden Age. Ships from the city sailed to North America, Indonesia, Brazil, and Africa and formed the basis of a worldwide trading network. Amsterdam's merchants financed expeditions to the four corners of the world and they acquired the overseas possessions which formed the seeds of the later Dutch colonies. The most influential of these merchant groups was the Dutch East India Company, founded 1602, which became the first multi-national corporation to issue stocks to finance its business. By allowing for sailors to invest in the cargo that they transported, it created an incentive for individual laborers to be vested in the goods they carried and tightened allegiances to corporations outcomes where before they sailor was a migratory agent. Rembrandt painted in this century, and the city expanded greatly around its canals during this time. Amsterdam was the most important point for the transshipment of goods in Europe and it was the leading financial center of the world.
Government by regents.
By the mid-1660s Amsterdam had reached the optimum population (about 200,000) for the level of trade, commerce and agriculture then available to support it. The city contributed the largest quota in taxes to the States of Holland which in turn contributed over half the quota to the States General. Amsterdam was also one of the most reliable in settling tax demands and therefore was able to use the threat to withhold such payments to good effect.
Amsterdam was governed by a body of regents, a large, but closed, oligarchy with control over all aspects of the city's life, and a dominant voice in the foreign affairs of Holland. Only men with sufficient wealth and a long enough residence within the city could join the ruling class. The first step for an ambitious and wealthy merchant family was to arrange a marriage with a long-established regent family. In the 1670s, one such union, that of the Trip family (the Amsterdam branch of the Swedish arms makers) with the son of Burgomaster Valckenier, extended the influence and patronage available to the latter and strengthened his dominance of the council. The oligarchy in Amsterdam thus gained strength from its breadth and openness. In the smaller towns, family interest could unite members on policy decisions but contraction through intermarriage could lead to the degeneration of the quality of the members. In Amsterdam, the network was so large that members of the same family could be related to opposing factions and pursue widely separated interests. The young men who had risen to positions of authority in the 1670s and 1680s consolidated their hold on office well into the 1690s and even the new century.
Amsterdam's regents provided good services to residents. They spent heavily on the water-ways and other essential infrastructure, as well as municipal almshouses for the elderly, hospitals and churches. The regents favoring of private investment also helped to raise standards of living, as construction of commercially viable and advanced windmills brought more efficient factories for refining goods and irrigation pumps to the region, allowing for one of the earliest industrial driven economies.
Amsterdam's wealth was generated by its commerce, which was in turn sustained by the judicious encouragement of entrepreneurs whatever their origin. This arrangement was supported by low interest-rates to private businesses, whereas communities governed by monarchies at the time sought to siphon profits. This open-door policy has been interpreted as proof of a tolerant ruling class. But toleration was practiced for the convenience of the city. Therefore, the wealthy Sephardic Jews from Portugal were welcomed and accorded all privileges except those of citizenship, but the poor Ashkenazi Jews from Eastern Europe were far more carefully vetted and those who became dependent on the city were encouraged to move on. Similarly, provision for the housing of Huguenot immigrants was made in 1681 when Louis XIV's religious policy was beginning to drive these Protestants out of France; no encouragement was given to the dispossessed Dutch from the countryside or other towns of Holland. The regents encouraged immigrants to build churches and provided sites or buildings for churches and temples for all but the most radical sects and the native Catholics by the 1670s (although even the Catholics could practice quietly in a chapel within the Beguinhof).
Immigration.
During the 17th and 18th century, Amsterdam was a city where immigrants formed the majority. Most immigrants were either Lutheran Protestant Germans, French Huguenots, or Portuguese/Spanish Jews. There was also an influx of Flemish refugees following the fall of Antwerp.
The enormous impact of German immigration can be seen nowadays in the surnames, which are often German. The integration of immigrants was smooth. It was not hard to find work as a craftsman, but craftsmen were forced to join guilds, to serve in the city patrol and to cooperate in the local district to compete with other districts. These were powerful institutions that resulted in quick integration, especially since all these institutions were mainly filled with immigrants or children of immigrants. The city council of Amsterdam consisted of people with all kinds of backgrounds: Dutch, German, Flemish, French, Scottish.
Another group of people who immigrated to Amsterdam from the 16th century to the 19th century was the Armenians. The Armenians were famous traders; their trading network stretched from the far east (Manila, India, Nepal, Iran) All the way to Europe and, most notably, Amsterdam. The Armenians mainly traded Iranian silk, which they had a monopoly over. Iranian silk was very popular in Amsterdam; hence, it made the Armenian community very wealthy, and the Armenians flourished in Amsterdam.
Amsterdam was known for religious and ethnic tolerance, where they welcomed people from all over the world. Hence, it made Amsterdam a hotspot for Armenians.
Although Armenian traces in the Netherlands go back to the 4th century, Armenian merchants started appearing on mass in the 12th century, and the highest numbers were in the 17th century. The Armenian traders imported and exported almost everything, selling spices, gold, pearls, diamonds, and silk to the Dutch and buying yellow amber from them, which they sold in Smyrna.
Due to religious and ethnic tolerance, the Armenians built their own churches, cultural centers, schools, universities, and printing presses in Amsterdam and the rest of the Netherlands. These churches and cultural centers exist to this day.
In response to Dutch generosity, the Armenians integrated into their society very smoothly, and they became part of its society. The Armenians even played a significant role within the Dutch Resistance during WW2. However, nearly all of the Armenian soldiers were executed by the Germans. The Dutch government has commemorated these brave Armenians by erecting a memorial in Zeeland (Middelharnis).
A Dutch writer has said in De Amsterdammer, a magazine of the date of August 14, 1887, that:
“The story of the Armenian community is a golden page in the history of the city of Amsterdam.”
Plague.
However, the city's trading status meant it suffered from an outbreak of bubonic plague from 1663 to 1666, supposed to have come from Algiers to Amsterdam. (The plague also broke out in the trading center of London in June 1665.) Though it had little initial effect, the impact grew in autumn 1663 and in 1664. The wife and youngest daughter of well known collector of paintings Jan J. Hinlopen, as well as Rembrandt's partner Hendrickje Stoffels, fell victim to it that autumn. According to Samuel Pepys, for a few weeks at the end of 1663, ships from Hamburg and Amsterdam were quarantined for thirty days. In 1664, 24,148 people were buried in Amsterdam. More than 10% of the population died in this period - everybody that came into contact with the plague was at risk. At the time people assumed the plague was caused by the digging of new canals.
Surprisingly, tobacco smoke was regarded as an effective prophylactic against the plague. With the prospect of the plague, as well as war with England looming, the English ambassador commented in May 1664: "there are dead this last week to the number 338 at Amsterdam and if the plague thus increases within, and a warre with His Majestie without, there will be little need of that vast new towne which they are making there". Rich people left the cities to avoid the disease, but in the worst week of the pandemic of 1664, in Amsterdam there were 1,041 burials compared with 7,000 in the late summer of 1665 in London, a city twice its size. The mayors warned the population that eating salad, spinach or prunes could be unhealthy. The vroedschap shut the theatre, allowing performances to resume only in 1666, though Jan J. Hinlopen's own death in 1666 is ascribed to the plague. Sailors on ships out to sea were relatively safe.
Decline and modernization.
The 18th and early 19th centuries saw a decline in Amsterdam's prosperity. The wars of the Dutch Republic with the United Kingdom and France took their toll on Amsterdam. During the Napoleonic wars, Amsterdam's fortunes reached their lowest point; however, with the establishment of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1815, things slowly began to improve. In Amsterdam, new developments were started by people like Samuel Sarphati who found their inspiration in Paris.
At the end of the 19th century, the Industrial Revolution reached Amsterdam. The Amsterdam-Rijn kanaal was dug to give Amsterdam a direct connection to the Rhine and the Noordzee kanaal to give the port a connection with the North Sea. Both projects improved communication with the rest of Europe and the world dramatically. They gave the economy a big boost.
The industrial revolution led to a huge influx of worker migrants from the Dutch countryside into the city of Amsterdam. This occurred during the rise of socialism in Amsterdam. The Dutch authorities tried to destroy socialism by treating socialists with violence. During the 1880s and 1890s, fights between the police and the socialists occurred on a weekly basis. A notorious event was the Palingoproer (eel riots) in 1886, when 26 demonstrators were killed by the army after the police were unable to control a riotous crowd of men watching an outlawed game of eel-pulling. Another was the Orange riots of 1887, which included the destruction of a socialist pub by orangists and the arrest of the defending socialists, while the organists were not punished at all. The most popular socialist leaders of the 1890s were those who had been in jail most of the time. One socialist was so angry with the police, that he tried to kill the chief superintendent of the police. He shot a hole in the hat of the superintendent and was sentenced to many years in jail after being beaten up by policemen. After his release, he was welcomed as a hero during a parade with a laurel wreath on his head, while people were crying in the crowded streets filled with workers from Amsterdam.
The end of the 19th century is sometimes called Amsterdam's second Golden Age. New museums, the Centraal Station and the Concertgebouw were built. Also built was the Stelling van Amsterdam, a unique ring of 42 forts and land that could be inundated to defend the city against an attack. Amsterdam's population grew significantly during this period.
20th century.
During World War I, the Netherlands remained neutral, but Amsterdam suffered the effects of the war when food became scarce. When working-class women started to plunder a ship with army supplies, the military was brought in. Workers joined their wives in the plundering and the soldiers opened fire on them. Six people were killed and almost 100 were wounded.
During the interwar period, the city continued to expand, most notably to the west of the Jordaan district in the Frederik Hendrikbuurt and surrounding neighbourhoods.
In 1932, a dike separating the Zuider Zee from the North Sea, the Afsluitdijk, was completed. The Zuider Zee was no more. The new lake behind the dyke was called IJsselmeer. For the first time in its history, Amsterdam had no open communication with the sea.
During World War II, German troops occupied the city. More than 100,000 Jews were deported, famously including Anne Frank, almost completely wiping out the Jewish community. Before the war, Amsterdam was the world's center for the diamond trade. Since this trade was mostly in the hands of Jewish businessmen and craftsmen, the diamond trade essentially disappeared.
Amsterdam made a bid for the 1952 Olympic Games (summer games) but was unsuccessful. The games went to Helsinki.
During the 1970s, the number of foreign immigrants, primarily from Suriname, Turkey, and Morocco, grew strongly. This increase led to an exodus of people to the 'growth cities' of Purmerend, Almere and other cities near Amsterdam. However, neighbourhoods like the Pijp and the Jordaan, which had previously been working class, became sought out places of residence for the newly wealthy yuppies and students. Amsterdam that used to be a poor city in the Netherlands turned into an economically rich city thanks to the new economical trend towards a service-economy instead of an industrial economy.
In 1992, an El Al cargo plane crashed in the Bijlmermeer in Amsterdam Zuidoost. This disaster, called the "Bijlmerramp", caused the death of at least 43 people.
At the beginning of the millennium, social problems such as safety, ethnic discrimination, and segregation between religious and social groups began to develop. 45% of the population of Amsterdam has non-Dutch parents. Large social groups are people from Surinam, the Dutch Antilles, Morocco and Turkey. Amsterdam is characterized by its (perceived) social tolerance and diversity. The social tolerance was endangered by the murder of Dutch film-maker Theo van Gogh on 2 November 2004 by a Mohamed Bouyeri, an Islamic fundamentalist. The mayor of Amsterdam, Job Cohen, and his alderman for integration Ahmed Aboutaleb formulated a policy of "keeping things together" which involves social dialogue, tolerance and harsh measures against those who break the law.
Social struggles.
The cultural revolution of the 1960s and 1970s made Amsterdam the "magisch centrum" (magical center) of Europe. The use of soft drugs was tolerated and this policy made the city a popular destination for hippies. The period 1966–1986, however, was described by Geert Mak as the "twenty years' urban war" ("twintigjarige stadsoorlog"): an extended period of social struggle between the city's radical youth and its government. The war started with the appearance of the local anarchist movement, Provo, so called because it liked to provoke authorities and bourgeois society with (non-violent) "happenings" and Dada-inspired absurdism. The Amsterdam police struck back at Provo with force; Mak explains the extreme police violence by reference to events in the direct aftermath of World War II, when the resistance proved unable to replace the Nazi-friendly head of police with their own candidate, thus leaving police power in authoritarian hands.
After the disbanding of Provo, new movements arose, including the green Kabouters and the squatters' movement. The latter raised the question of "who owns the city" and took direct action to show their stance on this issue, opposing speculators' claims to land in the face of housing deficits. Tensions escalated to the point where the army was called in to clear streets of barricades and in 1980, street fights took place in the center between police and large numbers of squatters and their sympathizers, at the very moment that Queen Beatrix's coronation was taking place inside the New Church on Dam square - see Amsterdam coronation riots for more. The loss of public sympathy stemming from this event eventually led to the downfall of the squatter movement, and by the mid-1980s it was effectively marginalized.
21st century.
In the early years of the twenty-first century, the Amsterdam city center successfully attracted large numbers of tourists by means of campaigns such as I Amsterdam. Between 2012 and 2015, 3000 hotel rooms were built, Airbnb added another 11.000 accommodations and the annual number of visitors rose from 10 million to 17 million. Real estate prices have surged, making the center unaffordable for the city's inhabitants, while local shops are making way for tourist-oriented ones. These developments have evoked comparisons with Venice, a city already overwhelmed by the tourist influx.
Construction of a metro line connecting the part of the city north of the IJ to the center was started in 2003. The project is controversial because its cost exceeded its budget by a factor three by 2008, because of fears for damage to buildings in the center, and because construction had to be halted and restarted multiple times.
Since 2014, renewed focus has been given to urban regeneration and renewal, especially to areas directly bordering the city center such as Frederik Hendrikbuurt. This urban renewal and expansion of the traditional center of the city is part of the Structural Vision Amsterdam 2040 initiative.
Cultural life.
In the 15th and 16th century, cultural life in Amsterdam consisted mainly of festivals. During the later part of the 16th century, Amsterdams Rederijkerskamer (Chamber of Rhetoric) organized contests between different Chambers in the reading of poetry and drama. In 1638, Amsterdam got its first theatre. Ballet performances were given in this theatre as early as 1642. In the 18th century, French theater became popular. Opera could be seen in Amsterdam from 1677, first only Italian and French operas, but in the 18th century German operas. In the 19th century, popular culture was centered on the Nes area in Amsterdam (mainly vaudeville and music hall). The metronome, one of the most important advances in European classical music, was invented here in 1812 by Dietrich Nikolaus Winkel. At the end of this century, the Rijksmuseum and Gemeentelijk Museum were built. In 1888, the Concertgebouworkest was established. With the 20th century came cinema, radio, and television. Though the studios are in Hilversum and Aalsmeer, Amsterdam's influence on programming is very strong. After World War II popular culture became the dominant cultural phenomenon in Amsterdam.
History of the municipality.
When the municipality was created during the French occupation, it covered the city (then consisting of only the central part inside the canals) and the immediate surroundings, less than 10% of the current municipality. When the city grew, it annexed several neighbouring municipalities:
In 1995, the national government proposed the creation of a 'city province', consisting of Amsterdam and neighbouring towns. This proposal was rejected by the people in a referendum. The opposition was not so much against creating the city province as it was against the splitting of the city into parts. Opposers feared this would destroy the city's cohesion. After the referendum, the city province proposal was shelved. Nevertheless, since 1995, city parts have gradually become more autonomous, and neighbouring towns have been drawn into the city, politically and economically. In a sense, the city province has arrived in the form of 'Greater Amsterdam'.


Jos Klijnen

Jos Klijnen (7 January 1887 – 5 January 1973) was a Dutch architect. His work was part of the architecture event in the art competition at the 1924 Summer Olympics.


Otto Pfeilizer-Frank

Baron Otto Wilhelm Hermann von Pfeilitzer gen. Franck, sometimes referred to as "Otto Romanovich Franck" or "Otto Romanovich Pfeilitzer-Franck" (, February 29, 1788 – March 9, 1844) was a Russian statesman, the 6th governor of Taganrog.
Biography.
Otto von Pfeilitzer-Franck was christened on February 29, 1788 (Old Style), born into the family of Hermann Casimir von Pfeilitzer-Franck and Caroline von Schlippenbach. He was educated at the First Cadet Corps ("Первый кадетский корпус"), which he finished in October, 1806 in the rank of a warrant officer and enrolled into the 8th Yeger regiment ("8-й Егерский полк"), but later in December transferred into the Akhtyrka hussar regiment ("Ахтырский гусарский полк").
Napoleonic wars.
Otto's regiment participated in the 1807 War against Napoleon Bonaparte, and the officer was awarded with an Order of St. Stanislaus of 3rd degree. During Napoleon's invasion of Russia Otto von Pfeilitzer-Franck participated at the Battle of Borodino for which he was awarded with an Order of St. Vladimir of 4th degree, also at the Battle of Brienne and Battle of La Rothiere for which he received an Order of St. Anna of 2nd degree. September 4, 1815 he was promoted to the rank of staff-captain (of cavalry) (штабс-ротмистр) of a corps stationed in France and aide-de-camp to Russian general Count Mikhail Semyonovich Vorontsov.
Further military career.
August 1, 1816 von Pfeilitzer-Franck was assigned to a dragoon regiment in Tver, and in December 1817 to Leib Guards of the dragoon regiment and was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel. July 21, 1822 he was appointed aide-de-camps to Governor-General of Novorossiysk, Count Mikhail Semyonovich Vorontsov, and assigned as Rittmeister to Leib Guards of uhlan regiment; July 14, 1823 was promoted to the rank of colonel by Count Vorontsov.
Government work.
February 3, 1829 von Pfeilitzer-Franck was made official for important missions ("чиновник для особых поручений") by the Governor-General of Novorossiysk and Bessarabia. This was the time of a plague epidemic in the South of Russia, and Baron was charged with the mission of preventing its further spread and complete extinction. In 1830 he was awarded with an Order of St. Stanislaus of 1st degree for success in fighting the epidemic, and in 1830 - 1831 he was the president of the preventive committee in Kherson and Odessa, fighting the cholera epidemic.
August 12, 1831 Baron Otto von Pfeilitzer-Franck was appointed Governor (civil) of Yekaterinoslav, and on June 4, 1832 - Governor of Taganrog. The Taganrog Government at that moment comprised the cities of Rostov on Don, Nakhichevan and Mariupol. He was also appointed as the chief administrator ("главный попечитель") of the merchant vessels' navigation in the Azov Sea, and head of the Taganrog Customs district. In 1834 he was awarded with an Order of St. Anna of 1st degree. He remained at all of these posts until October 20, 1843, when he gave his resignation.
Relatives and friends.
Otto's brother, Friedrich Otto Karl von Pfeilitzer-Franck (1786-?) was the councillor and a long-time leader of the nobility in the Yekaterinoslav Governorate (from February 12, 1838 until 1851).
Otto von Pfeilitzer-Franck was acquainted with Alexander Pushkin in Odessa, and was mentioned twice in the 2-volume collection of Pushkin's letters.


Provincial-Lecture


Wubbo de Boer

Wubbo de Boer (born 27 May 1948, Amsterdam, died 20 April 2017) was a Dutch civil servant.
He has held several posts as Director General of Civil Aviation, and of Transport Policy in the Dutch Ministry of Transport. He was also Director General of Competition policy and also for Service Industry and Consumer Protection, as well as for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises in the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs. He has also been president from 2000 to 2010 of the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM), the European Union body in charge of trademarks and designs and based in Alicante, Spain.
He was educated at the University of Amsterdam (1966–1971).


Sharon Dijksma

Sharon Alida Maria Dijksma (born 16 April 1971) is a Dutch politician serving as Mayor of Utrecht since 2020. A member of the Labour Party (PvdA), she previously was a State Secretary at the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science from 2007 to 2010, at the Ministry of Economic Affairs from 2012 to 2015 and at the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment from 2015 to 2017, as well as an alderwoman of Amsterdam from 2018 until 2020.
Biography.
She was a member of the House of Representatives from 23 March 2017 until 30 May 2018. From 3 November 2015 until 26 October 2017 she was the State secretary of the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment succeeding to Wilma Mansveld who resigned from the position; from 18 December 2012 to 3 November 2015 she was the State secretary of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, dealing with agriculture, nature, food quality, tourism, and postal affairs. Therefore, Dijksma was allowed to use the ministerial title "Minister for Agriculture" while on foreign business. Before that she was an MP from 17 June 2010 to 19 September 2012. She focused on matters of traffic, water management and home affairs.
Dijksma was the State secretary for Education, Culture and Science in the Fourth Balkenende cabinet from 2007 to 2010. From 1994 to 2007, she was a member of the House of Representatives. When, on 16 May 1994, Dijksma became an MP, her age was 23 and she was the youngest MP ever in Dutch parliamentarian history. In 1991 she became secretary general of the Young Socialists. From 1992 to 1994 she was chairwoman of the Young Socialists ("Jonge Socialisten").
Dijksma studied law at the University of Groningen and public administration at the University of Twente but did not finish her studies.


Microsoft Development Center Norway

Microsoft Development Center Norway (before 2010 known as Fast Search & Transfer ASA (FAST)) is a Norwegian company based in Oslo. FAST focuses on data search technologies. It had offices located in Germany, Italy, Sri Lanka, France, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, Brazil, Mexico and other countries around the world. The company was founded in 1997.
On April 24, 2008, Microsoft acquired FAST. FAST is now known as Microsoft Development Center Norway.
FAST offered an enterprise search product, FAST ESP. ESP is a service-oriented architecture development platform which is geared towards production searchable indexes. It provided a flexible framework for creating ETL applications for efficient indexing of searchable content. Fast also offered a number of search-derivative applications, focused on specific search use cases, including publishing, market intelligence and mobile search. The Search Derivative Applications (SDA) are built upon the Enterprise Search Platform (ESP). The company was developing PHAROS, a new European multimedia search engine.
Technology.
Solutions.
FAST delivers real-time search and business intelligence solutions, and currently has about 3,600 implementations. They offer a core search platform, FAST ESP, and develop solutions on top of the platform. FAST's solutions are used in three areas; external (online and mobile), internal (information access and discovery) and OEM (embedded in other vendor's solutions).
Some examples of their applications are:
Technology ownership.
FAST uses complementary technologies from BBN Technologies for speech recognition and Stellent (now part of Oracle) for the conversion of different file formats.
As of 2007, FAST was being sued by a company which claims FAST, as well as Google, Yahoo, Facebook and other major web companies stole its technology.
Research projects.
Information Access Disruptions.
Information Access Disruptions (iAD) is a Research Centre funded by the Research Council of Norway and the centre's partners. The host institution is FAST, and the Research Centre Manager is Dr. Bjørn Olstad, adjunct professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and Chief Technology Officer of FAST. iAd seeks to identify opportunities and develop the next generation search engines that can extract user-friendly information from vast and complex amounts of data. iAd also facilitates interaction between international content and technology suppliers.
Norwegian partners are the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, the University of Oslo, the University of Tromsø, the Norwegian School of Management, Schibsted and Accenture. International partners are Cornell University, University College Dublin and Dublin City University.
PHAROS.
The European Commission (EC) is funding the research project “The Platform for Search of Audiovisual Resources Across Online Spaces” (PHAROS). The mission of PHAROS is to transform audiovisual search from a point-solution search engine model to an integrated search platform paradigm, incorporating future user and search requirements as key design principles.
History.
1997–1999: Development.
FAST was founded in 1997, and the initiation of the company stems from the Department of Computer and Information Science at NTNU. Professor Arne Halaas at NTNU was a substantial contributor in the early days of FAST. John M. Lervik, a student from NTNU, was one of the first employees at FAST. He took his doctorate under the supervision of Professor Tor A. Ramstad and eventually became the company's CEO, until January 2009.
During 1998 and 1999, FAST announced strategic alliances with Lycos, Dell and TIBCO, and the first commercial launch of products took place in 1999.
2000–2003: Commercialization.
During 2000, FAST announced several new European and US customers and partners. The company's IPO took place in June 2001, and FAST is publicly traded on the main board of the Oslo Stock Exchange (OSE) under the ticker symbol 'FAST'. The company continued over the next couple of years to announce new contracts with customers and partners such as eBay, IBM, BEA, Microsoft, Telus, Elsevier, and Broadvision. FAST was ranked number three on the 2002 Deloitte Technology Fast 500, a ranking of the 500 fastest-growing technology companies in Europe.
In 2003, FAST decided to focus on enterprise search, and sells their Internet division, including FAST Web Search, FAST PartnerSite and AlltheWeb.com, to Overture Services, Inc. (later acquired by Yahoo!).
2004–2007: Expansion.
In January 2004, FAST introduced the FAST Enterprise Search Platform (FAST ESP.) to the market. During the following three years, FAST expanded its geographical reach by opening new offices in Asia, Middle East, Latin America and Africa, extended its partnership relations through the introduction of the FAST X10 partner program, and introduced new solutions aimed specifically at certain business areas, like FAST ImPulse for eCommerce and FAST AdVisor for Internet yellow pages and portals.
The company was for the first time placed in the Leader's Quadrant of the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Information Access Technology in 2004, and stayed in the Leader's Quadrant over the next years as well. The company almost quadrupled its revenues from 2003 (US$42M) to 2006 ($162M).
FAST acquired Convera's RetrievalWare in August 2007 for US$23 million.
Fast's Q4 2007 Intra-quarterly update gave enterprise as 30% of its business (page 17). Its Q3 2007 enterprise licence revenues at less than $4M made it one of the less significant players in enterprise search market.
More recent developments.
On July 30, 2007, FAST announced a reduction in revenue of 40% due to changes in financial controls on revenue recognition. It had been forecasting US$55M of Q2 2007 revenue and profitability; in a statement on the company's website it revealed revenue would be reduced to US$35M and it would be unprofitable. According to the company it had been recognizing revenue without signed contracts using Memoranda of Understanding. The shares fell 28% to hit a three-year low.
This and other issues around lack of customer payment were raised by Goldman Sachs in a report June 2007 by Moawalla. Finansavisen newspaper on August 6, 2007 ran an article entitled "FAST under investigation again" reporting on an ongoing investigation by the unit of The Financial Supervisory Authority of Norway ("Kredittilsynet") that oversees all listed companies’ financial reporting. On August 8 the company reported actual Q2 2007 numbers with revenue US$34.1M (license sales down 41% sequentially and 24% y on y) and operating loss US$38M. As a result of this the company has announced that it will implement a layoff program of 20% of all staff, reducing the quarterly operational cost base in excess of US$12M, as it tries to return to profitability. It expects to be unprofitable until 2008.
On September 5, 2007, FAST signed a deal with the Walt Disney Company's Parks and Resorts Online for the Fast Enterprise Search Platform including software licenses, maintenance fees and other services. On September 7, 2007 FAST informed investors in their quarterly update that the predicted losses for Q3 would rise again to over $60M and that they would be concentrating remaining resources on the 'Monetization' or ad serving business served by their Ad Momentum platform. The defocussing on their older areas and concentration on their new market area was welcomed by the financial market.
Q3 2007 Results.
Fast also received a further blow when a major customer Schibsted said they had made a too risky decision in choosing to implement their own web search engine and were changing their strategy.
Investors and customers were hoping that the company would announce new accounting and quality controls in its Q3 report to reverse the slide. However, Fast, on 30 October, reported a loss of $100M (up from the expected $60M loss) in the quarter with another collapse of licence revenue down 55% year on year showing significant loss of software market share. The operation of the company as a software company rather than a services company was questioned by the gross margin falling to 67% from 83% a year earlier. The issues with customer non payment of bills by customers continued with $26M of debtors being written off.
Board of Directors.
The conduct of Fast's directors has been the subject of much comment in Norway, with one director resigning and another making public statements about other directors and major shareholders. Fast's board member Robert Keith said in a newspaper interview, "I ought to have seen the problems in Fast earlier. And I ought to have understood that Hans Gude Gudesen is a crazy liar. Also, I ought have shot Oystein Stray Spetalen the first time I met him. That would have helped a lot of people, says the controversial Brit to the paper Finansavisen." Spetalen and Hans Gude Gudesen are both major shareholders in Fast. Furthermore, directors Keith and Fussel are allegedly being pursued by the Norwegian tax authorities for US$50M in unpaid taxes the government says it is owed by them. In the event of non payment liability may fall on the company.
The ongoing turmoil has seen 3 directors resign from the board in the last month, the latest being Johan Fredrik Odfjell who is quoted in the company's release as saying "FAST faces many challenges and opportunities going forward".
On December 22, Orkla, FAST's largest shareholder, demanded an extraordinary general meeting to force Fussel and Keith off the board.
Need to Restate Accounts for 2006 and 2007.
On 12 December 2007, the Oslo Stock Exchange suspended trading of FAST shares. The next morning the company announced it was reviewing the accounting utilized for the 2006 and 2007 reports with a likely outcome that this would be changed. In an article titled "Fast restates its accounts" www.dagensit.no stated that Fast's results for 2006 and 2007 may be restated in what it called "another clean up round."
It also stated "The Search technology vendor Fast Search & Transfer have had several rounds with restating of accounts." Also after CFO Joseph Lacson some months ago declared that “everything is cleaned up”, one has found skeletons in the closet. Wednesday afternoon trading was suspended, after what the stock exchange called “certain conditions”.
Now the company flags that they will review their accounts, both for 2006 and 2007. Fast declares that they are performing a thorough review of revenue and depreciation both for closing of 2007, and adjustments of 2006 results." The shares fell around 7% on the news.
Microsoft acquisition.
On 8 January 2008, it was announced that the board of Fast had unanimously accepted a $1.2 billion takeover offer from Microsoft. Microsoft has secured the backing of Fast's two largest institutional shareholders, Orkla and Hermes Focus Asset Management Europe.
As of 24 April, 97.37% of all Fast shares are controlled by MACS Holdings Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft Corp. The stock was delisted from Oslo Stock Exchange May 16, 2008.
As more information is coming to light about the major restatement of the accounts it is being reported that Microsoft may not have completed its due diligence correctly.
On 26 November 2008, it was reported that FAST Search laid off 25 employees as a result of the acquisition by Microsoft.
On 2 December 2009, Microsoft Sells Part Of Fast Search To Rocket Software. Microsoft was selling Fast's Folio and NXT businesses to Rocket Software; the complementary products were application suites used by businesses to publish and index reference material onto discs, network workstations, and online.
Criminal Investigation.
On 24 May 2008, Norwegian news website E24.no reported that the Financial Supervisory Authority of Norway had asked the police to investigate anomalies in the FAST accounts it had uncovered.
Morning of October 13, 2008, Norwegian Økokrim raided Fast's offices in Oslo
Under scrutiny by the Norwegian police for possible fraudulent behavior prior to the FAST acquisition by Microsoft, former founder and CEO John Lervik resigned from the wholly owned Microsoft subsidiary on 23 January 2009. CTO and Microsoft Distinguished Engineer Bjørn Olstad will assume Lervik's duties as the head of Microsoft's Enterprise Search Group.


Ton van Kesteren

A. J. M. "Ton" van Kesteren (born 26 August 1954) is a Dutch politician and real estate appraiser. Representing the Party for Freedom, he has been a member of the States of Groningen since 10 March 2011 and a member of the Senate of the Netherlands since 28 March 2017. He has worked as a teacher from 1978 until 2006 and he has been working as a real estate appraiser since 1996.


Haris Alagic

Haris Alagic professionally known as Haris, is a Dutch singer-songwriter and guitarist of Bosnian descent. He started his career in 2013 by winning the fifth season of Dutch series of the "X Factor".
Career.
"X Factor".
Alagic won the Dutch "X Factor" with 64% from opponent contestant Adriaan Persons when he was eighteen years old. During the television show, Alagic was being coached by Dutch singer, presenter, actress Angela Groothuizen. As a result of this victory, Alagic won a signing with music label Sony Music. During this collaboration with Sony Music, Alagic released his first singles "Playing with Fire", and "Gold". In 2015, his first EP "Bedroom Sessions" was being released, which he recorded in his bedroom.
After the beginning of Alagic's career, he has been collaborating with various artists. Alagic has worked together as performing vocalist as well as a songwriter with artists such as Hardwell, Headhunterz, The Voyagers, Oliver Heldens, Ferry Corsten, and Dannic. During this time, Alagic was mostly releasing EDM tracks.
2018–present.
Later, Alagic went on with songwriting and releasing his own music. In the meantime, the collaboration between the artist and Sony Music ended and begun publishing music with Houston Comma. In 2018, various singles led to his second EP "Side Effects". While Alagic continued with releasing singles, it was the collaboration between him and DJ duo Lucas & Steve, starting with the release of "Perfect" in 2019, which brought him back to public attention. The song was adapted and sampled on the a-ha song "Take On Me". Shortly after, Alagic released the single "Shivers" in 2020. Also in 2020, Alagic worked on another release from Lucas & Steve. This time, he co-wrote and performed "Letters", Lucas & Steve's album "Letters to Remember".


Tisha Volleman

Tisha Volleman (born 26 October 1999 in Eindhoven) is a Dutch artistic gymnast. She competed at the 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, where she helped her team place 8th, thus earning direct qualification for the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Volleman represented the Netherlands at the 2016 AT&T American Cup, held in Newark. She placed 8th


Tobias Reynaers

T.P.A.M. "Tobias" Reynaers (born 23 May 1982) is a former Dutch politician.
Reynaers was a member of the Senate for the Party for Freedom (PVV) between 7 June 2011 and 9 June 2015. He was also a member of the Benelux Parliament. Previously, he was a municipal councillor in Roosendaal for a local party between 2010 and 2011.
Reynaers studied law at Tilburg University between 2000 and 2006. Since 2006 he has been working as a lawyer in Roosendaal.


Huis met de Hoofden

The House with the Heads (known as 'Huis met de Hoofden' in Dutch) is a large canal house on the Keizersgracht 123 in Amsterdam, named after the six ornaments shaped as heads, which are on the facade. The house is a "rijksmonument" and is listed on the Top 100 Dutch heritage sites.
Nowadays the building is home to the Embassy of The Free Mind, a museum and platform for culture, music, art, science and spirituality.
History.
The house was built in 1622 for Nicolaas Sohier, a wealthy stock trader and art lover. The renaissance facade is attributed to architect Hendrick de Keyser, but was probably executed and completed by his son Pieter de Keyser, as Hendrick had already died in 1621.
As for the heads in the facade, there is a legend that they refer to six thieves who had tried to break in the house and were then beheaded by the maid. However, the ornaments are said to be images of six Roman gods: Apollo with the laurel wreath (the arts); Ceres with the grain (agriculture); Mercury with the winged helmet (trade); Minerva (wisdom); Bacchus with the grapes (wine); and Diana with the half moon (hunt).
Residents.
Shortly after Sohier moved to the house, his wife and two daughters died. In 1634 he sold the property to Dutch entrepreneur and industrialist Louis de Geer.
Along four generations the house remained in possession of the family De Geer, who made it a nerve center of exchange for ideas in respect to trade, science, philosophy and culture. Comenius, members of the prominent Elsevier publishing family and possibly Spinoza are said to be guests of the De Geer. Between 1752 en 1775 Anthoni Grill rented the house from the inheritants, who sold it in 1779.
In 1811 art dealer Cornelis Sebille Roos settled in the building. After 1865 an "Hogere Burgerschool" was established in the house, followed by a public trade school in 1869.
After a restoration in 1907 by the municipality, it served the Conservatorium van Amsterdam from 1909 to 1931. A fur trade and a city’s bureau for monuments and archeology were also later established.
At the end of February 2006 it was announced that the Huis met de Hoofden had been sold to businessman and art collector Joost Ritman. Today the building is home to museum The Embassy of the Free Mind, which comprises part of the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica.


Jan van Herpen

Jan Johannes van Herpen (March 31, 1920 - January 29, 2008) was a Dutch journalist, publicist and editor.
Jan van Herpen was born in Deventer, and was employed by the Dutch broadcasting organization AVRO from February 1, 1940. He acquired national fame as the main man of the oldest running Dutch radio quiz Hersengymnastiek ("Brain Gymnastics") that ran from 1948 thru 1982. In 1967 he won the ANV-Visser Neerlandia-price for his radio drama "De griffioen eet cantharellen". When he retired in 1980 he started publishing works on the Dutch writer P. H. Ritter. In all he published over 20 books on Ritter and Ritter's literary work. Van Herpen also published on the history of Dutch radio. From 1987 he was one of the editors in chief of the Dutch publishing house Flanor. He died in Hilversum, aged 87.


2006 Prague municipal election

Prague municipal election in 2006 was held as part of 2006 Czech municipal elections. It was held on 20 and 21 October 2006. Civic Democratic Party has won a majority in Prague's assembly. Pavel Bém remained Prague's mayor.


Flag of The Hague

The flag of The Hague was on established on December 2, 1920 by a decision of the municipal government of The Hague. In 1920, it was decided that the flag would consist of two equal stripes of green and yellow. On March 28, 1949 the colors were modified. The order of the colors was reversed and the hue of the green stripe was changed.
Unofficial first flag.
In 1857, the mayor of The Hague announced to the Minister of Interior that the colors of the flag would be black and yellow, equal to the color of the Coat of arms of The Hague. This flag has however never been officially established.
Usage.
The football club ADO Den Haag uses a rotated version of the flag in their logo. The logo of The Hague uses the colors of the flag since 2013.


First courtyard of Prague Castle

The first courtyard is one of four at Prague Castle, in Prague, Czech Republic. "Wrestling Titans" is installed at the courtyard's entrance.


Sundial, Taganrog

The Sundial () in Taganrog was set in 1833. It is situated in Grecheskaya Street, close to the Depaldo Stairs. It is officially declared an object of cultural heritage of Russia of Regional significance.
History.
The Sundial was installed in 1833 under the 6th Governor of Taganrog, Baron Otto Germanovich Frank. In 1972, in 1990, and in 2006―2007 the sundial was redecorated, the gnomon was replaced several times and so now the sundial works somewhat inaccurately. Taganrog Sundial is now the oldest currently existing sundial in Russia.
Description.
The dial of the Sundial is unusual: figures engraved on it were calculated according to a special formula, in addition to the notatification of a day hour, some corrections are given for each month of the year. Gnomon, the time indicator, is a metal triangle with a notch, and one of the sharp angles of it is equal to the geographical latitude of Taganrog ― 47 ° 12 'N. The gnomon is fixed perpendicular to the dial so that its hypotenuse is directed to the pole of the Earth. The clock's arrow is the edge of the shadow cast by the gnomon of the dial. In the Northern Hemisphere (where Taganrog is situated) at noon, this shadow is directed to the north. The clock does not take into account the transition from winter to summer time and vice versa. Earlier the Taganrog Sundial showed the right local solar time (which for Taganrog was 25 minutes earlier than Moscow time), and with the help of the corrections given to the dial, this time could be brought into line with the mechanical clock. As a result of several restorations, this accuracy has now been lost.
In 2000, before the central entrance to the Taganrog Gorky Park, a new sundial was installed. Unlike the sundial at the Depaldo Stairs, the new one casts a shadow at the plate, set at an angle of 47 ° 12 '(the latitude of Taganrog) to the horizon. This made it possible to make the time scale of the time scale even, and also made it possible to count the time in winter and summer according to the additional scale. The error in counting on these clocks is less than 1 minute.


Cornelis Eliza Bertus Bremekamp

Cornelis Eliza Bertus Bremekamp (7 February 1888 in Dordrecht – 21 December 1984) was a Dutch botanist.
He received his education at the University of Utrecht, and performed as a botanical researcher in Indonesia and South Africa. In South Africa he collaborated with German botanist Herold Georg Wilhelm Johannes Schweickerdt (1903-1977).
From 1924 to 1931 he was a professor at Transvaal University in Pretoria, where he conducted studies of the genus "Pavetta". During this time period he collected plants from northern Transvaal, Rhodesia, and Mozambique. A portion of his career was spent at the herbarium in Utrecht, where he specialized in studies of Rubiaceae and Acanthaceae.
The Acanthaceae genus "Bremekampia" and the Rutaceae species "Toddaliopsis bremekampii" are named in his honour.


Pleuni Touw

Pleuni Touw (born 8 November 1938) is a Dutch film, television and theatre actress best known for her role in the 1974 miniseries "De Stille Kracht", which featured the first televised nude scene in Dutch history.
Life and career.
Touw was born in Bergen op Zoom on 8 November 1938.
In 1962, Touw signed with the Arnhem School of Theatre. She began her film career in 1968, shortly after divorcing her first husband, working in comedies; she had found few opportunities in theatre, complaining that older actresses were able to play young characters for more than fifty years. Touw worked for the media tycoon Joop van den Ende several times.
In 1974, Touw starred in "De Stille Kracht", a drama based on the novel of the same name by Louis Couperus. The series had a nude scene, the first in Dutch television, which showed Touw bathing while betel spit ("blood" in other sources) spontaneously appears on her body. The scene remained controversial afterwards, and although Touw gained popular recognition she was passed over for later roles; she later commented that, had she been in the United States, producers would have said "grab that girl, she will be good for the box office" and hire her. Afterwards she found herself typecast as playing seductive women.
In December 1975, she married fellow actor Hugo Metsers, the son of a businessman, notorious for his role in the 1971 erotic film "Blue Movie".
During the 1980s, Touw worked as a director and established her own production company, BV Polona. She attempted to adapt Howard Ashman's 1982 play "Little Shop of Horrors" and produced a Dutch version of Edward Albee's 1962 work "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?". She also modelled, being featured on the cover of the Dutch edition of "Playboy" in December 1986. In the early 1990s she was inactive, following a reduction in the number of subsidies given to theatrical productions. By the end of the decade she had returned to the theater, acting in a production of Anton Chekhov's "The Seagull". She also took a role in "Oud Geld" ("Old Money").
Touw had a small role in the 2008 film "Bride Flight", and in 2012 she starred in the medical drama "Doctor Deen", playing the mentally unstable mother of Monique van de Ven's character. Later that year she acted in the Dutch adaptation of the 1985 American sitcom "The Golden Girls", which was seen by 1.2 million viewers on its 25 August debut.
Filmography.
Film
Television
References.
Explanatory notes
Citations
Bibliography