Anton Levien Constandse

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Anton Constandse

Anton Levien Constandse (* 13. September 1899 in Brouwershaven ; † 23. March 1985 in The Hague ) was a Dutch author , editor , magazines - editor , free thinker and anarchist .

Life

Anton L. Constandse was the son of Adrianus Constandse and Janje van Dijk. During the First World War , AL Constandse, influenced by the works of Friedrich Nietzsche and Henrik Ibsen , became an atheist and anarchist. With two school friends he published a progressive literary magazine, Minerva , in 1917 , which in 1918 changed the title to Psyche . A year later he worked as an editor for the magazine Eb en Vloed ("Ebbe und Flut"). In 1918 he came into contact with the Sociaal-Anarchist Jeugd Organizatie ("Social-Anarchist Youth Organization"; SAJO). This organization also included Johan de Haas and Pieter Adrianus Kooijman . Within the SAJO there were several disagreements between the socialist and anarchist individualist-oriented, with Constandse the Individual anarchists was close to. From 1922 to 1926 he published the anarchist monthly Alarm, anarchist Maandblad and from 1926 to 1928 the journal Opstand, Revolutionair Maandblad ("Uprising. Revolutionary Monthly").

For a long time Constandse was convinced that it was possible to realize an anarchist society. He later tended from anarchism to freethinking , which he made clear in 1938 in his book " Grondslagen van het Anarchisme " ("Foundations of Anarchism"). In the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) he saw the last chance for an anarchist movement and society. Since the 1960s, he no longer saw anarchism as a political movement, but (only) as a “meaningful way of life that can make a valuable contribution to culture” .

When confronted with the successes of National Socialism , he dealt with psychoanalysis , in particular with Wilhelm Reich's work on the mass psychology of fascism . After that, he no longer had any illusions about the working class as a revolutionary force. He saw the “mass man” as a product of “sexual frustration, in search of a strict father, which made the success of fascism possible” (quote from Jan Wiegers; IISG). With 109 others, Constandse was arrested by the National Socialists on October 7, 1940 in The Hague and taken to the Buchenwald concentration camp, later to Vught , where he and other inmates were released on September 17, 1944. After the Second World War he worked for the liberal newspaper Algemeen Handelsblad, among others . Although he was a staunch opponent of state communism, he did not allow himself to be taken over by the “free world” during the “Cold War” because he considered the United States to be the greatest threat to world peace and freedom movements in the Third World.

In 1964 he retired, but continued to write, including for De Groene Amsterdammer (1965–1975); Vrij Nederland (1968-1976). From 1973 to 1983 he was editor of the anarchist magazine De As .

He wrote under the pseudonyms A. Elsee; G. Hamer; Pol de Beer and other about 40 books, more than 500 radio broadcasts, and about 5000 articles.

His grave is in the Dutch cemetery Oud Eik en Duinen in The Hague .

The Hispanist

Constandse received his doctorate in 1951 from the University of Amsterdam under Jonas Andries van Praag with the thesis Le baroque espagnol et Calderón de La Barca (Amsterdam 1951). From 1968 to 1976 he was lecturer (lecturer) in Spanish at the University of Amsterdam.

See also

Anarchism in the Netherlands

Works

  • Sexualiteit en Levensleer. De sexuele en politieke psychologie van Dr. W. Reich , 1938.
  • Eighth de schermen van de diplomatie. Over the achtergronden van de Tweede Wereldoorlog en zijn followed . 1959 (new edition 1976). ISBN 9029005637 .
  • 120 Jaar Vrijdenkers Movement . De vrije Gedchte, October 1976.
  • Het soevereine ik: Het individualisme van Lao-tse tot Friedrich Nietzsche . Meulenhoff, Amsterdam 1983. ISBN 90-290-1791-0 .
  • De paus in Nederland. Een ongewenste Gast ("The Pope in the Netherlands. An Unwanted Guest"). De vrije Gedachte, Rotterdam 1985. ISBN 90-940011-4-4 .

literature

  • MP Betjes: Anton Constandse. Zijn anarchist ideas en zijn plaats in de anarchist juggling movement gedurende het Interbellum . Doctoral script at the Universiteit van Amsterdam.
  • I. Heuff: Het anarchisme van Anton Constandse . The Hague 1981.
  • R. de Jong: Anton Constandse en het Nederlands anarchisme . In: De Gids . 1985, pages 735-758.

Individual evidence

  1. Portrait of AL Constandse . Author: Jan Wiegers. Published in Biographical Woordenboek van het Socialisme en de Arbeidersbewegung in Nederland (BWSA); published 1998. Last change on February 5, 2003. In: International Institute for Social History (IISG); Dutch. Retrieved March 12, 2009
  2. ^ Author: R. de Jong, "Constandse, Anton Levien (1899–1985)" ; in: Biographical Woordenboek van Nederland. In the Instituut voor Nederlandse Geschiedenis (ING); March 13, 2008; Dutch. Retrieved March 12, 2009
  3. AL Constandse is said to have written more than 5000 articles . Dutch. Retrieved August 11, 2012