History of Amsterdam
The history of the city of Amsterdam goes back to Roman times . During this time, Amsterdam developed from a settlement built on stilts to the capital of the Netherlands with over 800,000 inhabitants .
Roman times
Archaeological finds (coins, earthenware) from Roman times indicate that people were already living in what is now the urban area, but no settlements have been found so far.
Medieval settlement
Around 1250, the first settlements inhabited by farmers and fishermen emerged near Amsterdam. At that time, almost the entire province of Holland was covered by marshland or bog, so the construction of buildings was associated with considerable difficulties. In addition, the area was cut by many rivers, including the Amstel , which the city owes its name to.
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The settlement grew, became a small port, and on October 27, 1275, Amsterdam was first mentioned in a document by Count Florens V of Holland , still as Amstelledamme. The background was the granting of a customs privilege. The main industries at that time were brewing beer and fishing. Around 1300 the town, which had already built a fortress, was granted town charter by the then sovereign and trade flourished. The customs law for Hamburg beer granted in 1323 contributed significantly to this.
In addition, Amsterdam became an important pilgrimage city on March 12, 1345 because, according to legend, on this day the “Miracle of Amsterdam”, the so-called Host Miracle, took place. Thanks to the pilgrims, the city's population grew considerably. Amsterdam developed into an important trading city in Europe. Fishing was displaced by other industries and goods such as salt, wine and spices were traded. The plague reached the Netherlands in 1351. In addition, numerous fires destroyed large parts of the city because the thatched wooden houses could easily be set on fire. Therefore, a building code was issued that only allowed stone houses.
In 1369 Amsterdam joined the Hanseatic League and acted as a trading post of the Hanseatic League. But while the city's wealth grew steadily, Amsterdam was ravaged by unrest: the merchants who came to the city rebelled against the Catholics supported by the nobility.
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In 1421 there was a big fire in the city, in 1481 a city wall was built to replace the earth walls and palisade fence.
Jewish immigrants
Since 1492 Sephardic Jews from Spain came to the city and founded communities ( Jacob Tirado ). Ashkenazi Jews also came from Poland from the middle of the 16th century . Amsterdam became an important center of Jewish culture and learning. There were several Jewish printing works (by Uri Phoebus ha-Levi , Josef Athias , David de Castro Tartas). The first Yiddish edition of the Hebrew Bible appeared here in 1678, and in 1686 the world's first Yiddish newspaper .
Amsterdam in conflict with Spain
In the 16th century, the Netherlands roughly comprised what is now the Benelux countries and was ruled by Spain. Religious, political and economic causes led from 1566 to a series of uprisings against the sovereign, the Spanish king Philip II. On the one hand, the Catholic king insisted on the relentless persecution of heretics, on the other hand, he strove to expand his powers at the expense of the urban bourgeoisie on. In 1572 almost all Dutch cities sided with the rebels under the leadership of William I - only Amsterdam remained loyal to the king. This had catastrophic consequences: the Dutch rebels now blocked the Amsterdam port, so that the city quickly became impoverished. After six years, Amsterdam finally switched to the side of the rebels in 1578. This bloodless revolution went down in history as an alteration . Amsterdam was then a Protestant city. The Catholics did not have to fear persecution, but were no longer allowed to celebrate mass in public.
The Golden age"
In the history of the Netherlands, the “ Golden Age ” refers to an economic and cultural heyday that lasted around one hundred years and roughly coincides with the 17th century (from around 1581 to 1672). At the beginning of the 17th century, in 1602, the Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (VOC) was founded in Amsterdam . From now on, the Dutch sailed from Amsterdam to North America , Brazil , Indonesia and Africa , creating the basis for the world trade network. The long trips were funded by wealthy merchants who also acquired the areas that later became the Dutch colonies. In 1611 the goods and securities bank was founded. From 1613 onwards, Amsterdam was expanded around the canals and the port there became the largest port in the world. The city had trade relations with 625 foreign ports. At that time Amsterdam was the third largest city in Europe and the financial center of the world (including the Amsterdam exchange bank and the private bank of the Deutz family ). The tulip mania from 1630 to 1637 was the first major speculative bubble, a house in Amsterdam was sold for only three tulip bulbs.
Politically, the actually sovereign city was led by a handful of omnipotent rulers who were closely related to one another and who ruled the city government in an oligarchic system. Important Amsterdam regent dynasties of the Golden Century included the De Graeff , Bicker and Hooft families .
During the 17th and 18th centuries, Amsterdam was a city where many immigrants lived. Most of the immigrants were Germans. According to calculations by Erika Kuijpers, they made up almost a third of the population in the first half of the 17th century. The integration of immigrants went relatively smoothly - even on the city council there were councilors from different nations such as Flanders , Germany , France and Scotland . The social structure of Amsterdam changed completely through immigration: A city of craftsmen and small merchants, without too blatant differences between rich and poor, became a metropolis with internationally oriented trading princes and a large proletariat.
As there was freedom of belief in the Netherlands, Amsterdam became a refuge for the persecuted. The Portuguese synagogue opened there in 1675, which was then the largest in the world. Yiddish, the language of Eastern European Jews, has had a major impact on the Amsterdam dialect of Dutch.
1688 was the governor Wilhelm III. of Orange to the English King. He saw his main task in curbing the hegemonic claims of the French "sun king" Louis XIV , which involved the Netherlands in decades of war. The Orange was friends with the Amsterdam regent Nicolaas Witsen . When Tsar Peter I came to Amsterdam in August 1697 on his great European tour, the Great Embassy , and even did an apprenticeship as a carpenter with the shipyard master Gerrit Claesz Pool in the shipyard of the East India Company in Krummendijk and worked on the construction of the frigate Peter and Paul , Witsen was his companion, mentor and, after his departure, also a supporter in building up the Russian Navy.
When Wilhelm III. 1702 died, the line of the descendants of Wilhelm I. Johann Wilhelm Friso von Nassau-Diez from the Frisian branch line inherited the private fortune, but had to cede parts of it to the Prussian Hohenzollern . The governorship was suspended, however, and a return to the anti-centralist tradition of urban rulers occurred. The Peace of Utrecht in 1713 brought the Spanish Netherlands to Austria, with the Republic of the United Netherlands receiving some barrier fortresses and trading rights in the Spanish colonies. The upper quarters of the Duchy of Geldern came to Prussia and the Principality of Orange from the House of Orange-Nassau to France. The great power position of the republic was over. It was not until 1747 that Wilhelm IV. From the Frisian branch line, which descended from a brother of Wilhelm I, became governor of all provinces again.
The Age of Enlightenment , which began in France, brought unrest, denunciation of the grievances and criticism of the system of the unlimited rule of the rulers who were estranged from the people.
In 1787 Amsterdam was taken by Prussia, who sympathized with the governor at the time, William V of Orange , and had invaded Holland . The Brandenburg Gate was built in Berlin as a victory monument .
The decline and modernization of Amsterdam
The city slowly began to decline in the 18th century. The main reason for this was the increased competition from England, France, Prussia and Russia. The Fourth Anglo-Dutch Sea War from 1780 to 1784 had a devastating effect.
In 1795 the Netherlands was conquered by France and the Batavian Republic proclaimed a satellite state of Napoleonic France. Although the city was declared the capital of his Kingdom of Holland by Louis Bonaparte on June 23, 1806 , the continental blockade led to its complete impoverishment. When the French left the city in 1814, Amsterdam was just a local market town and the seas were ruled by the Royal Navy .
Amsterdam remained the official capital of the newly established Kingdom of the Netherlands , but the government is still based in The Hague . It was not until the second half of the 19th century that Amsterdam gradually turned into an industrial city. Important new branches of the economy were the diamond industry, shipbuilding, clothing and engine factories, and later automobile and aircraft production. The Zuidersee (today IJsselmeer ) silted up; therefore, the North Sea Canal was built between 1865 and 1876 . This connected the port of Amsterdam with IJmuiden on the North Sea. In the 1880s, the city grew beyond the area built in the 17th century. The population grew considerably in the decades that followed.
On July 25, 1886, the eel uprising ( Palingoproer ) began in the Jordaan district after some residents had played the forbidden game "eel pulling" and a police officer had intervened. Armed forces shot at the insurgents and their street barricades; After 26 people were dead and many injured, the uprising ended on July 26th.
New buildings such as the Amsterdam Centraal train station (inaugurated in 1889) and the Concertgebouw (German: concert building, inaugurated in 1888) were built. A 135 km long defensive ring with numerous moats, dikes and 42 forts ( position of Amsterdam ) was built.
20th century
The Netherlands remained neutral during World War I , but Amsterdam suffered the effects of the war when food became scarce. When women from the working class looted a ship in the port of Amsterdam that was loaded with supplies from the army, the military intervened. Some workers joined their wives and helped them loot the ship, but the military opened fire. Six people died and nearly 100 were wounded. With the introduction of universal suffrage in 1919, Amsterdam turned red: the Social Democrats have always been the strongest political group ever since.
In the 1920s, the economy in Amsterdam was booming, and in 1928 the Summer Olympics were even held in Amsterdam. The world economic crisis did not leave Amsterdam indifferent either: at that time around 25% of the population were unemployed.
In 1932, the final dike, a dike that separates the former Zuiderzee bay from the North Sea , was completed. The inland water that was created behind the dike is the IJsselmeer . For the first time in its history, Amsterdam no longer had access to the open sea.
Second World War
As in World War I, the Netherlands initially remained neutral in World War II. However, on May 10, 1940, the Netherlands was invaded by Nazi Germany , followed four days later by the surrender. On May 15, soldiers of the Wehrmacht marched into Amsterdam. From 1940 to 1942, the Lübeck Police Senator Hans Böhmcker was also the German Reich's representative for the city of Amsterdam. He was subordinate to the Reich Commissioner for the occupied Netherlands, Arthur Seyß-Inquart . In this capacity he was responsible for implementing the “Jewish question” in the Netherlands . Most of the Dutch Jews lived in Amsterdam.
In February 1941 there was a unique mass protest against the persecution of the Jews in Amsterdam, the February strike , which was unprecedented in occupied Europe. The trigger was a brutal raid in the Jodenbuurt , the traditional Jewish quarter in the city center. Communists then organized a general strike in Amsterdam on February 25, 1941. Trains and trams stopped, shipyard and factory workers stopped working. Demonstrators marched through the streets and shouted: “Get rid of the pogroms!” The next day, the strike was brutally suppressed. After that, resistance in Amsterdam remained weak for a long time. Only when the German defeat became apparent in 1943 did a broader movement develop.
Many Amsterdam Jews hid and saved their lives. Others collaborated with the German occupiers. The local police are particularly guilty of this. The Amsterdam police chief Sybren Tulp (1891–1942), who organized the deportations in close coordination with the national police chief Hanns Albin Rauter , became a key figure in the extermination of the Jews . An important aid in this was the Judenrat , which was supposed to give the Jews the feeling of autonomous self-government. The council repeatedly urged the Jewish population to follow the instructions of the Germans, which had a considerable effect. From 1941 to 1943, almost all 100,000 Jews in Amsterdam were deported and murdered, including Anne Frank , who had hidden with her family in a rear building on the Prinsengracht. Since the end of 1943 Amsterdam was called "judenrein" by the Nazis.
When the Allies advanced into the southern Netherlands in the summer of 1944, the Amsterdamers expected a quick liberation. But in September 1944 the Allies were repulsed at the Battle of Arnhem . The fortress of Holland remained in German hands until the end of the war. As the Dutch railroad workers went on strike in London on the instructions of the Dutch government in exile, food quickly became scarce in Amsterdam. The " Hongerwinter " began. It is estimated that 20,000 people died as a result of the emaciation in Amsterdam and in the other cities in the west of the Netherlands that were not yet liberated. The Germans only surrendered on May 5, 1945. Amsterdam was thus liberated later than Frankfurt, Cologne, Hamburg and Munich.
Post-war and present
The cultural revolution in the 1960s, characterized among other things by the Provo movement , and in the 1970s made Amsterdam the so-called “Magical Center” of Europe. The legalization of the use of " soft drugs " attracted many hippies to the city. Many of them lived in vacant houses (see also: Squatting ), a way of living that quickly spread in Amsterdam. Even today, hashish and marijuana can be legally purchased and consumed in the coffee shops in Amsterdam.
Clashes between squatters and the police were not uncommon at the time. In addition, attracted anarchist squatters (English: Squatter ) through the capital and called on the population to occupy more empty buildings and homes to use for other purposes than living. This resulted in a confrontation with several construction companies. While Queen Beatrix was being crowned in the Nieuwe Kerk ( New Church ) on Dam Square, demonstrators who had taken to the streets about the government's decisions tried to crack down on the police. Their slogan was: "Geen woning, geen kroning!" (German: “No apartment, no coronation!”) In order to get the clashes under control, the then mayor of the city had to send the military to Dam Square.
During the 1980s, the number of immigrants from countries such as Suriname , Turkey and Morocco increased sharply. Even today, many of Amsterdam's residents come from these countries. As a result, many people moved to cities like Purmerend and Almere . Districts such as Jordaan and De Pijp , where the working class previously lived, were now inhabited by " yuppies " and students.
In 1992 a cargo plane on the Israeli El-Al ( El-Al-Flug 1862 ) crashed near Amsterdam. The plane crashed into an apartment block and 43 people died.
At the beginning of the 21st century, problems such as security issues, exclusion of people based on their origins and problems between religious and social groups arose in Amsterdam. Amsterdam is characterized by its (recognized) social tolerance and diversity. Tolerance was jeopardized on November 2, 2004 when director Theo van Gogh was murdered. The then Mayor Job Cohen and his former deputy for integration, Ahmed Aboutaleb , then formulated a principle that includes tolerance towards others and calls for tough measures against those who disregard these rules.
In 1999, work began on the first of seven islands on which the new district of IJburg in east Amsterdam was created.
Cultural life
In the 15th and 16th centuries, cultural life in Amsterdam was characterized by festivals and festivals. In the late 16th century, the Rederijkerskamer (dt .: Redekammer) organized competitions in reading poetry and dramas. In 1638 the first theater was built in Amsterdam. Ballets have been performed there since 1642. French theater became popular in the 18th century. The first operas, initially only Italian and French operas, were performed from 1677, and German operas as well in the 18th century. In the 19th century, vaudeville was the main focus of Amsterdam's culture. The first metronome was invented by Dietrich Nikolaus Winkel in the city in 1812 after Johann Nepomuk Mälzel sought advice from Dietrich Nikolaus Winkel, Mälzel came up with the idea and expanded the metronome with a scale. At the end of this century the Rijksmuseum and the Gemeentelijk Museum were built, and the Concertgebouw was completed in 1888 . With the 20th century came cinema, radio and television. Since there were studios in the neighboring towns, the influence of the radio was very great.
See also
- Personalities from Amsterdam
- Regent of Amsterdam (Mayor)
- Canals in Amsterdam
- City districts of Amsterdam
- List of museums in Amsterdam
- List of Jewish personalities from Amsterdam
literature
- Christoph Driessen : A short history of Amsterdam. Pustet, Regensburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-7917-2272-6 .
- Ingo Schiweck: PastFinder Amsterdam. From the Golden Age to Anne Frank . PastFinder Verlag, Düsseldorf 2010, ISBN 978-988-99787-8-5 .
- Barbara Beuys : “Living with the enemy”. Amsterdam under German occupation 1940–1945 . Hanser, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-446-23996-8 . dtv-Taschenbuch 2016, ISBN 978-3423348904 .
Web links
- Amsterdam history timeline
- History of Amsterdam on Yahoo!
- The history of the city on Amsterdam's official website
Single receipts
- ↑ Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek. Retrieved July 23, 2014
- ↑ History of Amsterdam - A Brief Outline
- ↑ a b c d Merian: Amsterdam. Hoffmann & Campe, ISBN 3-455-27807-8
- ↑ Christoph Driessen: A short history of Amsterdam. Regensburg 2010, p. 29.
- ^ Timeline of the history of Amsterdam
- ↑ Brief report on the tulip mania
- ↑ Erika Kuijpers: Migrantenstad. Immigratie en sociale verhoudingen in 17de-eeuws Amsterdam . Hilversum 2005
- ↑ Christoph Driessen: A short history of Amsterdam . Regensburg 2010, pp. 66-67
- ↑ Christoph Driessen: A short history of Amsterdam . Regensburg 2010. p. 70
- ↑ Christoph Driessen: A short history of Amsterdam . Regensburg 2011. p. 79.
- ↑ Christoph Driessen: Brief history of Amsterdams. Regensburg 2010, p. 90
- ↑ Christoph Driessen: A short history of Amsterdam. Regensburg 2010, pp. 103-105.
- ↑ Christoph Driessen: History of the Netherlands, From the sea power to the trend country . Regensburg 2009, pp. 202-204.
- ↑ Guus Meershoek: Dienaren van het Amsterdamse gezag.De politie tijdens de bezetting . Amsterdam 1999
- ↑ Christoph Driessen: A short history of Amsterdam . Regensburg 2011, p. 106
- ↑ Christoph Driessen: A short history of Amsterdam . Regensburg 2010, p. 111.