Heusden (Netherlands)

Heusden municipality

flag	coat of arms
province	North Brabant
mayor	Willemijn van Hees ( VVD )
Seat of the municipality	Vlijmen
Area  - land  - water	81.22  km 2 78.88 km 2 2.34 km 2
CBS code	0797
Residents	44,146 (Jan 31, 2019)
Population density	544 inhabitants / km 2
Coordinates	51 ° 42 '  N , 5 ° 10'  E Coordinates: 51 ° 42 '  N , 5 ° 10'  E
height	4  m NAP
Important traffic route
prefix	0416, 073
Postcodes	5151-5152, 5154, 5251-5254, 5256
Website	heusden.nl

Heusden ( listen ^{? / I} ) is a municipality in the province of Noord-Brabant in the Netherlands .

The old fortress town of Heusden on the Maas , the villages of Vlijmen, Drunen, Haarsteeg, Nieuwkuijk and Elshout, and a few other small towns are located in the municipality. The local government is not centralized. Most of the officers have their offices in Vlijmen, some in Drunen.

Location and economy

The municipality forms a triangle between Waalwijk , the Meuse and the provincial capital 's-Hertogenbosch . The northern part is a polder landscape , the part south of the Waalwijk – Herzogenbusch motorway consists of forest, heather and sand. The nearest train station is Den Bosch ('s-Hertogenbosch), from where there are regular bus connections to the community.

Vlijmen and Drunen have several metalworking factories. So z. B. the propeller factory founded by Max Lips, which has since been taken over by the Finnish Wärtsilä Group. There is significant agriculture around Heusden. There are many commuters who work in Den Bosch, spread across the community. But the most important thing for these places is tourism.

history

Like Willemstad, Klundert (Gem. Moerdijk ) and Geertruidenberg , Heusden, which was built in the 13th century, originally belonged to the county of Holland . During the Eighty Years' War (1568–1648), Heusden was also developed into a border fortress against the Spaniards. In 1649 the cartographer Joan Blaeu drew a map of the city. The fortifications were demolished in 1821, but reconstructed in the 1970s and 1980s using the Blaeuschen map.

Heusden suffered a lot in World War II . When the German occupation troops had to evacuate the place before the Allies in the autumn of 1944, they blew up the beautiful old town hall, into which many of the town's citizens had withdrawn because of the bombardments. 134 people were killed. The town hall has never been rebuilt.

In the harsh winter of 1944/45 (hunger in some parts of the Netherlands) the Meuse was the front line for some time. Until mid-November, the Canadian Lincoln and Welland Regiment lay at Vlijmen to guard the south bank of the Meuse. The Allies feared an attack by the Germans towards the port of Antwerp.

Elshout is an old farming village. In the church there is a picture of the Madonna that is considered miraculous and has attracted many pilgrims from all over Brabant every May since the end of the 13th century.

Up until the 19th century, Drunen and Vlijmen belonged to the Langstraat region , which was known for its leather and shoe industries. In the meantime, other branches of the economy have replaced these companies, which were no longer competitive for a long time.

Attractions

Heusden on the Maas

The artistically restored Heusden with the bastions, the city center with carefully restored old houses, windmills etc. looks like an open-air museum, but it is a real town. It also has a large marina.

The nature park "Loonsche en Drunense Duinen" is unique for Holland because of the desert-like sand dunes.

The much-visited amusement park "Land van Ooit" conveyed a fairy tale world with castle knights, giants, virgins etc. At the end of 2007 the operators had to file for bankruptcy. In 2008 the community tried to find new people interested in the site. At the beginning of March 2008 the foreclosure auction of the bankruptcy estate took place. The oversized sculpture of the giant Dan has been the mascot of the amusement park " Mini Mundi " in Middelburg in the province of Zeeland since 2009 .

• 

  Heusden, gate

• 

  Heusden, gate: de Veerpoort

• 

  Heusden, houses in the fortress

• 

  Heusden, street: de Lombardstraat-Demer

• 

  Heusden, houses in the fortress

politics

The Democratic Midden Partij Heusden won the last local election in 2018 with just under a quarter of the vote. In the 2018–2022 legislative period, it forms a coalition with the Heusden , Heusden één and VVD municipalities .

Municipal council

Local election on March 21, 2018

Turnout: 52.93%

 %

30th

20th

10

0

24.2

18.6

13.6

11.0

9.8

8.1

5.8

5.6

3.3

DMP ^a

GBH ^b

HT ^c

VVD

één ^e

CDA

GL

D66

PvdA

Gains and losses

compared to 2014

 % p

   8th

   6th

   4th

   2

   0

  -2

  -4

  -6

  -8th

+7.9

-2.8

+1.5

+1.0

-2.0

-2.7

+5.8

-2.3

-6.4

DMP ^a

GBH ^b

HT ^c

VVD

één ^e

CDA

GL

D66

PvdA

Remarks:

^a Democratic Midden Partij Heusden

^b Gemeentebelangen Heusden

^c Heusden Transparant

^e Heusden één

The municipal council has been formed as follows since 1982:

Political party	Seats
	1982	1986	1990	1994	1996 a	1999	2002	2006	2010	2014	2018
Democratic Midden Partij Heusden	-	-	-	-	2	3	2	2	4th	5	7th
Gemeentebelangen Heusden	5	5	5	6th	12	5	7th	5	6th	6th	5
Heusden Transparant	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	3	4th
VVD	-	-	-	-	2	3	2	2	3	3	3
Heusden één	-	-	-	-	4th	8th	7th	8th	7th	3	3
CDA	3	2	2	3	4th	3	3	3	3	3	2
GroenLinks	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	1	1	-	1
D66	-	-	-	-	1	1	2	0	1	2	1
PvdA	1	2	2	2	2	2		4th	2	2	1
Democrats Drunen Elshout 2002	-	-	-	-	-	1	2	2	-	-	-
Heusden's initiation low	-	-	-	-	-	1	1	-	-	-	-
Protestant Kiesvereniging	2	2	2	2	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
total	11	11	11	13	27	27	27	27	27	27	27

Remarks

^a Due to the incorporation of Drunen and Vlijmen on January 1, 1997, an unscheduled local election took place in 1996.

^b Heusden één ran in 1996 as Democrats Drunen Vlijmen Heusden .

College van B&W

The coalition parties CDA, D66, GroenLinks, Rosmalens Belang and VVD are each represented by an alderman in the College van burgemeester en wethouders . The following people belong to the college and have the following departments:

function	Surname	Political party	Department	annotation
Mayoress	Willemijn van Hees	VVD	Administrative matters, public order and security, inter-municipal contacts, enforcement, cabinet matters, communication	in office since November 12, 2018
Alderman	Kees van Bokhoven	Democratic Midden Partij Heusden	Public space, transport and traffic, water, sport, zoning plans, environmental permits, municipal buildings, monuments and heritage, questions about caravans, the De Grassen project, Elshout district, Braken-West, Braken-Oost, Hedikhuizen, Buitengebied	Deputy Mayoress
	Peter van Steen	Gemeentebelangen Heusden	Health and exercise, support and care, poverty, youth, education, the elderly, art and culture, public services, information provision, projects in the De Voorste Venne and Dillenburg cultural center, the Drunen-Centrum district, Venne-West, Vesting Heusden, Heesbeen	-
	Thom Blankers	VVD	Economy, labor market, work and income, recreation and tourism, basic politics, status bearers / refugees, personnel and organization, purchasing, Metal Valley project, Vlijmen-Dorp district, Vlijmen Vijfhoeven, Haarsteeg, Doeveren	-
	Mart van der Poel	Heusden één	Housing, spatial planning, nature, the environment and waste, sustainability, educational institutions, finances, leasing and land consolidation, Vlijmen center plan projects, area reinforcement Oostelijke Langstraat, Geerpark, Steenenburg estate, Venne-Oost district, Nieuwkuijk, Vlijmen Vliedberg, Oudheusden, Herpt	-
Community Secretary	Harrie Timmermans	-	-	in office since July 2016

Town twinning

• Otjiwarongo , Namibia

In 1969 the first contacts were made in Idstein . In 1972, an official partnership was recorded. In contrast to the other city partnerships, however, no partnership association was formed and the cooperation fell asleep. In October 2012, the partnership was formally ended on September 29, 2012 at the request of the Heusden municipality.

Famous residents of the municipality

• Lars Boom , cycling professional, world champion in 2008 in the cross-country race in cycling , living in Vlijmen.
• Toon de Gouw , jazz musician, born in Vlijmen
• Michael van Gerwen , dart player , PDC world champion 2014 , 2017 and 2019 lives in Vlijmen.
• Gisbert Voetius (1589–1676), born in Heusden and reformed pastor in the village 1617–1634

Web links

Commons : Heusden  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Wikisource: Huesden in the Topographia Circuli Burgundici (Mathäus Merian)  - sources and full texts

• Website of the municipality (Dutch)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Nieuwe burgemeester in Heusden. In: rijksoverheid.nl. Rijksoverheid, October 30, 2018, accessed February 6, 2019 (Dutch). 
2. ↑ Bevolkingsontwikkeling; regio per maand . In: StatLine . Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek (Dutch)
3. ^ Historical map as a digitized version of the University and State Library Düsseldorf
4. ↑ Wilhelmina : Lonely and yet not alone . Evangelisches Verlagswerk, Stuttgart 1961, p. 374.
5. ↑ Arrival in Holland: November 1944 - January 1945
6. ↑ ^{a b} Results of the local elections: 1982–2002 2006 2010 2014 2018 , accessed on March 1, 2019 (Dutch)
7. ↑ College van B en W . In: heusden.nl . Gemeente Heusden, accessed March 1, 2019 (Dutch)
8. ↑ Divorce instead of an anniversary celebration . In: FAZ of October 5, 2012, p. 54.