Bernard Reyndorp

Bernard Reyndorp , also written: Bernard Rijnsdorp ; Real name: Bernard Daniël Guillaume Charles Reyndorp (born April 28, 1870 in Haarlem , † January 30, 1950 in Delft ) was a Dutch author, free thinker , bookseller, philosopher and anarchist .

Life

Wilhelmus H Hubertus Viegen (1862–1947), head of the Dutch socialist movement, said in his biography about Reyndorp that the latter had a bohemian origin. Reyndorp's father, Jacobus Franciscus Reyndorp, was a hairdresser and artist who was touring the Netherlands and Belgium with various variety shows . Bernard Reyndorp was raised by a great uncle in a petty bourgeois environment following strict Roman Catholic customs. At the age of 12 he worked in a cigar factory and later as a book printer. By reading Multatuli and the magazine De Dageraad , he broke away from the Christian faith.

As an autodidact , he learned French , English and German . This enabled him to read the works of Gustav Landauer , Ludwig Büchner , Charles Darwin and Pierre-Joseph Proudhon in their original language.

Reyndorp came to socialism through the magazines Radical Weekblad and Recht voor Allen . He translated Gustav Landauer's Een weg tot bevrijding der arbeidenden klasse (Amsterdam, 1894) into Dutch and published in Het Volksblad , Recht voor Allen , De Syndikalist , De Vrijdenker and Licht en Waarheid (edited by Jan Sterringa ) , among others . He was also the editor of Anarchist magazine in 1894 . He also publishes in the successor magazine De Anarchist . In late 1897 he was also editor of An-Archie , which appeared until 1899.

He came to anarchism through contact with the Dutch anarchist Johannes Methöfer . In 1897 he became a member of the Amsterdam Vrije Socialisten Vereniging (Free Socialist Association) for a short time and a year later of the Socialisten Bond (Association of Socialists). In The Hague he worked as a bookseller and in 1907 he appeared as a speaker at a demonstration by the International Anti-Militarist Association . In the same year he met Rudolf Rocker at the International Anarchist Congress in Amsterdam. Due to the influence of Gertruida Agneta Muysken (known as Kapteyn-Muysken; 1855-1929), who received Ferdinand Domela Nieuwenhuis , Bart de Light and Clara Gertrud Wichmann in her apartment , Reyndorp later wrote a short biography about Kapteyn-Muysken.

Reyndorp saw the ideal society as one of harmoniously working people on the basis of culture and intellectual freedom. Neither social democracy nor individualistic anarchism were his worldview. His interest in social psychology was shared by B. de Ligt and Année Rinzes de Jong . Reyndorp had to give up his bookshop in The Hague and Kapteyn-Muysken found him a job at the Centraal Bureau voor den Statistiek through C. Wichmann . He wrote articles for the magazine De Vrije Gedachte (The Free Thought) of the Freethinkers Association De Dageraad and was elected to the general board of De Dageraad for several years . His publications in De Vrije Gedachte , which he bundled in his most famous book, In de greep van het barbarisme, Een sociaal-psychologische diagnose van den wereldoorlog (Amsterdam 1916).

Reyndorp became a member of the Bond van religieuze Anrcho-Communisten (Association of Religious Anarcho-Communists, BRAC) and published in the magazine De Vrije Communist (The Free Communist), of which Christiaan Cornelissen (1864-1942) was temporarily editor.

The Second World War and the death of his wife had serious consequences for his mental state. In 1942 Reyndorp was admitted to a mental hospital in Delft. After his death, the magazine De Vlam (The Flame) published: "The name Reyndorp and the person associated with it is completely unknown to the young generation, but this man had worked with great seriousness and dedication ... for freedom of spirit."

Bernard Reyndorp was married to Gijsberta Geertruida de Munnik and had eight children.

Publications (selection)

• Ziekten onzer samenleving: misdaad en prostitutie. Amsterdam 1904
• Het genie van de daad in: commemorative bookmark of the 70th verjaardag van F. Domela Nieuwenhuis. December 31, 1916. Amsterdam 1916. pp. 116-118
• Herinneringen aan Dr. HP Berlage . In: Bevrijding, 1934 pp. 131-132.

Further reading (selection)

• Jatti Enklaar, Hans Ester, with the assistance of Evelyne Tax (ed.): In the shadow of the history of literature. Authors that nobody knows anymore. Editions Rodopi BV, Amsterdam-New York 2005. ISBN 90-420-1915-8
• Bart de Ligt: B. Reyndorp zestig jaar. In Bevrijding magazine. May 1930. p. 8
• JF Ankersmit: Een halve eeuw journalistiek (Amsterdam 1937); "In memoriam B. Reyndorp". In De Vrijdenker magazine on February 11, 1950
• JB Meijer: Aan onze vriend B. Reyndorp . In the journal Socialisme van onder op !, February 18, 1950
• A. Constandse : Bij de dood van B. Reijndorp . In: De Vrijdenker, March 4, 1950

Individual evidence

1. ↑ biography . Authors: Jannes Houkes, Ger Harmsen. In: Biografisch woordenboek van het Socialisme en de Arbeidersbewegung in Nederland (BWSA) . Originally published in BWSA 8, 2001, pp. 220-224. Retrieved October 5, 2013
2. ↑ Licht en Waarheid was published first by the pastor W. Meng, later by Jan Sterringa. Reyndorp publishes in both magazines.
3. ↑ See: Clara Wichmann: Revolutie en neithergeboorte. Nailing handwriting . Blaricum 1921. pp. 119-152
4. ↑ Original in De Vlam : "De naam Reyndorp met de daaraan verbonden persoon is voor de jonge generatie volkomen onbekend ', maar eens heeft deze man' met grote ernst en folkomen overgave worked ... aan de vrijmaking van de geest."

archive

• Nationaal B. Reyndorp. At the International Institute for Social History (IISG)