123-3 (2008)

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Artikelen

• F. Postma, Van bescheiden humanist tot vechtjas. Viglius van Aytta en de crisis van 1566-1567 – From Modest Humanist to Argumentative Aggressor. Viglius van Aytta and the Crisis of 1566-1567
  Lees verder ▼
  In this essay I examine the dealings of the president of the Privy Council of the Netherlands, Viglius van Aytta (1507-1577) between the presentation of the Request of the Lower Nobility in April 1566 and the departure of Alva and his army from Italy a year later. Since Motley, Fruin and Bakhuizen van den Brink in the nineteenth century reinvented the Dutch Revolt, Viglius, in spite of his intellect and office, has not been held in high esteem. At best he was considered to be mediocre, and at worst a coward. The most recent verdict on Viglius was passed by H.G. Koenigsberger who referred to him in 2001 as ‘an intelligent if unimaginative lawyer from Friesland’. My essay is an attempt to refute this incorrect image. I do this by looking at the way Viglius handled the crisis of 1566-1567 in the first and the second town of the Netherlands, Brussels and Antwerp.

De Arena. De taaiheid van de provincie

• M. Duijvendak, Ligamenten van de staat? Over regionale identiteit en de taaiheid van de provincie – Ligaments of the State? On Regional Identity and the Tenacity of the Provinces
  Lees verder ▼
  Within the public forum, voices have recently been heard expressing the view that regional and national identities should be considered to be key features. Apparently, they possess a central core that has been handed down from the far distant past. There is, however, little support for this position within scientific circles. Generally, regional and national identities are seen as constructions based on group culture, group binding and image building. In this process of group formation an important role is taken on by ‘identitybuilders’. Historians and others working in the sphere of cultural heritage are included in this group. In this article, recent provincial histories and regional cultural and economic policies are discussed in this light.
• A. Knotter, Limburg bestaat niet. Paradoxen van een sterke identiteit – Where is Limburg? The Paradoxes of a Strong Regional Identity
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  Limburg is a good example of the tensions that exist in the Dutch provinces between administrative territoriality, regional identity and spatial functionality. Right up to the present day, strong regional sentiments have hampered territorial restructuring based on more rational or functional criteria. Limburg was formed in 1815, much later than the other Dutch provinces, from different territories on both sides of the river Meuse. After the Belgian Revolt (1830-1839) it was divided into a western (Belgian) part and an eastern (Dutch) part. This is how the Dutch part of Limburg acquired its odd elongated shape. In spite of its recent formation, the inhabitants of the Dutch part developed a strong provincial identity. The identification with the province of Limburg as a territorial unity can, however, not be based on any objective characteristics, but is in itself a result of its progressive integration into the Dutch state, which made the inhabitants aware of their divergent dialect, religion, culture, and, last but not least, interests. The paper argues that this provincial regionalism will become more and more obsolete as state borders gradually become ‘denationalised’ through the process of European integration. As Limburg participates in two Euregios, Meuse-Rhine in the south and Rhine-Meuse North in the north, a growing administrative division within the province into a northern and southern part seems inevitable.
• P. Heyrman, Tot nut van ’t algemeen? Een historische blik op de Vlaamse provincies als intermediair bestuursniveau – For the Benefit of the Common Good? A Historical View on the Flemish Provinces as an Intermediary at the Level of Administration
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  The nation state of Belgium saw its provinces chiefly as intermediary administrative entities from which political dispute had to be excluded. Nevertheless, they disposed of elected provincial councils and enjoyed fiscal autonomy. Although the provincial governments underwent a slow process of politicisation, the effects of the broad socio-political developments over the course of the last two centuries on this level remained far less tangible, due above all to the slow democratisation of the provincial suffrage. The provinces only had a modicum of public visibility and a very limited scope for policymaking. To argue their relevance, the provincial governments referred occasionally to the shared history of their respective inhabitants or to their cultural coherence(s). But this discourse was not powerful enough to shape a common provincial cultural identity. Moreover, it clashed on the artificial borders of the provinces and with the much stronger feelings of local and regional coherence. By clustering these expressions of (sub)regionalism, the provincial governments may have provided building stones for the creation of identity-structures on a higher level. However, this role too remained very modest and can hardly be used to substantiate the institutional tenacity of this level of government.

Discussiedossier over De geschiedenis van de Nederlandse politie

• R. Van Doorslaer, De politie in de Lage Landen en haar confrontatie met het nazisme – The Police Force in the Low Countries and its Confrontation with Nazism
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  In response to the publication De geschiedenis van de Nederlandse politie by Cyrille Fijnaut, this contribution examines the World War II period and thereby shifts the focus to a comparison between the Netherlands and Belgium. The initial conclusion is that the level of cooperation with the occupational forces was greater in the Netherlands than in Belgium. Yet, despite the monumental nature of Fijnaut’s study, a lot of grey areas and unresolved questions remain concerning both countries. In our view, international comparative research is the correct path to follow in order to make progress on this important theme about the history of the German Occupation and the police force. Its importance is partly supported by the social relevance of this unique confrontation of police services in liberal-democratic countries with a dictatorial system of government.
• C. Jansen, Twee eeuwen politiebestel en veranderend recht – Two Centuries of the Police Force and Changes in the Law
  Lees verder ▼
  The Editorial Board has asked me ‘to reflect upon the institutional history of the police with regard to the altered norms of justice’. I limited myself to the principles and rules of constitutional and criminal law. In my view, Fijnaut pays little attention in his book to the combined action of basic constitutional tenets, requirements and principles on the one hand, and the integration and functioning of the police within the Dutch state system on the other, although he does consider the police to be a government institution pur sang. The development of the principle of legality, in particular (which means that an action cannot be deemed punishable, nor be punished, without first going through the proper legal channels) is underexposed. Put more generally, many chapters only refer in passing to the interaction between developments within criminal law and the duties of the police, including how the police interpret and implement their duties. The latter are indeed an explicit part of the analytical framework of Fijnaut’s book.
• P. Spierenburg, Sociale controle, misdaad en het geweldsmonopolie. De veranderende rol van de politie – Social Control, Crime and the Monopoly on the Use of Force. The Changing Role of the Police
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  This review article identifies three major developments within the history of the police force in Europe: 1. the spread of the police force and their politicolegal organization; 2. the transition from a multi-functional institution providing various services and fostering a traditional mentality to a professional apparatus focused on crime prevention; 3. changes in the relationship between the police and the state’s monopoly on the use of force, eventually leading to a more restrained and politically neutral form of maintaining law and order. De geschiedenis van de Nederlandse politie deals disproportionately with the first aspect. Within the second field, there is little attention for the mentality and additional tasks of nineteenth century policemen, but sufficient attention for the differentiation in police work in the twentieth century. With respect to item 3, the focus is overwhelmingly on the suppression of social protests. The relationship between the police and the people, in particular the ‘charming offensive’ during the 1970s, remains largely unexplored.
• C. Fijnaut, Repliek – Response
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  It is good for the further development of historical research into the police force that the reviews not only extol the virtues of the study in question, but also ask pertinent questions about the basic principles behind the research, the way in which the subject was methodically examined, and how the findings were edited. The question in the critique written by Van Doorslaer concerning the magistrature’s role in how the Dutch police operated during the German Occupation, is a matter that certainly deserves more attention than it received in this study. However, anyone wishing to give an informed answer to this question would not only have to scrutinize the relationship between the magistrates and the police, but would also have to closely examine the relationship between the government and the police as well. This is because in the Netherlands the government traditionally has a lot to say with regard to the police. The question, therefore, is how did both of these institutions function towards the police during the German Occupation. The core question in the comments made by Jansen is whether enough attention was given to the position of the police in the constitutional state. He is of the opinion that the problematic matter of police authority was inadequately dealt with. Indeed, this issue was largely bypassed, although this was not the case with regard to the position of the police in the constitutional state. Its relationship with government and the legal system, in other words, how the police force is embedded within the state system, is traditionally seen as one of the key questions in this context. Spierenburg argues in his critique that the politicalorganisational developments are dealt with in too biased a fashion in this study and so the professional developments in the police machinery and the changes in the monopoly on the use of force are skirted over. This statement cuts no ice for a variety of reasons. The main one is that the changes in the monopoly on the use of force and in the police profession take shape, first and foremost, in the organisational development of the police. This link between them is continuously and rigourously examined in this study.

Discussiedossier over Dr. Hans Max Hirschfeld

• H. Renders, Laveren tussen loyaal en formalistisch – Hovering between Loyalty and Bureaucracy
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  Hans Max Hirschfeld has often been the subject of discussion: he was Secretary General of the Ministry of Trade and Industry during World War II and, as such, a collaborator. Or should we regard him as a faithful and obedient civil servant who simply performed the task entrusted to him by his successive (political) superiors? The question is all the more intriguing because Hirschfeld was of German descent, even though he only lived in the land of his birth for four months of his life. Hirschfeld has been the subject of two successive biographies. In the opening article of this dossier on Meindert Fennema’s biography of Hirschfeld, Hans Renders describes the value that the biographical genre holds for history writing. Although there is certainly some criticism to be levelled at Fennema’s biography, he has succeeded in providing a balanced account of this sphinx-like man. This is indeed an achievement, as Hirschfeld’s private archive was destroyed upon his death. Thanks to the use of other sources, the biographer makes a convincing case that Hirschfeld’s thoughts and deeds were strongly influenced by the headstrong Claude-Henri de Saint-Simon (1760-1825)
• M. de Keizer, Hans Max Hirschfeld. De juiste man op de juiste plaats…? – Hans Max Hirschfeld. The Right Person in the Right Position…?
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  Fennema’s biography of H.M. Hirschfeld represents an interesting contribution to the debate on ethics and historiography. After all, Hirschfeld’s central position in the Dutch economy during the German occupation raises some fundamental ethical questions. Should economic and material values prevail at all times or should other values – moral, humanist or Christian – carry just as much weight, if not more? As opposed to the situation in the 1930s and the post-war years, during the German occupation the technocrat Hirschfeld was not democratically accountable for his policy. The author of this article explains that Hirschfeld’s biographer mistakenly assumes that it is not necessary to include a discussion of the ethical aspects of Hirschfeld’s continuation in public office during wartime.
• R. de Bruin, Dr. Hans Max Hirschfeld, man zonder moreel kompas? Over de ontsporing van beeldvorming – Dr Hans Max Hirschfeld: A Man without a Moral Compass? On Dislodging Perceptions
  Lees verder ▼
  Even though his father was Jewish, Hans Max Hirschfeld became one of the most prominent Dutch civil servants during the German Occupation of the Netherlands. In the interest of the Dutch population, Hirschfeld was supposed to co-operate with the German Reichskommissariat. However, various measures made him very unpopular with the government in exile and the resistance movement. In his well-read history of the Netherlands under Nazi rule, Dutch historian Loe de Jong portrayed Hirschfeld as the personification of the aloofness that was characteristic of many Dutch people with regard to the persecution of the Jews. De Jong characterized Hirschfeld as a typical ‘negotiator’, who had learned to shield his emotions regarding the fate of the Jews. In the past few years, two biographies on Hirschfeld have been published, in which De Jong’s characterizations play a major role. This article, based on research of De Jong’s records, claims that the characterizations were largely inventions of De Jong, rooted in images projected in the illegal press during the German Occupation.
• M. Fennema, Hirschfeld als zondebok of heilige – Hirschfeld as a Scapegoat or Saint
  Lees verder ▼
  The discussions focus almost exclusively on Hirschfeld’s role during the German Occupation of the Netherlands. Why is there such an obsession with this brief part of Hirschfeld’s carreer as Secretary General during the German occupation? Why are De Keizer and van der Zwan so keen to expose him to public contempt, and De Bruin so determined to exonerate him of all blame? Why is not one of the discussants interested in the time he spent in Batavia as head of the Department for Economic Statistics at the Bank of Java; the vital role he played in developing the European Regeneration Program in 1947 and implementing it; his significance as a negotiator for the Netherlands with Indonesia in 1949? And how he performed as High Commissioner in Jakarta? Why is there not a single shred of interest for the 18 commissioner’s posts that he held between 1952 and 1961? Meindert Fennema argues that most historians are still locked in the resistance-collaboration mindset which makes a Gesinnungsethik of historiography. The lack of interest in economic issues is related to this.

Recensie-artikelen

• W. Frijhoff, Israel’s Verlichting herbelicht – Israel’s Enlightenment Revisited
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  In his seminal study Radical Enlightenment (2001), Jonathan Israel has proposed a new interpretation of the early Enlightenment, emphasizing its radical aspect within the circles of Dutch philosophers, and the diffusion of the debate among a large audience. The side-effect of this thesis, as propagated by the author himself, is the reappraisal of the relationship between Enlightenment, religion and modernity in both the past and the present. The importance of this study and its attractive central hypothesis, however, justify a critical approach of its premises, concepts and methods. What exactly is ‘radical’? Isn’t this study more concerned with the history of the Dutch Republic than with Enlightenment? Is it correct to relegate religion to the sidelines? Would it not be preferable to propose a structurally different interpretation, less unilinear and teleological and more concerned about the relationship between thoughts and actions and the complexity of the personalities and situations involved? In short, is it legitimate to insert this interpretation into the canon of history?

• E. Buyst, Enkele bedenkingen bij de geschiedenis van Koninklijke Shell – Some Reflections on the History of Royal Dutch Shell
  Lees verder ▼
  The first positive feature of this impressive book is its unrelenting focus on a number of key issues. As a result, the authors succeed in presenting a coherent analysis of this complex global company. Another strong feature is the comprehensive and clear overview it provides of the rapid technological developments within the oil industry. Nevertheless, the origins of this fascinating firm could have been dealt with more thoroughly. The way in which the financial problems were solved during the start-up phase, in particular, remains shrouded in mystery. Furthermore, an interesting dimension could have been added had the concepts of Chandler been used. In addition, the chapter has not yet been closed on the ongoing conflict between Royal Dutch Shell and the local population in Nigeria.

Recensies

• Goudriaan, A., Reformed Orthodoxy and Philosophy, 1625-1750. Gisbertus Voetius, Petrus van Mastricht, and Anthonius Driessen
  ISBN 9789004154988
  J.I. Israel
• Onnekink, D., The Anglo-Dutch Favourite. The Career of Hans Willem Bentinck, 1st Earl of Portland (1649-1709)
  ISBN 9780754655459
  J.I. Israel
• Mijers, E., Onnekink, D., Redefining William III. The Impact of the King-Stadholder in International Context
  ISBN 9780754650287
  J.I. Israel
• Wall, E.G.E. van der, Wessels, L.H.M., Een veelzijdige verstandhouding. Religie en Verlichting in Nederland 1650-1850
  ISBN 9789077503737
  J.I. Israel

Webrecensies

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