Ancient trade routes as lifelines of the Achterhoek
For centuries, German merchants traveled through the Achterhoek with their heavy carts via the so-called Hessenwegen: ancient trade routes that connected the region with Germany and the Dutch trading cities. One of these roads ran from Bocholt via Aalten towards Zutphen and Doesburg. The Hessenwegen were of great importance for early modern trade in this region.
The term Hessenweg has been used since the 17th century. The traditional explanation refers to the merchants who came from the Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel and the surrounding area. Within etymology, however, the name is explained differently: it is said to be a corruption of hers, meaning horse. These roads usually ran over high, dry sandy soils and along ridges.
Four major Hessenwegen ran through the Achterhoek. Three of them followed a northern route, from Vreden and Ammeloe via Groenlo, Rekken, and Neede, among others, to Deventer or Zutphen.
In the southern Achterhoek, a Hessenweg ran past Aalten. From Bocholt, this route crossed the current border at the Kesenbulte and continued via the Bodendijk, Dijkstraat, Landstraat, Berkenhovestraat, and the Romienendiek to De Radstake. From there, the road continued past Zutphen and Barneveld, with a branch between Halle and Zelhem towards Doesburg.
De Leste Stuver near Bredevoort
From the IJssel cities, the Hessenwegen crossed the Veluwe, converged in the Gooi, and continued to Amsterdam. The Hessenwegen had numerous branches. One of these ran near Aalten from the Romienendiek, via the Koningsweg, Hessenweg, past the Walfort, via Bredevoort and Winterswijk to Vreden.
For those living along a Hessenweg in the 19th century, the arrival of the Hessenkeerls was quite an event. On the windward side of the procession walked men with heavy clubs, dressed in their characteristic blue Hessenkiel: a shirt of fine linen, closed with copper hooks in the shape of lion heads and three small bone buttons. Decorated facings were applied to the chest and shoulders.
On the road, donkeys trudged through the loose sand, with a basket of woven willow twigs full of merchandise on either side. Once they arrived in a village, the men tied their donkeys near an inn or on the village square. The animals were fed and watered, while the men refreshed themselves at the village pump.
Afterward, the baskets were opened and the Hessians went from house to house peddling. Their merchandise included light glassware and soft straw hats. These hats were in high demand: as soon as the Hessians arrived, customers were already waiting for them to buy a new summer hat. The hats were elastic and therefore almost always fit. After a few hours, the Hessians moved on.
Pottenkeerls, musicians, and hannekemaaiers
In addition to the Hessenkeerls, pottenkeerls also appeared on the Hessenwegen. They used heavy covered wagons that stood high on their wheels, the so-called Hessenkaoren, pulled by sturdy Holsteiner horses. The carts were full of Cologne pottery: gray or yellow-brown pots with blue decoration. The horses wore richly decorated harnesses, fitted and hung with copper decorations, so that their arrival could be heard from afar.
An image of a carter with his Hessenkar from around 1830, from the Popular Prints collection of Museum ‘t Oude Slot in Veldhoven, with the text:
The blue-smocked Hessian travels from the Uplands, And guides his long team with ‘Hu’ and ‘Hot’ and ‘Haar’. His high-laden cart brings many kinds of wares, Which the Dutch ship carries again to North and South shores.
In the spring, groups of German musicians traveled over the Hessenwegen to the Netherlands. Some bands were very well known in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and The Hague. Although they presumably came from the same region, they were not called Hessians because they did not wear the Hessenkiel.
In addition, the hannekemaaiers came by in the summer: seasonal workers from Westphalia who helped in Holland with mowing grass and during the harvest. Women and children stayed behind at home to work on the land, while the men earned money elsewhere for the winter.
The end of the Hessenwegen
In the course of the 19th century, the significance of the Hessenwegen declined. In 1875, the last Hessians were seen near Zelhem, a meager group compared to former times. The Franco-Prussian War of 1870 and the subsequent industrial boom in the Ruhr area provided the Germans with a livelihood closer to home. Even many young people from the Achterhoek went that way to earn good money. With that, the Hessenwegen had had their day.
Older origins
Although the term Hessenweg was used from the 17th century, archaeological finds along these roads indicate that they had been in use for much longer. For example, in Aalten, at De Hoven near the Landstraat, traces of an 8th-century settlement have been found, including remains of sunken-floor huts, refuse pits, and spindle whorls. This is a strong indication that the later Hessenwegen built upon much older traffic routes, the so-called volkerenwegen (peoples’ roads).
It is therefore logical to assume that the village of Aalten partly owes its origin to this ancient peoples’ road. De Hoven was a favorable spot, because in the middle of the wild landscape of forest, heath, and marshes, there was a hill here, high and dry, directly on a through road. Moreover, a stream flowed at the bottom of the hill, providing fresh water.
Hessentocht
The memory of the Hessians still lives on. In 2011, a Hessentocht (Hessian Trek) was organized for the second time in the vicinity of Bredevoort and Aalten. During this trek, in which a historical caravan was simulated, an impressive ox cart took part: 2.60 meters wide, six meters long, and four meters high. In addition, three wagons participated, each pulled by three horses. Jan Oberink captured the trek on film and created the atmospheric impression below.
Acknowledgements
The content of this article is largely based on the article by G.J. Klokman (Zelhem, 1864), published in 1937. There are numerous other publications about Hessenwegen that present a different picture on some points. For this article, Klokman’s description was primarily chosen because his memories and observations specifically relate to the Hessenweg near Zelhem, the same route that also ran through Aalten.
Sources
G.J. Klokman, De Hessenwegen, in: Eigen Volk. Algemeen tijdschrift voor volkskunde (folklore) en dialect, 1937. National Library of the Netherlands
G.J. Klokman, De Achterhoekers, in: De Nederlandse volkskarakters, 1938. DBNL
Several theories circulate regarding the origin of the name Aalten. But what are they based on and how credible are they? Oud Aalten delved into history to discover more about this.
We begin with the oldest historical mentions of Aalten, as these may contain clues about the origin of the name. Next, we examine what toponomy (the study of place names) can teach us about this. We then discuss several theories regarding the origin and meaning of the name Aalten and conclude with our findings.
Deed from 1234, in which Aalten is mentioned twice as ‘Alethim’
Earliest mentions
There are several medieval documents containing a reference to Aalten, with varying spellings. The best-known mentions are Aladna and Aladon, after which the Aladnaweg and a school are named. Below is an overview of historical mentions, including a reference to the oldest known source.
828
A charter from 828 describes how a certain Geroward donated all his possessions, including those in Aladna, to the St. Martin’s Church in Utrecht on February 7 of that year. Little is known about Geroward’s identity, but he was presumably a Frankish nobleman in the service of the Carolingian Emperor Louis the Pious, son of Charlemagne.1
1138/ 1139
In 1138 or 1139, Godschalk of Versnevelde (Varsseveld), with the consent of his brother Count Gerhard (II) of Lohn, enters into an exchange agreement with the canons of the St. Mary’s Church in Rees. He transfers an estate in Megchelen near Gendringen, including associated hunting rights, two fields, a meadow, and nine serfsof both sexes. In exchange, he receives a property in Alethnin, with all yields and seven serfs.2
1152
In 1152, Count Godschalk (II) of Lohn, son of Gerhard II, reached a settlement with Bishop Frederick II of Münster. Godschalk claimed authority over the parishes of Lon, Winethereswik, Aladon, Versnevelde, Selehem, and Hengelo based on his comital title. The bishop saw this differently, after which it was established that Godschalk did not own these areas but was to manage them as a vassal of the bishop. 3
1188
In 1188, during the reign of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I, priest Everhardus, chaplain to Count Henry of Dalen and Diepenheim, compiled an inventory of Henry’s feudal (vassal) and allodial (free) possessions. The feudal properties were recorded under the parishes to which they belonged, including Ecberghe, Gronlo, Winterswic, Nehde, Ghesterne, Lochem, Almen, Dotinchem, Zelhem, and Althen.4
1234
In 1234, Count Herman (I) of Lohn, Lord of Bredevoort, together with his brothers Henry, provost of Zutphen, and Otto, canon of St. Gereon in Cologne, as well as his brothers-in-law Werner van Herden, Sweder van Ringelberg, Herman Werecen, Herman van Munster and their spouses, and all their further heirs, entered into an exchange with the Bethlehem Monastery. In this agreement, the monastery receives from the count, among other things: duabus warandiis, una in marchia Alethim et altera in marchia Silvolden (two hunting grounds; one in the mark of Aalten and the other in the mark of Silvolde). Witnesses include the parish priests Johannes from Bocholte, Conradus from Alethim, Ernestus from Winterswic, and Johannes from Versevelde.5
1254
In 1254, mention is made of the “curtis Grevinkhof sita in parochia Alethe“ (the estate Grevinkhof, situated in the parish of Aalten): Gotscalco de Reme receives from Otto van Loon in castle-fief the curtis Grevinkhof in Aalten, with the mill and further appurtenances, with the exception of the timber court. Present here Gerardus Canoninicus “frater domini G. de Reme”.6
1313
In a register of churches belonging to the Diocese of Münster from the year 1313, the following parishes, currently located in the Netherlands, are mentioned: Alten, Dinxperle, Eiberghe, Gheesteren, Grolle, Hengelo, Neede, Seelfwalde, Selehem, Versevelde and Wynterswik.7
1386
Derich Willemssoen van Lyntloe enfeoffed with Varenvelde in the parish of Alten, sabbato after Briccii ep. (November 17) 1386. 8
1409
Derk van Linteloe and his children Derk and Herman, declare to have sold to Johan Rensynck the estate ten Nygenhues, located in the hamlet of Lynteloe under Aelten and held in fief from the Lordship of Borculo, 1409 July 24 (in vigilia beati Jacobi apostoli maioris).9
Toponymy and sound development
Toponymy, or the study of place names, is a branch of linguistics that studies place names and seeks to explain their origins.10 A generally accepted principle within toponymy is that the sound development of a name is more reliable than its spelling, as written mentions in pre-modern times were inconsistent and influenced by scribes, dialects, and time-bound conventions. The sound of a name, by contrast, usually remains more consistent and therefore offers better insight into the original pronunciation and meaning.
Now, we are not toponymists, but when we view the sound development of the earliest mentions of Aalten chronologically, we believe we recognize a pattern:
For a period of four centuries (9th-13th century), these mentions consist of three syllables, starting with ‘ala’ or ‘ale’, followed by a d or t, and in most cases ending with an n. Although the spelling varies, the sound structure remains largely consistent. From the 13th/14th century onwards, we see that the second syllable gradually disappears and that the name corrupts into Althen/Alten/Aelten/Aalten.
Theories on origin and meaning
Below we discuss the best-known theories regarding the origin and meaning of the name Aalten.
Place on a hill
A frequently cited theory states that the name Aalten is derived from the Latin altus, meaning ‘height’. This explanation seems primarily based on the fact that Aalten originated on a hill and the phonetic similarity between altus and Aalten. However, there is no historical or linguistic evidence for this theory. Furthermore, this explanation does not take into account the sound development in the oldest known mentions of the name.
Homestead by the altar
Another theory suggests that Aalten was inhabited around 150 BC by Angles from the area that is now Berkelland. According to this explanation, the name is derived from the Anglian ael (altar, place of sacrifice) and thun (garden, enclosed yard). This would lead to Aelthun, or ‘homestead by the altar.’11 This explanation is also speculative and does not fit the sound pattern of the medieval mentions of the name.
Plant or tree name
In Gelderse plaatsnamen verklaard, Gerald van Berkel states that the name Aalten may be related to a plant or tree name and refers to the Old Norse alað (nourishment, food), aldin (edible tree fruit), or alda (fruit-bearing oak).12 Although there is no direct evidence for this explanation, it does fit the sound pattern of the medieval mentions.
Place by the water
In Prehistorische waternamen Maurits Gysseling suggests that the name Aalten is derived from the Indo-EuropeanAlatanā, meaning “situated in a bend of a stream”.13 In the case of Aalten, this would refer to the Slingebeek. Van Berkel, however, calls this theory far-fetched in Gelderse plaatsnamen verklaard.
Place name researcher Bas Kloens disagrees. In his study on place names and their origins, Valkuilen in de Plaatsnaamkunde, he states that it is actually “abundantly clear” that Aalten, like many other similar place names, owes its name to its location on a watercourse or stream.14
Conclusion
No single theory regarding the origin of the place name Aalten can be supported with hard evidence or completely ruled out. It remains, therefore, largely a matter of speculation. Nevertheless, we lean towards the theories of Gysseling and Kloens, who state that Aalten owes its name to its location on a watercourse, namely the Slingebeek.
Furthermore, despite Van Berkel’s skepticism, a connection with the Indo-European Alatanâ, which bears a strong resemblance to Aladna, seems plausible to us.
In short, although not scientifically proven, our nomination for the most plausible explanation for the origin and meaning of the name Aalten goes to Place by the water / situated in a bend of a stream.
The village of Aalten, situated on a hill by the Slingebeek (fragment of a topographical map from 1845)
Archaeological finds indicate that the early inhabitants of Aalten were already burying their dead around 800 AD in a burial field on the current Damstraat. During excavation work in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, traces of a Merovingian-Frankish burial field were discovered there. Notable finds, such as spearheads, stirrups, a shield boss, and silver belt links, suggest that a warrior may have been buried here.
On De Hoven, traces of habitation from the same period have been found, consisting of various so-called sunken huts – rectangular pits that served as work or storage spaces. Pottery fragments found here correspond with the finds from the burial field on the Damstraat.
The Christianization of Aalten
Following the subjugation of the Saxons by Charlemagne around 785, the Christianization of Aalten and the surrounding area began. Missionary Liudger, later Bishop of Münster, played a significant role in the founding of churches in the region, presumably including the first church in Aalten.
This church, originally likely a simple wooden chapel, was founded on a strategic and symbolic site: the elevated location where the current Old Helenachurch stands today. This site became the religious and social center of the community.
Archaeological research has shown that the residents of De Hoven abandoned that site around the year 1000. It is possible that, after converting to Christianity, they decided to live closer to the recently founded church to enjoy the protection of the faith. From that time on, the deceased were also presumably buried in and around the church.
Churchyard
A churchyard developed around the church, which played an important role in the life of the community during the Middle Ages. The churchyard in Aalten was originally much larger than the current plot surrounding the Old Helenachurch. It served not only as a burial ground but also as a place for social and religious gatherings. In those days, people even lived around or on the churchyard, often officials such as sextons or clergy who were directly involved with the church.
In recent centuries, skeletal remains have been frequently encountered during excavation work in the ground around the church, such as on the Köstersbulte, the path along Elim, and also on the Kerkstraat, where buildings now stand. The original burial ground around the church was therefore much larger than the current site on which the church stands.
Until the 19th century, the deceased were primarily buried in and around the church. Burial inside the church itself was reserved for people of status, such as clergy, nobles, and benefactors. It was believed that a grave within the church guaranteed a better position in the afterlife. However, most people were buried in the churchyard surrounding the church. Individual tombstones were rare in the Middle Ages; many people were buried in unmarked graves.
Health Risks
However, burial inside the church brought significant problems. A lack of space and the decomposition of bodies led to health risks; churchyards became overcrowded, and the situation became untenable.
Subsidence in the floor occurred regularly within the church, and the owners of the respective graves often failed to carry out the necessary repairs. The odor of decay in the pews near the hole in question was sometimes unbearable for weeks, especially during the summer months.
Aalten Market with church and ‘bone hall’, c. 1740 – drawn by Piet te Lintum
Epidemics such as the plague exacerbated this problem. Consequently, a regulation was established stating that churchwardens, in cases of negligence, were permitted to contract out the necessary repairs, whereby the respective plot would revert to the church.
The condition of the burial ground around the church was also often poor. Because burials had not been conducted at a sufficient depth for a long time, bones frequently came to the surface. A bone collector would gather these remains from time to time, for two bushels of rye per year, and cast them into the bone hall (also known as a charnel house), a small building in the churchyard on the Market side. When the supply became too large, it was cleared away.
Royal Decree of 1827
In 1827, King William I decreed by law that, from 1829, cemeteries had to be established outside built-up areas. For many people, this was a major step—to break with all traditions and leave the dead outside the village “just anywhere in the ground.”
The practice of burial in and around the church symbolized an era in which religion, death, and community were closely intertwined. The ban on this practice was a turning point that not only benefited public health but also marked a shift in how death was handled: individual graves were given more space, more funerary monuments appeared, and cemeteries were landscaped.
Christiaan Caspar Stumph, Mayor of Aalten since 1811, was annoyed by burials within the village. In 1818, he therefore had an ‘outside cemetery’ created for himself and his family on his estate, Het Smees. His son Abraham Anthony was the first to be buried here, followed by Stumph himself in 1820. In total, seven people rest on this unusual burial mound, which is still visible on the Nannielaantje in Aalten.
Following the royal decree of 1827, a site on the Varsseveldsestraatweg in Aalten was designated as a cemetery. Due to the growth of the village, this cemetery became increasingly enclosed by the early 20th century. In 1923, the Berkenhove cemetery was put into use. Although the Old Cemetery has since taken on the function of a memorial park, it is still sporadically used for the interment of the deceased in existing graves.
When the cemetery on the Varsseveldsestraatweg was established, the Catholic community was given its own section across the street, on the corner with the Molenstraat. This cemetery became full after only thirty years, after which a new Roman Catholic cemetery on the Piet Heinstraat was put into use in 1868. The small old cemetery later took on the function of a public green space.
On the Haartsestraat in Aalten, just outside the village, lies the Jewish cemetery of Aalten. Although the site officially became the property of the Jewish community in 1852, there are indications that the cemetery had been in use since approximately 1820. There are about seventy tombstones on the site, varying in age and design. At the entrance on the Haartsestraat stands a metaheer house, a ritual building used for the cleansing of the deceased according to Jewish traditions.
When the Catholic cemetery on the Varsseveldsestraatweg became full, textile manufacturer Anton Driessen donated a piece of land on the current Piet Heinstraat in 1868 to be laid out as a cemetery. He also donated an iron Calvary cross and an iron gate. The bier house dates from 1888. A century later, this cemetery also became full. From 1960 onwards, Catholic deceased were therefore buried in the new Roman Catholic section of the Berkenhove cemetery.
After the Old Cemetery on the Varsseveldsestraatweg became full, the ‘Berkenhove’ cemetery on the Romienendiek was put into use in 1923. The original section is enclosed between the Romienendiek, the Barloseweg, and the Koningsweg. Over the years, the cemetery has been regularly expanded. In 1960, a Catholic section was added because the Roman Catholic cemetery on the Piet Heinstraat was full. A modern funeral center and crematorium are located at Berkenhove.
The Old Cemetery on the Prins Mauritsstraat was established around 1830, simultaneously with the adjacent Jewish Cemetery. The site became available after the dismantling of the fortifications on the eastern side of the town. In 1925, a new entrance gate was installed, and a bier house was built a few years later.
Bredevoort once had two Jewish cemeteries. The oldest was located on the former castle grounds behind Hozenstraat 5. In 1953, this site was sold to the municipality of Aalten for housing construction. The remains and tombstones were then transferred to the second cemetery on the Prins Mauritsstraat.
The Jewish Cemetery on the Prins Mauritsstraat was established around 1830, simultaneously with the adjacent general cemetery. The last Bredevoort Jews to be interred in this cemetery were brother and sister Levi and Sara Sander. Both died in 1938, shortly after one another. The cemetery is not accessible to the public.
The Kloosterhof cemetery on the Kloosterdijk in Bredevoort was established in 1862-1863 and originally served as a Roman Catholic cemetery. The oldest, centrally located part has a symmetrical layout with a characteristic entrance gate, a bier house, and a Calvary cross. In the 1980s, the cemetery was expanded with a general section. A mortuary was also erected in 1989.
In August 2024, archaeological research was carried out on a site at De Hoven in Aalten, shortly before apartments are built. This research, carried out by members of the antiquities association ADW led by archaeologist Willem Doodeheefver, provided valuable insights into the early medieval history of Aalten.
The finds, which include remains of hut bowls, waste pits and metal objects, offer a unique insight into life around the year 900 AD. Previous excavations in this area, in 1982 and 1892, had already found traces of a so-called Frankish-Merovingian settlement.
Hut bowls
This is what the Aalten hut bowl could have looked like (sketch made by Willem Doodeheefver)
The most striking finds during the excavations in 2024 are the remains of some hut bowls, which became visible due to dark discolorations in the soil. A hut bowl was a half-buried, rectangular building, about three meters wide and four meters long. The pit was 0.5 to 1 meter deep and had no above-ground walls; The roof construction rested partly on ground level. This construction method provided shelter from the summer heat and provided relative warmth in winter.
Hut bowls served as craft rooms, usually on a farmyard. They were used for activities such as weaving, woodworking, metalworking or working bone. Slag was found at one of the hut bowls found at De Hoven, remnants of molten rock. This may indicate that the hut may have served as a blacksmith’s shop.
Waste pits
Several waste pits have been found scattered around the site. The waste left behind by the residents at the time provides valuable information about their daily lives, utensils and the dating of the hut bowls. Among other things, shards of pottery were found in the waste pits, dated around the year 900 AD.
1100 years of habitation
The finds give a picture of the landscape as it looked more than 1100 years ago. A favorable circumstance is that the soil of De Hoven has remained largely untouched during the past thousand years. The name ‘De Hoven’ refers to the gardens that were here for centuries, and the area has remained largely undeveloped to this day.
This and earlier archaeological finds on De Hoven, but also on the Damstraat, confirm that people were already living in Aalten 1100 years ago. This period coincides with a mention of a place that was mentioned in a document from 828 Aladna .
Why this place?
The choice of this place of residence in the early Middle Ages is easy to explain. Aalten is located on seven slopes that were formed in the ice age. De Hoven is located on one of the higher, dry and safe parts. For the residents, it was only a short walk to the Slingebeek, where they could get water and fish. De Hoven is also a stone’s throw from the Landstraat. It is possible that this was already an important traffic route in the Achterhoek at that time, an area that was still quite empty and largely unexplored at the time.
Smoking Competition in Aalten – Photo: Annemieke Klein Hesselink
We can hardly imagine it nowadays, but in the last century, competitions were organised in which participants competed against each other in various disciplines related to the smoking of cigars and cigarettes.
The Arnhemsche Courant wrote on 6 March 1908:
In the Catholic circle in Aalten, a smoking competition was held in slow and fast smoking. Mr J. Betting received the first prize for fast smoking, smoking his cigar in 7 minutes, and in slow smoking, the 1st prize was won by H. Weijkamp, who took an hour and 45 minutes over his pipe of tobacco. A useful way to pass the time as well!
In the 1960s, Dick Fries organised smoking competitions in Aalten. On the right, you can see a photo of the “Throwing a cigarette butt in the air and catching it in the mouth” event.
Photo: André Heersink
On 21 March 1961, the Dagblad Tubantia wrote:
Aalten has another smoking champion
Mr E. Jentink, Lintelo 67, became the champion cigar smoker of Aalten on Monday evening, for the time being for a year. He won this title during the annual smoking competition held at the Sociëteit on the Hofstraat. As is known, this competition is about the longest cone of ash on a 110 mm cigar. Mr Jentink managed to produce one of no less than 104 mm, however 1 mm shorter than last year’s champion.
The interest in this smoking festival grows every year and had already grown to over 200 participants yesterday. It went without saying that when the command “fire” was given around half-past eight and the brand was lit in over 200 cigars simultaneously, all were soon shrouded in dense mists.
It cost the participants effort to see how far his neighbour was progressing with the ash cone. It did not take long, however, before exclamations of “Oh, what a shame, I’ve lost it” rang through the hall.
After about an hour, there were only a few left who could be eligible for the championship. Very carefully, an attempt was still made to take one last puff in order to stretch for another millimetre. The result, however, was usually a couple of “glowing” fingers and an avalanche of ash over their clothing.
When the last cone had fallen and the balance could be made, it turned out that Mr Jentink had become champion with 104 mm. Mr A. Pokhuizen occupied second place with a cone of 103 mm. For the third prize, there were two candidates, namely Mr A. Driessen and Mr W. Winkelhorst, each with a cone of 102 mm.
After this battle, the participants were treated to a somewhat “lighter” programme, namely with a performance by Rudi Carell and Dick Harris.
Dagblad Tubantia, 19 March 1963:
Champion smoker produced an ash cone of 100 millimetres
Geert did not have it easy
With an ash cone of exactly 100 mm, Mr G. te Lindert, Lankhofstraat 23, became the champion cigar smoker of Aalten last night. It was certainly not an easy task for Geert, because more than 200 hopefuls competed with him for this title. It was the tenth time in succession that this competition was held.
Great tension and “avalanches”
Little has changed, however, over the course of the years. This was hardly possible, for since the first time this competition was held, this gathering has been at the centre of attention. Only the occasion with which numerous participants enter the fray has grown larger annually. For many, it is no longer a “gamble,” as they practise busily months in advance, and many let their nails grow longer to be able to hold the “butt” for as long as possible.
The sociability of the evening and the tension are certainly no less. From the moment the over 200 cigars go “into the fire,” a deathly silence prevails in the hall. “Shrouded in mists,” the jury members move between the tables to use the callipers where necessary.
“Skew burners” and “curvers” are already plentiful halfway through the competition. Familiar phenomena yesterday were again the avalanches of ash, under which a face, lapel, or jacket were often buried.
Geert te Lindert, a true lover of the cigar, succeeded in bringing the ash cone to 100 mm before it fell. How tense the battle was is proven by the 99½ mm ash cone that his competitor, and last year’s cup holder, Mr D.A. Driessen managed to produce. With a cone of 99 mm, Mr L.C. Rodenburg, who also won prizes last year, took third place.
After this exciting battle, a sociable evening was made of it with the cooperation of Lubbert van Gortel and Kees Schilperoort. The NCRV broadcaster recorded the competition for broadcast in the radio newspaper.
Dagblad Tubantia, 9 March 1965:
Smoking competition was a success
With an ash cone of exactly 100 mm, Mr A. Driessen became the winner on Monday evening of the annual and 12th smoking competition, which was held to great interest in the sociëteit. When the starting signal was given at a quarter to eight, the fire was lit in over 200 substantial cigars at once.
Within a few minutes, the smoke was so thick you could cut it, and the participants could hardly distinguish their neighbour. Of course, that was not necessary, as everyone had enough to do with themselves. Especially when the ash cone increases in length, and then often tends to start pulling askew, no one has any need to interfere with their neighbour’s smoking art.
It becomes different when, after half an hour, the first “victims” see their ash cone fall into pieces with a face of “Oh, what a shame.” Then the dropouts gather in large numbers around the survivors who, often at the cost of a blister and twisting themselves into all sorts of contortions, try to add a few millimetres to the wobbly cone by taking a few more puffs. It becomes deathly quiet in the hall, and the tension can be read on the faces.
So too last night, when all attention was focused on the smoking art of Mr Driessen, who finally succeeded in emerging from the smoke screen as the winner. Last year, he also won the 1st prize. If he succeeds in winning the championship again next year, he will become the definitive owner of the challenge cup.
In second place finished Mr H. Arentsen with a cone of 99½ mm. Mr J. Pluimers came in third place with a cone of 99 mm.
After the smoke screen had cleared somewhat, the participants were treated to a cheerful programme, provided by a cabaret company from Apeldoorn, under the motto: “Lachen is troef” (Laughter is trump).
The Aalten Volksfeest is an event that many residents of Aalten look forward to every year. Nowadays, it is celebrated during the third weekend of September. In earlier years, it was also celebrated on other dates. The folk festival is also often referred to as the ‘kermis’ (fair). However, the actual fair, meaning the attractions, is nowadays called the ‘lunapark’.
For many decades, the king shooting and the fair were held on the grounds near the ‘Festival Hall’ / ‘De Pol’. Nowadays, however, these activities take place in the center, primarily on the Markt and the Hoge Blik.1
The oldest mention of the fair in Aalten dates back to 1835. That year, the ‘Geldersche Volks-almanak’ mentioned that the fair in Aalten would take place on October 19. 2
In the ‘Eleventh report on the state and activities of the Dutch association for the abolition of strong drink’, published in 1855, it is written: “the fair in Aalten is insignificant, mostly children’s joy”.3
Volksfeest 1876 – silver medal
Medals are often a material reminder of an event in the past. This also applies to the small medal depicted here:
Silver medal Aalten Volksfeest, 1876 (photo: H. Schutte)Zutphensche Courant, August 12, 1876
The medal consists of a silver plate with a diameter of 22 mm, to which an eyelet has been soldered. The front is engraved with the text: AALTENS VOLKSFEEST, with a ribbon surrounded by a border of stripes. On the reverse is the date 16 Aug 1876, within a border of small lines and stripes. The edge of the medal is serrated; the plate is presumably a ground-down coin. It is striking that the engraving was carried out quite amateurishly.
Regarding the occasion for the folk festival, the Zutphensche Courant of August 12, 1876, reports: the opening of the Telegraph Office in Aalten. The precise reason for the production of the medal is unknown; it may have been awarded as a prize during the star shooting. 4
Stichting Volksfeest Aalten
In September 1973, a ‘Volksfeest Committee’ was established, created by the merger of the ‘Festival Hall’, the Schuttersvereniging (Marksmen’s Association), and the Fair Committee. Later, this became the ‘Stichting Volksfeest Aalten’. Ten years later, Wout Delleman (1927), Jan Willem Bilderbeek (1920), and Johan Diederik Beskers (1918) appeared before notary Obbink for the establishment of Stichting Volksfeest Aalten (SVA).
Parade during the Volksfeest in Aalten, 1970s
The core activities of Stichting Volksfeest have hardly changed in 50 years. Long before SVA was established, a festival, then called a fair, was organized every year. Children’s games, a lantern parade, king shooting, and the Allegorical parade are traditionally part of the ‘festival for everyone’. The locations have changed several times, and the Volksfeest has also moved from June to the third weekend of September.
Previously, the Volksfeest was held from Thursday to Saturday. Since 2014, Sunday has been added to the program with Frühshoppen.
King Shooting
Marksman King Mr. Veldhuis, c. 1965 (photo via H. Schutte)
A traditional part of the folk festival is the king shooting or bird shooting. King shooting is an old custom found in large parts of Europe. King shooting originates from the schuttersfeest, the annual festive folk entertainment of the local marksmen’s guild.
The tradition of king shooting has been known in Aalten since well into the last century. In addition to king shooting, Aalten also had ‘fladder’ and target shooting, and bird clubbing for ladies. Furthermore, at the beginning of the last century, one could also participate in ring tilting on horseback or bicycle.
The winners of the shooting competitions on Friday may call themselves king, queen, and youth king/queen of Aalten for a year. The following day, they are driven around in a carriage or cabriolet during the allegorical parade to greet the public. This is followed by the tribute to the flag by the flag wavers of St. Helena on the Markt.
De Graafschapbode, 30 October 1880De Graafschapbode, 20 October 1888De Graafschapbode, 26 October 1889De Graafschapbode, 24 October 1891
De Graafschapbode, 20 October 1894De Graafschapbode, 24 October 1896Aaltensche Courant, 12 October 190122 March 1907De Graafschapbode, 14 November 1908Aaltensche Courant, 15 July 19191927
5 May 19141928Carousel at the fair behind the ‘Festival Hall’, year unknownDe Graafschapbode, 22 July 1930De Graafschapbode, 20 July 1936
Your contribution is welcome! We would appreciate receiving more (historical) information and photographs regarding traveller caravans, families, residential sites, and related matters within the municipality of Aalten. Can you help us? Please comment below or send us a message!
In 1928, the municipality of Aalten published an ‘Ordinance on Caravans’. This designated a site on Tolhuisweg as the only location where caravans were permitted to park.
Ordinance of 22 Dec 1927 regarding the designation of a site for caravans in Bredevoort
World Travellers in Bredevoort
De Graafschapbode, 22 February 1935:
“Our Gelderland Achterhoek region is currently enjoying the honour of a visit from two ‘world travellers’, who are housed in the pictured, very practically and efficiently equipped caravan. In the front section is the sleeping area for the pair, as is understandable primitive in design, yet just sufficient. They provide for their livelihood by selling postcards.
From a chat with the travellers, it emerged that they originate from South Slavia, one of the Balkan states. Since 1928, they have been busy completing their ‘Journey Around the World’. A large part of the mainland of the European continent has already been ‘covered’, while currently, the Dutch—in this case, Achterhoek—soil is the focus of their visit.
The living area in the wagon contains ‘furniture’ of, believe it or not, a table and two chairs. The wall decoration consists of an extensive and certainly noteworthy collection of postcards from almost most countries and larger cities in Europe. To the question: ‘How is travelling here in Holland?’ we received the reply in broken Dutch that it is far preferable here to most other countries. A police officer might come to your bedside at night, but they have had almost no trouble with raids by rowdy youths or, as sometimes happens, from bandits trying to make their move. We also learned that another four years will be needed before the trip can be considered finished as a whole.”
What to do with Travellers?
Graafschapbode, 15 October 1937
Nieuwe Winterswijksche Courant, 21 October 1964
1968 Caravan Act
In 1968, the national government prohibited the nomadic lifestyle of the Traveller community as a result of a new Caravan Act (Woonwagenwet). They were forced to relocate to large, regional caravan sites. On 1 May 1970, the regional camp ‘Dennenoord’ was opened in Winterswijk.
All Traveller families, from Winterswijk to Zevenaar, were obliged to live at this site. The site featured a primary school, a clubhouse, and a scrapyard. There were paved roads, and every caravan had its own toilet.
With the abolition of the Caravan Act in 1999, housing policy for Traveller communities became the responsibility of local municipalities. In the municipality of Aalten, there are currently only a few residential sites for caravans remaining on the Singelweg.
Traveller site, Singelweg, Aalten
Newspaper clippings
Whenever Traveller families were mentioned in the Aalten news, it was often in a negative context. A search on Delpher yielded, among other things, the following reports:
Zutphensche Courant, 14 December 1904Aaltensche Courant, 23 October 1917Tubantia, 14 November 1951Tubantia, 28 June 1962
Arnhemsche Courant, 9 December 1912Nieuwe Aaltensche Courant, 6 July 1923Graafschapbode, 19 December 1924Tubantia 19 April 1960
De Telegraaf, 5 April 1917Zutphensch Dagblad, 14 April 1947Tubantia, 8 August 1961Tubantia, 19 October 1961
During the final years of the Second World War, many people in hiding (onderduikers) found refuge in the Achterhoek region. Aalten topped the list, with an estimated 2,400 people pursued by the Germans. “The inhabitants were not only devout, but also linked that faith to providing shelter to those who had been driven from their homes.”
Pieter Schaap (84) now lives in a tidy apartment in the centre of Aalten, having purchased the property with his wife, who is nearly 80, several years ago. “We lived a little further away, but the house was too big, and we could no longer keep up with the garden.”
That is not to say that the Aalten resident and his wife are not spry. The couple regularly visits their children in the west of the Netherlands and travels by plane to visit a son in Norway. Pieter’s wife regrets that they can no longer make those trips by car and boat. “You see so much more that way.”
The Aalten resident, distinguished by a thick shock of grey hair, still drives in the Netherlands. Among other things, he delivers meals for Tafeltje Dekje (Meals on Wheels). “But the physical ailments are starting to show. I recently had cataract surgery on one eye, and my hands shake a little; I can no longer write properly. I am considering stopping with the meal deliveries this year.”
Spoiled butter
Sixty-five years ago, Pieter Schaap came to the Achterhoek for the first time. The native of The Hague was forced to report to Winterswijk in late 1942 following a summons from the Germans, who were coercing young men into forced labour. “I reported to Kamp Vosseveld as instructed. It was very German there, very strict. We were allowed to go to church on Sundays, at least.”
Schaap grew up in a Reformed family but later joined the Gereformeerde church. “After the service, the minister invited us for coffee. We were regularly allowed to stay for a meal. They thought we were starving in that camp. That wasn’t true, but as a young guy, you could always manage a bit extra.”
Photo: Jan Ruland van den Brink
He disliked the conditions. “We repaired backroads and replaced sections of railway track. Everything was done by hand. You only had a spade and a wheelbarrow. Meanwhile, you were being drilled. We had to sing all sorts of nasty songs. I didn’t like the regime. I spoke about it, and then the minister said: ‘Why don’t you go into hiding?’ He said he could arrange an address. However, we were being watched closely; there were constant roll calls, making it impossible to escape. Until the moment we were served spoiled butter. That was early 1943; I don’t remember the exact date. Almost everyone had diarrhoea, and there was no roll call. That was when I slipped away. Together with Henk Bossemeijer, a lad from the Alphen aan den Rijn area.”
Pieter and Henk exchanged their uniforms with a family in Winterswijk, donned civilian clothes that had been laid out for them, and boarded the train to Aalten. “The minister had said we would be taken care of. And indeed, we were met by members of the resistance. Through ‘Ome Jan‘, the leader in Aalten, we were given shelter for the night. The next day, we went to ‘t Paske farm in the rural district of Dale.”
Schaap immediately felt that their presence was too much of a burden on the farming family. “The responsibility for two people in hiding was too great. ‘Do you know of another place for one of us?’ I asked. After a few weeks, I was able to go to ‘t Heegt farm in Lintelo, another rural district. There, with the Rensink family, I stayed until the end of the war.”
A hollow above the horse stable
The young man from the west with a technical background was quickly retrained as a farmer. He ploughed and harrowed the land using horses, cleaned stables, and fed the cows. “I even learned to milk, thanks to the family’s eldest daughter, who had just taken a course in it.”
At first, Schaap slept in the opkamer (parlour) of the farmhouse. Later, a group of 500 people from Scheveningen arrived in Aalten, having been driven from their village by the Germans in connection with the construction of the Atlantikwall. Schaap remembers it well. “The Gereformeerde evacuees went to Aalten, while the Hervormde evacuees from Scheveningen went to Winterswijk. That had been agreed upon with the local churches. Some of the Scheveningen evacuees were also offered shelter at ‘t Heegt.”
For the rest of the war, he slept in a hollow above the horse stable. “Above the manger where the horses ate. If I stood on that, I could just reach a small hatch that couldn’t be seen from below. I had a bed there, and some light fell in through a glass roof tile.”
He was not there often. Pieter spent most of his time in the fields. The man in hiding did not find it truly dangerous. “We didn’t have much trouble from the Germans. We did have to watch out for landwachters (Dutch collaborators), but they were always spotted in this area long in advance. I would usually go to a piece of land further away, somewhat hidden behind the trees. Or I would crawl away. I never stayed on the farm if there was trouble.”
A wagon full of crispbread
He stayed at ‘t Heegt for two and a half years, amidst many other people in hiding. Aalten was teeming with them. “There were more and more of them. The Germans also began to notice, and on 30 January 1944, the Westerkerk was surrounded by SS soldiers during a service. A number of people in hiding tried in vain to escape past the organ. The churchgoers were checked and fined if they had left their identity cards at home.”
The story of Gerrit Hoopman (19), a person in hiding, is well-known; in the chaos, he was provided with an outer skirt, a shawl, and a traditional headpiece by a woman from Scheveningen, allowing him to escape the church. That did not apply to a large group of other people in hiding; more than forty men were arrested.
Schaap, a faithful visitor to the Westerkerk, was not there that day. “We felt it was becoming too dangerous, so that Sunday we organised a service in a secret location for one of the first times. We called that the ‘underground church’. We did that at farms, always at different addresses. Often one of the boys would lead the service; sometimes we had a minister.”
Later, German soldiers were billeted at the farm. “They were young boys, paratroopers who no longer had any planes and therefore had to serve in the infantry.” He had little trouble from them. “To them, I belonged to the family. When they requisitioned a horse and wagon from the farmer at one point and gave the command ‘Bauer mit!’ (Farmer, come with us!), I jumped onto the driver’s seat. We headed toward Bocholt, but during a bombing raid, my passengers quickly disappeared—they looked for cover elsewhere. I waited for a while until I saw farmers with horses and wagons driving back and forth from a large warehouse in the area. I went over and said I had been sent to pick something up. I was given a wagon full of knäckebröd (crispbread), ha ha! I drove back with that.”
He was also part of the farming family to others. “All those years, I was ‘Piet van ‘t Heegt’. Some people still know me by that name today. We were recently at a gathering where we met an acquaintance from that time. She lives in Zeeland now. ‘Hey, there’s Piet van ‘t Heegt,’ she said.”
He did not suffer from hunger in the Achterhoek. “Every two weeks, I even sent a large rye bread to my parents. The postman was called ‘the baker’ at their place; he helped distribute the bread.”
Until his retirement, Schaap worked as a technician for the Royal Netherlands Army. His pre-war ideal of becoming a marine engineer did not come to fruition due to the war. In the hamlet, Pieter met his future wife. “She lived a few farms away.” The courtship did not go smoothly, as her father thought she was too young, and after the liberation, Pieter signed up as a volunteer for the Dutch East Indies. Only years later did he return to Aalten, where the farmer’s daughter was still waiting for him. “We have now been married for 56 years. We were truly destined for one another.”
In April 1939, a border guard detachment of 36 men was stationed in Aalten, housed in farms. Sand filled tubes are placed here and there as obstacles. Around 1 September, at the beginning of the Second World War, several hundred residents of Aalten left by train for the various garrison places. On 9 May 1940, the municipal architect was instructed to install barricades on several roads.
On 10 May, German army units thundered into Aalten. The soldiers stationed around farms offer no resistance. A few days later, Dutch prisoners of war are seen being transported to Germany in open trucks. Four people from Aalten are killed at the Grebbeberg. A group of five hundred returned prisoners of war are enthusiastically welcomed in the party building and then travel on by train.
Two hundred and fifty Rotterdam children stayed here in the summer months. This was also the case in 1941. A lot of (young) people go to work in Germany because it earns well. There is already a lot on the coupon. Food production comes under control, for which Aalten is divided into three districts, each under a local office holder.
People in hiding
In the summer of 1942, the first people in hiding came to Aalten to evade the Arbeidseinsatz. Shortly before, the first group of employees of Dutch Button Works in Bredevoort had themselves photographed neatly in their suits with a view to employment in Germany. A group from the Driessen textile factory is also deployed.
About five hundred Scheveningen evacuees found shelter here in January 1943. Almost all of them belong to the Reformed Church. In Winterswijk there are eight hundred, all Reformed. Once every three weeks a Scheveningen pastor stays here who also leads a church service.
Hostages
The Germans increased the pressure to get men to dig. The most intimidating thing was the detention of 12 hostages on October 18. The next day, 550 men leave for Zevenaar. Ten days later, another seven men are taken hostage and 250 people report. The pastors and R.C. clergy had made an appeal to ‘show mercy and charity towards those who are in immediate danger of death’.
By circular, a representative group of municipal residents insists on a repayment scheme. It will come. A pastor in Zevenaar will be there at all times for support and spiritual care. But there is also a clandestine stencil circulating with the call to ask oneself ‘whether it is responsible to cooperate in the enemy’s defences, as a result of which many more than eleven human lives (…) will soon be lost.’
The last months
A few moments from the last three dark months: Individual food collectors keep coming, but a committee ‘Aid to the West’ also manages to collect a few cartloads of mainly grain. Doctor Der Weduwen succeeds in transferring sick people from camp Rees to the emergency hospital in Avondvrede on the Hogestraat. Serious cases go to the hospital set up in the boys’ boarding school in Harreveld. Der Weduwen is killed when his car is shot at from the air.
A drama is taking place around a resistance group that is hiding in the abandoned farm ‘De Bark‘. Close to the door, in ‘Somsenhuus‘, Germans were billeted while seven Allied pilots were in hiding there. The total number of soldiers in Aalten at this time is estimated at about four thousand.
Liberation
In the last days of March, it is clear that the denouement is near. How hard will there be fighting? Many leave the village, others seek protection in their shelter. There were still German soldiers roaming around. Then, on Good Friday, March 30, early in the morning, the English tanks rolled into Aalten from Germany. Here and there, Germans still put up fierce resistance. Ten British were killed on that day, in Barlo seven people were killed in a grenade hit in an air-raid shelter. Sadness and joy, Aalten has been liberated.
Spuitbal was an annual recurring event organised by the Aalten Fire Brigade from 1981 to 2016. Each year, this water-filled spectacle attracted many participants and spectators.
Game Setup
In Spuitbal, two teams of six people competed against each other. Each team operated three fire hoses and tried to push a large ball into the opponents’ goal using powerful jets of water. Each hose was operated by a pair: the front player aimed the jet at the ball, while the rear player had to ensure there were no kinks in the hose. The team that scored the most goals in six minutes won.
In the early years, the Spuitbal tournament was organised at various locations, including at De Ahof. In later years, the event took place at Camping Lansbulten on the Eskesweg. The necessary water was pumped from the nearby stream.
In 2008, no fewer than six women’s teams and thirty men’s teams took part. Many teams returned every year, such as De Flippers, De Pimpels, De Pollekes, Atlantic, Schiller, ’t Noorden, and Jong Gelre.
The 36th (and, as of yet, final) edition took place in 2016. In 2017, the event was cancelled due to insufficient interest, and it has not returned since.
Spuitbal tournament at De Ahof (photo: Colenbrander family, via Leo van der Linde)
Video
On YouTube, various videos can be found of Spuitbal in Aalten, such as the video below from Jong Gelre from 2012.
For centuries, the bells of the Oude Sint Helenakerk in Aalten have tolled to inform the population of deaths, the so-called ‘overluiden’.
It frequently occurs that the bells of the Oude Helenakerk are tolled at various times in the morning. In the past, this happened more often than it does today. In former times, almost everyone knew what this signified. Based on the time and the number of strokes, people could deduce in which rural district someone had died, as well as whether it was a child, a woman, or a man, and whether the deceased was married or unmarried.
The custom of tolling the bells when a death has occurred is called ‘overluiden’. For many centuries, the sound of bells has emanated from the monumental tower of the church on weekdays. Many people pause for a moment and think: memento mori.
The bells of the Oude Helenakerk on the Market Square in Aalten are still used for this solemn moment, always in consultation with the next of kin. The ‘overluiden’ can be performed for all deceased persons, not just for members of the Protestant Congregation.
Meaning
If the bells are tolled at 9:30 AM, it concerns a resident of the rural district of Lintelo. If it occurs at 9:45 AM, someone from de Haart has passed away. At 10:00 AM, the bells toll for a death in Dale or IJzerlo, and at 10:15 AM for someone from the Aaltense Heurne. If it concerns someone from Barlo, the time is 10:30 AM. Often the bells toll at 11:00 AM, which signifies the ‘overluiden’ of a deceased person from the village of Aalten.
For a man or widower, the clapper bell is struck three times before and after the tolling. For a woman or widow, the clapper bell is struck twice three times before and after the tolling. For an unmarried person or a child, this occurs three times twice before and after the tolling.
In 2011, Aalten made national headlines due to a remarkable story: a small religious community had settled at the Rensink farm in Lintelo, awaiting the Apocalypse. They called themselves the ‘Wachters van de Nacht’ (Watchers of the Night).
At their farm, they were preparing for survival during the end times. According to them, the Apocalypse would soon arrive with a tsunami, causing large parts of the Netherlands to be submerged underwater. Higher-lying Aalten would, as a result, find itself located on the coast.
Jokers posted satirical videos on YouTube in which Aalten-on-Sea was presented as a sunny seaside resort, where the local retail sector had effortlessly adapted to the demand for beach entertainment. However, according to the Watchers themselves, anyone who ignored their warnings would have to face the consequences. A drowning death awaited them. In the meantime, the Watchers stocked up on large food supplies for the refugees they expected to arrive from the Randstad (the major urban area in the west of the Netherlands).
On 11 April 1996, Aalten was briefly global news. At the Kropveld-Schipstal Aalten (KSA) abattoir, 64,000 British calves were to be culled. This was carried out by order of the Ministry of Agriculture due to the potential contamination with ‘mad cow disease’, or BSE.
Never before in Dutch history had calves been transported to the abattoir with such spectacle as the first 108 head of cattle brought to Aalten from the Veluwe that day. The operation, which was to last six weeks, caused a great stir in the Netherlands and beyond.
For KSA, the slaughter of the 64,000 calves was a massive, and certainly financially attractive, job. The company normally slaughtered 2,000 calves weekly for the Japanese market. Those operations were suspended for six weeks for this special commission, during which approximately 10,000 calves had to be slaughtered per week.
Image: KesselsKramer, Amsterdam
Demonstrations
The lorries in which the animals made their way to the slaughterhouse were escorted by two riot police control vehicles. Upon arrival at KSA, they were met by a crowd of activists and curious onlookers. Members of animal welfare organisations, such as the Vegetarian Association, Lekker Dier, and PETA, had taken up positions at the abattoir fence with banners and sandwich boards. A funeral wreath hung on the metal gate, wooden crosses lay on the street, and the protesters wore black clothing.
As the first three lorry combinations carrying calves approached the iron gate of KSA, the jeering of the crowd swelled. “Murderers, murderers”, chanted a motley mixture of animal rights activists and local teenagers towards the drivers. Half a minute later, the gate slammed shut again. The slaughter could begin.
The private security service hired by the KSA management after a bomb threat had been received at the company the day before ensured that none of the protesters could enter the abattoir grounds. When the gate was closed again, a young PETA sympathiser collapsed and gave free rein to her tears. A group of locals reacted indifferently to the silent grief. Pointing at the piercing the girl had had placed through her lower lip, a corpulent Aalten resident lisped: “A piece of rope through that ring and she wouldn’t look out of place among those calves…”
Press conference
On the day of the arrival of the first British calves, a press centre was set up in café De Driesprong. Mayor Tijme Bouwers presided over the press conference. The municipality of Aalten provided logistical measures to clear the way for the dozens of lorries delivering thousands of calves daily. KSA director H. Swinkels emphasised that stringent safety measures had been taken regarding the potential risks of contamination.
To see for themselves that the slaughter was painless for the animals and, due to the measures taken, risk-free for the staff, journalists were allowed a look inside the abattoir later that afternoon. Wearing special overalls that were destroyed after use, the tour led past the slaughter hall and the specially refrigerated storage silos for the blood. This viscous mass—a total of 450,000 litres—was transported by tanker to Rotterdam to be incinerated. The carcasses were sent daily in sealed containers to companies in Son and the Frisian town of Bergum.
After a number of hectic days, peace returned to Aalten.
Aalten has a large number of farms with their own names. In the 1967 address book of the municipality of Aalten, about 480 are mentioned. Almost all of these names are unique. To avoid confusion, it was logical to give a farm a name that did not yet exist. However, one finds, for example, the Oude Loo and the Nieuwe Loo, Groot Kampe and Klein Kampe, even ‘t Paske, Groot Paske, Klein Paske and Nieuw Paske. These are often farms that previously formed a single homestead but were split into parts during division among children. Names with “Olde” or “Oude” then point to the original house.
When one examines those names, an interesting discovery is made. They can be divided into different groups. For instance, there is a group of names from which one can deduce what the vegetation around the yard used to be like and in what kind of environment the farm was established. Another group points to the trade that was practiced there in the past alongside agriculture and livestock farming. Many farmers, and especially the small-scale ones, had enough time to do something on the side to earn a bit extra, which was often necessary.
The practice of giving names to farms is very old. In the verpondingskohier (tax register) of 1647/50, the persons who had to pay the ‘verponding’ (a land tax) are recorded under Aalten, as well as under Bredevoort. But under the rural districts, the names of the farms are mentioned, followed by the names of the residents. Thus, we have a list of homesteads that existed at that time. Many of the current names already appear in it.
One must possess a very great imagination to be able to picture what the Aalten landscape looked like centuries ago. Nine-tenths of the land consisted of heath, forest, and swamp. The cultivable area was small and was only used for growing vegetables and a few cereal crops. Most farms were small: ‘stedekes’. Division of the common lands, artificial fertilizer, and better drainage put an end to the ‘prange’ and ‘marode’ (hardship and misery) of the farmer.
The following names require an explanation: Bokkel, called Buclo in 1284, beech forest. The Walfort was previously called the Waldenvort, a ford (through the Slinge) near the Wald (the forest). Similarly, Walvoort on the Haart, with a ford through the Keizersbeek.
’t Olde Brusse, Lintelo
The name Voorst (from forestis) was used for a forest in which hunting was not allowed; it was the private hunting ground of the king or the lord. The site of the Snoeijenbos was cleared in the forest. Brusse is formed from: Brusch, brushwood, ‘t Hagt and the Heegt: forest of low wood, perhaps consisting of hawthorn bushes.
The Slehegge may recall the blackthorn, ‘t Heggeltje: a small ‘hagt’. The Hakstege was located on a narrow path (stege) through the ‘hagt’. The Rieste owes its name to the brushwood (rijshout). The Heisterkamp was established on a site where much brushwood grew.
In 1386, the name Varenvelde appears, and later also the Verrevelt, which is now the Vervelde. The Veernhof also originated in a field full of ferns. The Tente owes its name to the ‘tente’, the common tansy. The Greute recalls the ‘gruit’, the bog myrtle, with which beer was fermented and which grew on marshy ground, as did the reed, which is found in the name the Riete. Waste uncultivated land, ‘vage’, is found in Vaags.
One should not have a grand conception of these heights. An elevation of half a meter was already called a ‘bult’, a ‘horst’, or a ‘heuvel’. These heights offered no protection whatsoever against the damp environment. The houses were very damp.
Names like De Bulte, Bultink and De Heuvel speak for themselves. De Brink (brinc) was a grass-covered elevation. De Bree (from bride) is considered a field on the ‘es’ (open field). Drenthel (originally Drenthelo): forest on an elevation. Haartman and Haartelink: a ‘haart’ is a high-lying heathland. Hengeveld (heng, slope), Hillen (hil, hill), Hoopman, the Klinke (hilly heathland with puddles and pools here and there).
De Horst (an elevation covered with low wood), Leemhorst, Seinhorst, Stokhorst and Winkelhorst. Leeland (lee, hill, also a place of judgment), the Limbarg (loam mountain?). De Pol: a small sand hill that stood out like an island above the surroundings. Pikpolle (pec, poverty): a meager hut on a ‘pol’.
Tammel (in 1384 Tanbulen): pine forest on a ‘bult’? Hondorp: village, mound, elevation the size of a ‘hont’, a unit of area. The Westendorp also points to an elevation. Wierkamp: ‘wier’, ‘wierde’, elevation protruding above a wet environment.
Farms located in or near a swamp
The largest part of the municipality of Aalten used to be swamp. Only the Bocholt–Vragender ridge protruded above the marshes. These ‘broeken’ (marshlands) were created because the small rivers the Slinge, the Zilverbeekje, and the Keizersbeek could not sufficiently drain the water. That is why so many farms have a swamp name, such as Goorhuis, Goorman, Goorzicht, Moorveld, the Stroete (marshy wasteland), Veenemaat, Groot and Klein Veenhuis, ‘t Veentje, Wijnveen (‘winne’ farm, farm in the peat), Hagenbroek (a marshland with hawthorn bushes), Kortenbroek (a marshland with short grass and therefore infertile land), the Woerd (woert, low-lying land).
Bolandsweide (bol, soft, marshy, mud). The Nonhof (in 1281 den Honhof) and the Hennepe (in 1284 Honepe), both names formed from “hoen” and “huun”. Luiten, popularly Luten, was low-lying poor land, ‘lute’, while Maris represented much the same: swamp. Glieuwe: ‘gliede’, black shiny soil, peat. Somsenhuus: ‘somp’, marshy land. Pietenpol (in 1640 Pytenpoel): ‘pitte’, pit, hollow, thus a pool in a low place, De Put (hollow, pool. ‘t Slaa: ‘slade’, heath pool, swamp. Te Sligte (in 1384 Schlichte): flat swamp. Mager: poor, meager land. The Navis possessed a damp meadow; ‘nate’, wet and ‘vis’, Wisch, ‘wiese’, meadow. Near Amerongen, the medieval residential tower the Matewisch still stands.
Pietenpol, Haart
Camp names
Stapelkamp, Heurne
A number of names end in -kamp. Originally, the ‘kampen’ were small pieces of land that had been cleared of brushwood and trees in the forests, thus reclaimed forest. Later, the word ‘kamp’ acquired the meaning of field.
Only a few names recall the reclamation of wastelands. Nijland, Nijveld, Nijhof, Nieuwkamp, Nieuwe Weide. The Bijvanck, what was ‘caught’ or taken additionally. Te Brake also points to reclamation, the ‘breaking’ of the wasteland. Ruwhof: ‘rude’, ‘rode’, reclaimed land.
Farms that recall passes, gates, tolls, etc.
A ‘pas’ is a passage in a ‘landweer’ (defensive earthwork), a wooded bank. The resident of the nearby farm had to ‘oppassen’ (watch out), supervise the persons entering. Such a farm sometimes bore the name “Pasop”. Along the Romienendiek, for example, lie the Paske, the Pasop and the Paskerhut: the residents had to keep an eye on the persons who entered the ‘marke’ (common land) through the Wolboom and the Zwarte Veen. On the border with the Varsseveld area near the Varsseveldseweg, there is also a Pas. On the Varsseveld side, the Loerdijk and the Kijkuit are located here. The ‘marken’ were well protected.
Among those who also had to take the ‘marke’ under their care was the resident of the Markerink, formerly called March-ward-inck. A ‘werde’ was a watch post, a place where one had to supervise the intruding unsavory elements. A similar activity was expected of the Ligterink, which in 1435 was called Licht-werd-inck: the watching apparently felt rather light there. The duty of keeping watch also lay with the Kuier and the Kuierman: ‘koeren’, ‘kuren’ meant “looking out”.
Did the ‘schutte’, who had to seize (schutten) the livestock from another ‘marke’ that had intruded into their own ‘marke’, live on the Schuttenkamp, and did such a person also live on the Man-schot-weide? Recalling the tolls are Slotboom, the Stokkert, ‘t Bonte Hek, Klaphekke, ‘t Tolhuis, Tolkamp and Tolder (toll collector).
Memories of the church
De Pater, ‘t Klooster (named after the Schaer monastery), Kerkhof (a farm of the church), Kerkkamp, Neerhof (den Heerhof, inhabited by the monks), De Kloeze, hermit, perhaps also Klaus. Kosters custerie: the proceeds of this property were for the sexton.
Beestman (herdsman), the Scheper (shepherd), Sweenen (swineherd), Fukker (breeder), Peerdeboer (horse farmer), ‘t Villeken (where dead animals were skinned and the hides were tanned), Baten (‘beten’, the tanning of hides). The Brasse (brewery), Pakkebier (‘backe’, also brewery), Schenk (public house, tavern) and Slikkertap (a tap in the ‘slik’, swamp).
Brethouwer (should we interpret ‘bret’ here in the sense of board, thus someone who made boards?), the Klumper and Klompenhouwer (‘houwen’ is chopping or carving), Kolstee (place where charcoal was burned), Kuiper (cooper), Draaijer (turner), Kappers, Kleuver (recalling the chopping and splitting of wood), the Smid and ‘t Smees (formerly Smedeserve). Papiermolen, the Olde Mölle, ‘t Olde Mulder, the Görter (groat-maker, hulling miller), Te Roele (in 1640 ten Rule – ‘rullen’, hulling of grain, hulling mill).
Bouwhuis Wever, ‘t Klooster
Den Blauwen (blue-dyeing of linen), the Wever (weaver), Bouwhuis Wever, Weversborg, the Pellewever (weaver who wove finer goods, such as damask and table linen), Schreurs, Snieder and Snijdershuis (tailors). Kremer (peddler) and Klodde (ragman). Speelman (someone who cheered up the parties with a musical instrument) and the Piepert (piper, flute player). Krieger (inhabited by a soldier? In 1640, a soldaetencamp also occurred in Barlo).
Farm names ending in -ink etc.
About forty farm names end in -ink. These largely point to the possession, to the estate of a certain person. They are mainly composed of a personal name + -ink. Lists of proper names that occurred in the Middle Ages have been compiled from all possible archival documents, and based on these lists, a number of farm names can be explained.
Hoenink, Huinink and Hunink were located in a ‘hoen’, a ‘huun’, a swamp. Another explanation that we must take into account, according to the CBG Center for Family History, is that names like Hoenink and Huinink go back to the Germanic personal name Huno.
However, there are a number of names that cannot be traced back to personal names. They clearly refer to something else. These are: Bekink (located near a brook), Bultink (located on a ‘bult’), Doornink (located in or near a thorn forest), Eekink (located on a site with oaks), Essink (located on an ‘Es’), Heijink (located on the heath), Kempink (located near or in a ‘kamp’), Haartelink (located on a ‘Haart’). Rengelink can indicate a “rinc”, which was a place of judgment. On the Borninckhof, the Haartse Wetering originates, so there are springs there. On the former Richterink, the judge held his proceedings.
There was a time when the meaning of the suffix -ink was no longer understood. People then began to form names with “stedeke” and “goet”. Thus we find, for example, Heijnengoet, Goossenstedeke, etc. In later usage, the words ‘stedeken’ and ‘goet’ were omitted. Freriksgoet became Freriks, Rutgerstedeken became Rutgers. Here again many farm names formed from personal names: Freers, Freriks, Bullens (from Bullo), Ebbers (from Ebbo), Goosen (Goosen, Goos), Heinen (Hein), Lammers (Lammo), Lievers (Lieven), Lindert (Lindert), Lubbers (Lubbert), Reinders (Reinder), Rutgers (Rutger), Wiggers and Wiechers (from Wigger), Wubbels (from Wubbel), Wolters (Wolter) and Rikkert (Rico).
In addition to the farms classified in the groups above, there are a few others that deserve special mention: the Tuunte was surrounded by a ‘tuun’, a woven fence, as were the Vreman and the Vreveld. The Zigtvrede had some preferential rights in the annual distribution of the ‘marke’ lands. One of these farms was called Seegvreden in 1640, named after the ‘seege’, the goat. The Hegge was surrounded by a hedge. The Sonderen also had rights; a part of the common land could be used for private use. That part was separated (afgezonderd) from the ‘marke’. The Meijnen was also part of the common ‘marke’.
The Haverland and the Haverkamp had the duty to supply oats (haver) to the lord or church, etc. On the Hemelmaat, justice was administered; a ‘hegemael’, a ‘heimael’, was a space surrounded by a hedge where a ‘mael’, a court session, was held. The Akkermaat owes its name to a meadow that could be mown in one day, and the Maandag to the piece of land that could be plowed in one day with the shared livestock. A former name would therefore have been: Mendag. The Hogewind should actually have been called the Hogewend, because this was the high end of the land where the plow was turned (gewend).
The Grotenhuis provides information about the size of the house and the Nieuwenhuis (in 1640 Nijenhuis) points to a then newly built dwelling, just like Nijboer. The Lankhof and Scheel indicate the shape of the land: long and crooked. The Korten (in 1640 Kortenstedeken) had only a short piece of land. The Heurne had the shape of a horn, a tapering piece of land, as did the Timp and the Timpert. Sad was the state of the Prange, the Marode and the Drommelder, which three names can all be translated as misery.
The Smol was “small and insignificant”. Could the Huikert have been a hay meadow or is it a distortion of the popular name Huik for Hugo? The Botervat: butter meadow? The Westendorp, the Oosterbosch, the Oosterhoeve and the Oosterman derive their names from the cardinal directions towards which they are oriented. Agriculture is indicated by: Bouwlust, Bouwhuis and the Bovelt (building field). Is the Hillo (Heiligelo?) a memory of paganism or was it a ‘lo’ on a ‘hil’ (hill)? The Leste Stuver was formerly an inn near Bredevoort where traveling people could squander their last penny.
Boerkoel, G.A.W., The names of the Aalten farms, published in the Oostgelders Tijdschrift voor Genealogie en Boerderijonderzoek (1984, no. 2, p. 1), edited and supplemented by Remco Neerhof (Oud Aalten). Some farm names occur multiple times in the municipality of Aalten; the added hyperlink in those cases usually refers to the oldest known farm.
The textile industry in Aalten was deeply rooted in the centuries-old tradition of domestic weaving and flax processing. In the 19th century, this craft grew into a flourishing industry, partly thanks to the establishment of German textile families such as the Driessens.
For centuries, flax was cultivated in the Achterhoek and the adjacent Westphalia region, from which linen was woven on farms. This cottage industry led to a lively cross-border trade in woven fabrics.
Numerous farm and street names in Aalten still recall this era, for example: de Weversborg, de Pellewever, de Bleeke, the Vlasspreideweg, and—due to the pure water—the Zilverbekendijk.
The arrival of the Driessens
Import duties on foreign fabrics were increased in 1823 to protect Dutch industry. German textile companies, including the firms Gebrüder Driessen and Peter Driessen & Sohn in Bocholt, moved to the Achterhoek. In 1826, they established themselves in Aalten.
With their arrival in 1826, 56 looms and approximately twenty families from Prussia also came to Aalten. Most of them settled here permanently.
Spinning flax on the spinning wheel
Growth of employment
The number of domestic weavers grew steadily. While the number was 292 in 1828, it had risen to 352 a year later, and in 1833 it was reported: ‘The fustian factories continued strongly, with the factories in Aalten typically employing approximately 630 weavers according to records. Both in this and in the surrounding municipalities of Winterswijk, Dinxperlo, Varsseveld, Lichtenvoorde, etc.’
The first factories
In 1829, there were two cotton mills in Aalten ‘which provide work for about 40 people’, including that of the Driessen brothers. In 1830, there were three, with approximately sixty employees.
On August 15, 1829, Jan Gerard Kraak ten Houten, ‘licensed shopkeeper and merchant in Aalten’, informed the Governor of Gelderland of his wish to establish ‘a fustian factory, spinning mill, dye works, and bleachery’ in his hometown, for which he requested permission. The municipal council had no objections to this establishment, ‘considering that the petitioner’s intention is only to have fustian manufactured by weavers at their homes, without erecting a spinning mill, bleachery, or dye works. This ensures sufficient work for the craftsman’, while no other interests are harmed. Ultimately, the King had to decide on the matter. Favorable advice was given by all advisors. It is not known how long this company existed or where it was located.
Sources
Geweven goed, the textile history of Aalten and Bredevoort H. de Beukelaer, J.G. ter Horst – Fagus, 1992
In 1968, Aalten put itself on the map by participating in the popular TV event ‘Zeskamp’ (Hexathlon). At the time, the municipality had approximately 12,000 inhabitants. The textile industry was in decline, and outside the built-up area, farming remained the primary way of life. During this period, Aalten was a pillarized village. However, Zeskamp appears to have brought about a turning point.
Zeskamp was a sporting event organized by the NCRV and the Belgian BRT, which they broadcast live on TV. At the time, it attracted millions of viewers, making it one of the most-watched TV programs. There were participants from six different locations: three from the Netherlands and three from Belgium.
Residents participated en masse and with great enthusiasm. People of various religious and ideological backgrounds worked together. For the first time, they truly met and got to know one another. In this way, imaginary walls were broken down.
The competitions were held on six Saturday evenings, each time in one of the participating locations. In Aalten, the Market Square served as the arena.
Ultimately, Aalten advanced to the final in Zutphen and won! The participants were honored with a parade through the village.
There is still a synagogue in Aalten. In recent weeks, one could read about it in both the national and international press. Seldom before can this Beth Haknesseth have been so much in the public eye. A procession of journalists has flocked to Aalten. “I can’t bear to see another journalist,” I noted from the lips of one of Aalten’s Jews. They travelled to Aalten because the synagogue has been defaced. It was but one incident among a multitude of anti-Semitic expressions reported in the Netherlands and abroad in recent weeks. One could have learned of those other incidents as well—though not in this publication. One simply cannot keep up with them all.
And not only that: anti-Semitism is not a question of us. It is a disease that proliferates and proliferates, usually in silence, occasionally openly. We ourselves are less upset as long as there is no survival involved, than the groups among whom the tumor rages. We ourselves have become more self-aware, more self-confident. On the one hand, it is because of the appalling that we had to go through only a generation ago — and what could happen to us even worse — because of the stimulating effect that the existence of the State of Israel exerts on us.
Perhaps these are the reasons that in Aalten there has been hardly any interest from our organizations — only Chief Rabbi E. Berlinger and the Permanent Committee showed their sympathy. The lack of interest on our part is in stark contrast to the dozens of letters that have been received from non-Jewish quarters. This can be read in one of the letters: “… Since the war, only since the war have many people, including myself, taken into account, not only what has been done to a part of our people in particular, without us having done or being able to do anything of significance against it (?)… And now this: what am I to do — how can we, non-Jewish fellow citizens, undo this insult, this terrible blow to the barely healed, so deeply damaged face. That’s the reason I have to write!!”.
Synagogue in Aalten defaced
In Aalten, people take note of the letters, of the verbal interest. Is it doing them good? Undeniably, it provides support. All the more fiercely one feels that there has been hardly any reaction from our side. What hardly causes a stir in the relatively large Jewish communities in the West, is still the talk of the town in Aalten. It is not surprising, the cold one is only small. What kind of support can one give each other? Not that there is fear, not at all. In Aalten, too, the defacing of the synagogue is considered an incident. But still…
Only nine families make up the chilly Aalten. Nine families with a total of 28 souls, seven of whom are children. They do not view the smearing of the shul, the destruction of the stones in the cemetery in Winterswijk with a shrug of the shoulders. Because there is a connection between one and the other. They are not unrelated facts. The police investigation has finally shown that those who caused destruction in the cemetery of Winterswijk are the same as those who smeared the synagogue in Aalten. It has been proven by comparison of the manuscripts and chemical investigations of the chalk that was used for chalking. But no matter how active the Aalten police are, there is no question yet that the active anti-Semites could be arrested.
Requirements only
The synagogue in Aalten, 1965
There is another synagogue in Aalten. But shul services are held only sporadically on Shabbath. And only with shul services can one actively prove one’s Judaism in the small kehilloth . Until last year, the services still took place every Shabbath. But in the last five years, three shul visitors have died and some young people have left elsewhere. Only when these young people come over to Aalten is there sometimes a service on Shabbath. However, the synagogue is now only populated on Jamiem Towien.
Nevertheless, Aalten still had its own chazan until 1948. He left for America. He was the last of the many excellent chazanim that this kehilla has known in its long history. Since his departure, one of the people from Aalten acted as Sjeliach Tsibboer. During the Jamiem Noraiem one of the young people comes from Amsterdam. It is no longer possible in Aalten to appoint his own chazan — apart from the question of where he should come from. The cold cannot pay his salary from the tax revenue.
“The Permanent Committee demands a share of this proceeds, the Arnhem district demands a share of the money. And people forget that we have to maintain our shul and that we have to take care of (our) large cemetery. Money is demanded of us, but what do we get in return? If we have a bar mitzvah, we have to beg for the arrival of a chazan. The bill will come later. If we need someone for a lewaje, the bill will be presented later: ƒ 0.25 per car kilometer, beyond the requirement that is not on the bill.”
Butcher knows better
There is another synagogue in Aalten. It is hardly used anymore. There is no more chazan. They have been to Aalten. Some were also mohel, most also sjocheet. This has sometimes led to skirmishes in Aalten. Because the four kosher butchers in pre-war Aalten did not agree with the shechete’s decisions. If the shochete said: the cow is treife, then the butchers knew better. The sjochetim then got all kinds of things thrown at their heads. One of them, Levi Gasan, small in stature and slender, was very afraid of the wrath of the butchers. When he found a cow treife, he quietly left the abattoir, ran the last few meters to the door and only then shouted: “The cow is treife!, because he expected to have a cleaver thrown at the head if he said it to the face of the butchers. His work plus the fear of life preservation was honored in those years with 1800 guilders a year. The respective chief rabbis did not exactly understand the butchers in Aalten either. Chief Rabbi Levisson in particular turned against them.
“The chief rabbis were authorities. If they held an inspection once every six months, people were nervous. They decided in more areas than they formally had to decide. They did not want butchers as parnassims. They kept an eye on the administrative decisions of the parnassim. They interfered with the salaries. And no one dared to contradict the chief rabbi”. Nevertheless, the Aalten parnassim often quarreled with the chief rabbi. They blamed them a lot. But these reproaches never reached the chief rabbi. He was back in Arnhem by then. On the heads of the chazanim the wrath of the parnassim was discharged. They received criticism in many areas: also that they did not provide sufficient education. It also happened because some church members had more knowledge than the chazan. Because there were many chewres in Aalten. They are no longer there. The children receive an hour of Jewish lessons every week. For youth meetings they have to travel to Winterswijk.
Things have sometimes been tough in Aalten. The taxes were low. Those who paid a dime more counted themselves among the prominent ones. Many rights were derived from that dime. In Shul people bid against each other to obtain a mitzvah. Partly because of this, the parnassim sometimes knew better what the income of the congregation members was than the inspector of taxes. Perhaps that is also why people were so committed to being elected parnas. The elections were in reality a get-together. But despite the battle for the kawod, there was great cohesion. The quarrel of one day was settled the next.
Quarrel
But there were frequent arguments. Because the Jewish community of Aalten consisted largely of cattle shochriem. On Friday evenings they quarreled with each other in shul because one had bought a cow from a farmer that had been promised to the other. On Shabbath morning, the quarrel was settled in shul. On Shabbath afternoon they visited each other, also to hear each other out. Shabbath evening people wished each other “gut woch”.
Aalten, which had eighty Jewish souls before the war and one hundred and forty souls shortly before the war; of whom many German refugees, was always a pious cold. “On Shabbath, all Jewish businesses were closed here. No Jew worked. That would not have been possible. The population had not taken that. It once happened that a Jewish representative of a Jewish firm from Amsterdam visited a shopkeeper on Shabbath in Aalten. He was thrown out of the store and his monster suitcase was thrown after him. “On Shabbath there is no Jew in my house,” he was shouted at. There is still a synagogue in Aalten…
M. KOPUIT
This article was written with the help of Mr. J. Weyel and Mr. S.I. de Haas of Aalten.
The Korten family, who after careful consultation exchanged the familiar farm in Aalten for an unknown future in Canada, were allowed to call themselves owners of a spacious wooden house and 45 hectares of land after two years.
Winter 1951 in the Netherlands, an important meeting about a burning issue. A meeting that may have escaped the attention of the Dutch people and certainly did not have a report in the press, but whose results have been no less drastic in the life of a family, rooted by generations in the familiar surroundings of our beautiful Graafschap. The meeting was a family gathering of the Kortens at the parental farm “Lensink” below Aalten.
The subject is familiar to many families in the Dutch countryside: what to do when the children grow up, get married and want to stand on their own two feet, have their own farm? A problem, although not new, but increasingly topical as the population increases, land is lost due to the construction of industries and the construction of roads, expansion of cities and airports. A problem for which no reclamations can provide a solution, tragic because of its unsolvability in its own country.
Lensink
“Lensink” is a farm, twelve hectares in size, where father Korten and his family already got the most out of it. A farm, which gives an existence to one family, but can no longer be divided. Under the roof of the familiar farm, a decision was made on that day of 1951. If no solution could be found in their own country, they would try it across the borders. Many had already gone before, including to Canada, also from their own area. And the reports heard from overseas about the experiences there raised hopes that perhaps a solution to their problem would be found.
It must have been a melancholy farewell in the autumn of that year. Farewell to the farm, the familiar surroundings, to the children who stayed behind because other ties bound them in the old country. A melancholy perhaps hidden behind the excitement of the big event and the nervousness of the preparations, but also gilded by the expectations of an uncertain future. Have those expectations been met? Was the solution found in Canada that was no longer available in the Netherlands?
In the autumn of 1955, four years after leaving the Netherlands, Korten will answer that question in the affirmative. In his cautious way, he will point out what was achieved at that time, with an open eye for the difficulties that lie ahead, but also with confidence in his own abilities and grateful for the horizons that have been opened up for him and especially for his children. Perhaps there will be those who, seeing the results, say that it is easy to achieve success with such a bunch of big children. But does that make any difference? In the Netherlands it might have been achieved only partially or never. The young families will have to struggle longer to get this far, may have to make more sacrifices for it and have more difficult early years. But they have the strength of youth.
How Korten is doing now
In October 1951, the family arrived in Canada and traveled on to a small town in Southern Ontario, not far from Hamilton. An old acquaintance from Aalten made sure that the family found work and shelter on a fruit farm, while a place was found for the family of a married son on a farm nearby. Korten stayed there for two years. The children were given work in fruit and tobacco cultivation, where good wages are earned during the summer through long days. The joint income was saved and in the summer of 1953 the time had already come to look around for companies for sale.
By that time, Korten will have become accustomed to the big difference between the Netherlands and Canada, where farms are offered for sale in abundance. Good and bad, cheap and expensive, big and small. He drove around with his sons for many hours, visiting companies, before he had made his choice. The available financial resources imposed limitations, the company had to be large enough for his family and offer development opportunities for the future…
If someone had told Korten before his departure from the Netherlands that he could once again call a vast vineyard his own, he would have laughed at him. But that unexpected happened, because in November, barely two years after his departure, the family moved into a farm, large 45 hectares, half of which were with grapes; the company that Korten had chosen. One can imagine that it means quite a change for a Dutch farmer of the mixed farm when he exchanges his place among the cows for a life in the middle of the vines, especially if he has no experience with grape growing.
The Kortens were in that position. A lot of adaptation was demanded of them again, much was and still has to be learned. Neighbors in this region, where many grapes are grown, gave advice and Korten now also knows that he can turn to the Information Service for advice. The pruning in the winter, tethering in the spring, the watering and tillage, the harvest, everything was new and strange. Gradually they grow into it and learn the tricks of the trade and the demands it makes.
Warden’s and Niagara’s, Concords, Fredonia’s and Diamond’s, grape varieties that each require their own care, are names that no longer sound strange to them. And that’s what this company needs more than anything else: expertise. Several times during the last few years it has changed hands, it was neglected and polluted when it was moved into. Production is still below normal, which is not only due to the fact that most of the vineyard is still young and not at full production. Pruning should be improved and old trunks removed. The buildings should be refurbished, but in Korten’s eyes that can wait a while. First production must be brought up to standard. And that already requires enough time and capital.
For his sales, Korten has a contract with a wine factory in the area. The price he receives for his grapes is fixed in the spring and is different for the varieties. Over the past year, these prices ranged from $80 to $100 per ton. These grapes are processed into wines and grape juices. Some varieties are more popular than others and Korten can count himself lucky with a considerable variety in the varieties on his farm, which ensures that he is more assured of good sales than when only a few varieties are grown. He sells a small part of the harvest as hand grapes to wholesalers or directly to the public. Although he can charge more for this, it also takes more work and time to prepare the baskets. Moreover, this sales are very limited.
Over the years, Johannes B. Korten has become a real grape connoisseur, who manages his extensive vineyard with care and consultation.
Grape cultivation is subject to significant risks, such as frost and hail damage, plant diseases, bird and insect damage, against which the grower can only partially insure or arm himself. Sales do not cause Korten any headaches and he gets a good price for his product. For sales, the Canadian grape grower is to a considerable extent dependent on exports to the United States, where production is regularly increasing. However, much has already been done in the field of marketing organization by grape growers’ associations.
However, it does not look like there will be any major difficulties in marketing in the future. On the Niagara Peninsula, where Canadian grape cultivation is concentrated and where Korten has his business, the same phenomenon is occurring that our own country knows so well: more and more land is being taken up for industrialization and the area cultivated with grapes is also declining. This region, so ideally suited for climate and soil type, has a great attraction for industry due to its location in a densely populated part of this country and the presence of excellent transport facilities. Although this development is not in the general interest of fruit cultivation in this region and there is talk of setting up regional plans to steer this in the right direction, it means a guarantee for the grower for sales in the future.
In addition to the vineyards, the company has more than 20 hectares of arable land and grassland. Originally, this was all in grass, but Korten only has two dairy cows and two heifers and decided to tear up part of the grassland. On the arable land, he now grows wheat, oats, corn and tomatoes, the last crop on a supply contract with a cannery. The cattle are also in such a state that he would like to keep more cows, especially because he needs the manure so much on the farm. But he is not yet sufficiently well equipped to be able to put money into this now. It is still “all hands on deck” to meet the obligations that have been entered into with the purchase of the company and also to develop the company.
The boys work with others whenever they can be missed, either in the construction company or in tobacco cultivation. Despite the heavy burdens, however, there is the satisfaction of building a life and the confidence in a future without fear of the problem that drove them to Canada: what are the boys going to do? There is now sufficient space for development on their own farm and beyond. Mother Korten now makes her own wine, not much but from “own cultivation” and good taste, to taste on special occasions. And on those occasions, she and her husband will sometimes reminisce about the time in Aalten, on the “Lensink”, where a son now holds sway and a young family grows up.
Do you have interesting stories about family members who emigrated from Aalten to Canada? Send us a message!
Four years ago, Marinus Rhebergen from Aalten left for Canada and he is currently on holiday in his hometown for a few months.
“Canada is, it is said, the land of unlimited opportunities, but don’t think that every immigrant in Canada will become rich in a few years. Don’t even think that everyone who emigrates to Canada will have acquired a position there within a few years, as it would never have been possible in the Netherlands. There are exceptions, there are people who are extremely lucky and have acquired a strong position within a few years, but…. They remain exceptional cases.”
This is according to Marinus Rhebergen from the Richterinkstraat in Aalten, who emigrated to Canada four years ago and returned yesterday for a holiday stay in Aalten, where his parents and other relatives live. Four years ago, Marinus left, together with his friend Constant de Jong, also from Aalten. It was actually a bit of an adventure for Marinus and Constant. Both had jobs and both were single. They did not have many worries. The unknown attracted them and they did not lack entrepreneurial spirit. One day we left, just like that, hoping for a blessing.
“When we arrived in Canada,” Marinus told us, “we had to get some money in our pockets. After we came ashore, we decided to step into the first factory we saw. It was a textile factory. Beforehand we had “tossed”, where it turned out in such a way that, if only one man was needed, it would be my turn first. I was lucky in that first factory. The director – an Englishman – could use people. He spoke highly of the good relations that had always existed between the English and the Dutch people. Of course I was wise enough not to talk about the wars with England. After a few days, the director came to tell me that he also had work for my friend. That’s how we both started working in the same company.”
Pamphlet to welcome Dutch immigrants, 50s. Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21.
In the office
However, Marinus did not want to stay in the textile factory. He looked for a job in an office and finally succeeded in a place in the north of Ontario. “I had a good job there,” Marinus said. “There was one objection to it; I was the only Dutchman in that place and that was not pleasant. The mentality of the Canadians is very different from that of the Dutch and when push comes to shove, you will always remain Dutch there. Whether you like it or not, you always keep your Dutch sense of sociability and community practice.”
Marinus has now gone to Aalten. For how long? Oh, he doesn’t know that yet. He is not tied to anything. He has quit the job in Canada. His boss there gave him a beautiful certificate and said that the office chair is ready for him at all times. However, Marinus does not want to be isolated among the Canadians again as a Dutchman. Somewhere else in Canada, he will soon try his luck again.
Getting ahead
Marinus has spoken to numerous Dutch people in Canada in the past four years, including several former Aalten residents. They are doing pretty well, of course some better than others. “In general,” says Marinus, “someone who has a small business or a small farm in the Netherlands should not think that he will be able to work in Canada within a few years. Many who were so-called small self-employed in the Netherlands, are also self-employed in Canada. If one wants to take giant steps on the road to fortune, one must fully adapt to the Canadians. That means, adopting their good qualities, but also the bad ones. Then one gets a lot of relationships and that is of enormous importance, but not moral.
Constant de Jong, who left at the same time as Marinus, still works in the same factory. He was less able than Marinus to change, because he married there a few years after arriving in Canada. And Constant is a man with Dutch responsibility; A married man should not go on adventures. Marinus has remained loyal to the bachelor life.
Voortman family
Marinus Rhebergen often visited the Voortman family in Canada. This was not only caused by the fact that there are four boys in this family, with whom it is pleasant to talk, the wife of Voortman Sr. comes from Aalten. Mr. Voortman, who was a widower, remarried in Hamilton to Ms. Cato te Brake, who left for Canada a few years ago. The Voortman family, says Marinus Rhebergen, first lived in Picton for a number of years. After several years of hard work and considerable savings, Mr. Voortman decided to buy his own house.
He succeeded in Hamilton, where there was a large house for sale in the center of the city. Mr. Voortman became the owner of this building and decided to furnish it partly as a guest house. Business went very well almost from the start. According to Marinus Rhebergen, this was mainly due to the good reputation that the boarding house received. They were mainly unmarried Dutch immigrants, who boarded with the Voortman family.
They had a good time there. Not only was good food and drink provided, but a lot of attention was also paid to creating a cozy atmosphere. In general, the Canadian boarding houses do not excel in conviviality. The Canadians are less fond of domestic traffic than the Dutch and this is also evident from the design of their homes.
Boarding houses
Especially the unmarried Dutch immigrant does not have an easy time in Canada. Financially, if he knows how to get things done, he can get by, but earning money alone does not make the emigration successful, one must also feel at home in the new environment.
Unmarried people in Canada are dependent on boarding houses. “That’s not all,” says Marinus. “There is almost no domestic traffic and you miss the cozy atmosphere of the Dutch families. The Dutch immigrants also often have boarders, but one drawback is that a Dutch family sometimes has eight to ten boarders. That sometimes makes the flush thin.”
The young people, who have their boarding house with the Voortman family, all feel at ease in Canada and that is also the case with the young men, who spend a few pleasant hours here in the evening after work.
Other immigrants from Aalten
Marinus Rhebergen also met many other immigrants in Canada. Of course, he mainly visited Dutch people from Aalten. Mr . J. Bierman from Lintelo initially worked on a farm in southern Ontario for a few years. A few years ago, he bought a farm in Cochrane, in northern Ontario. The land was cheap and is good. A disadvantage is that people live quite lonely in the north and that the winter is long there. Mr. Bierman mainly grows a lot of potatoes. The farm is about 500 hectares in size.
Mr . G.C. Stronks, formerly living on the Hogestraat in Aalten, works in Burlington on a market garden. He is currently building a house himself.
Mr . Ant. Lammers, who had a bookstore in Aalten on the Landstraat, lives with his family in Hamilton. Mr. Lammers was first a pioneer for a few years, but now has permanent work in a printing house and bookstore. So he has ended up back in his own industry.
Mr . J. Wiggers, one of the directors of the furniture factory Luimes and Wiggers in Aalten, has been living in Smithfield near Trenton for several years. Mr. Wiggers is a craftsman who is also greatly appreciated for his work in Canada. He has mainly focused on taking care of interiors of homes. He has built a beautiful house for his own family. Mr. Wiggers takes on the finishing of homes in Canada.
Mr . H. Winkelhorst, who lived in Aalten on the Koopmanstraat, now owns a farm in Smithfield. He has now bought the company, which he had rented for several years.
Mr. Bertus Prinzen, who ran a grocery store on the Hogestraat in Aalten, and was one of the first emigrants from Aalten, has a large farm in Jarvis – a cattle farm. Mr. Prinsen has numerous positions in public life in Jarvis. He is a source of information for many immigrants.
Mr. Bernard Prinsen from IJzerlo, has a good farm in Bloomfield near Picton. It is a mixed farm. His son also works on the farm, after he had first worked for the General Motors for a few years.
Mr. Willem Prinzen, who lived in Aalten on the Willemstraat, works for a construction company, together with one of his sons. His other sons also have good work. The W. Prinsen family lives in Bloomfield, where they have bought a house. In Aalten, Mr. Prinsen was a wholesaler in textiles.
The brothers Geert, Arie and Wim Lammers from Aalten have found well-paid work in Canadian factories.
Do you have interesting stories about family members who emigrated from Aalten to Canada? Send us a message!
As scratchy and as cheerful as she left Aalten six months ago to visit her relatives in Canada, Mrs. wed. Lammers-Bulsink, better known in Aalten as “grandma Lammers”, arrived back at her home in the Willemstraat.
On November 30 of last year, this energetic woman, of whom one can hardly believe that she will turn 84 this year, left with the Rhine Dam to Canada to visit her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, who emigrated to Canada after the war and had written several times in letters: “Grandma, you should be able to see, how we have it here”.
Granny Lammers, after some consideration, accepted this invitation and left for Canada at the end of last year. She visited her many family members, who had a hard time imagining that “granny” really came to watch, and also gave her eyes a good feast. She also met other former Aalten residents in Canada. The visit of their elderly mother and grandmother was a surprise for the children and grandchildren in Canada, bigger than one could have imagined there.
Granny Lammers, who had a pleasant time in Canada, traveled back on May 14 with the Rijndam. Yesterday she arrived in Rotterdam, where she was picked up by her children. She then drove by car to Aalten, where she arrived last night at seven o’clock. She had to shake many hands of family, neighbors and acquaintances upon arrival. She had had a good time in Canada, she said.
Last night, the Lammers family, who live in the Netherlands, met in an intimate circle in the “Irene” building. There grandma told about her experiences and she knew how to do this in a very entertaining way, so that everyone could get an idea of the circumstances under which the “Canadian branch” of the Lammers family lives.
When grandma Lammers left Aalten, she took an audio tape with her for the family in Canada, on which words spoken by the Aalten family members were recorded. The playing of this tape caused a lot of joy and surprise in the Canadian family circle. Granny Lammers also brought a soundtrack from Canada. For example, last night in the family meeting, the voices of the relatives in Canada were heard. It turned out that many had not yet forgotten the Aalten dialect.
Do you have interesting stories about family members who emigrated from Aalten to Canada? Send us a message!
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