‘Veenhuizen boeit’. One of the best choices of a name for the future of a town. In Dutch the word ‘boeien’ means intrigued as well as cuffed (a prisoner). Veenhuizen used to be the place where outcasts and later prisoners were kept. Veenhuizen is one of the four so called Colonies of Benevolence which became UNESCO World Heritage sites on the 26th of July 2021. The other colonies are Frederiksoord en Wilhelminaoord in the Netherlands and Wortel in Flanders (Belgium). We were pleased not to have been part of the selection committee, because we would have had to explain why the other colonies - Willemsoord and Ommeschans in the Netherlands and Merksplas in Belgium - did not acquire this status. We have visited them all. On the other hand, it is good that four colonies have been acknowledged as that brings more attention to these extraordinary places and their history. It is hard to believe that in the municipalities of Westerveld and Weststellingwerf, where Veenhuizen lies, the current intention is to bore for gas. Early research shows that this will compromise UNESCO World Heritage status, not to mention its impact on the cultural heritage, landscape and protected species of plants and animals. Let’s hope that the Minister of Economics and Climate will look at the bigger picture!
There is something about these colonies that fascinates us: founded non-commercially more than two hundred years ago, established to improve the world - alas, this did not work - yet you can still wander around in what they have left behind. We find it easy to judge such things as a failure, much too easy if you ask us. What can we learn from this? What also puzzles us, is how can we let it remain a part of today with respect for both past and present?
A lot has been written about Veenhuizen. The Dutch book ‘Pauperparadijs’ (Pauper Paradise) by Suzanne Jansen (2016) was the first book to tell the story of Veenhuizen to a wider audience and was followed by many theatre performances. The ‘Foundation Colonies of Benovolence’ (yes, this still exits) has published a book called ‘An extraordinary experiment’ and the prison museum (located in one of these buildings) has published an architectural walk with the title ‘From Façade to Façade’. Recently a jubilee book has been published, 200 years of Colonies of Benevolence. The proof that the history of Veenhuizen is not easily comprehensible is confirmed by the most recent book released in 2023: "The Maintenance and Color Handbook of Veenhuizen" by Els Bet and Heide Hinterthür. Through extensive research in national and international archives and by removing paint layers on-site, the foundation for this book was established. They didn't limit themselves to the buildings alone; they also studied the landscape's development. The result is an inspirational document divided into four parts: landscape, building blocks of the structures, evolution of the color palette, and the model types. All 173 residential addresses in Veenhuizen received a personal invitation to the book's presentation.
Even with these documents in hand, it is very hard to unravel the history on site as it has so many layers. We hope to help with a compact story and especially with Jan’s maps. We start by explaining the history and after that we take you for a walk from the First to the Fourth Institute. You can stay at the Bitter and Sweet Hotel Restaurant, to have enough time to explore this Colony of Benovolence and to experience it on the inside as well. We have slept both in the old pharmacy and in the building with the sign ‘Vertrouw op God’ (Trust in God) which was an infirmary and not a church. With the old photos hanging there you get a good impression of the turbulent history of Veenhuizen. You can walk in the National Park Fochteloërveen, which gives you an idea of how the landscape was at the time Veenhuizen was founded. It also gives you a feeling of being far from the rest of the world, even today. We have visited Veenhuizen quite often and we haven’t seen the last of it yet. It will never bore you.
History
To appreciate the development of the colonies, you first need to understand the situation in the Netherlands at the beginning of the 19th century. After Napoleon lost the battle in Waterloo in 1815, the United Kingdom of the Netherlands was founded with the new King William I as its ruler. The country was in quite a bad state socially and economically, especially in the cities. The Dutch East India Company, that brought so much wealth at the expense of others, was dissolved in 1798. Even in the southern part of the Kingdom (now Belgium), where the first steps of the industrial revolution took place on the mainland, it wasn’t any better. Unemployment was huge, and a third of the population depended on public support. The large group of the poor in the cities was felt as an economic, social and political burden.
King William I, in January 1818, received a request from a Company of Benevolence from Johannes van den Bosch and his allies from middle-class citizens to provide work for the numerous classes of citizens in need. As is written in the definitive mission of the Company: ‘to cultivate and fertilize the uncultivated land in our homeland, and by colonisation with the poor who are suited for such work’. A new business model was put together by combining three issues poverty, land cultivation and unbuilt land. The Company spotted the uncultivated heather fields and peat bogs in the northern part of the Kingdom. Article 8 of the Charter said
‘The purpose of the Company is mainly to improve the situation of the lower classes by providing work, maintenance and education, in the hope to elevate them towards a higher civilization, enlightenment and means of employment’.
The Company of Benevolence could be seen as a forerunner of today’s crowdfunding for a good cause, which is a lovely thought. Every Dutch citizen could become a member if they paid a contribution. A substantial recruitment campaign started. This resulted in 21,000 members and a contribution of 72,000 Guilders (now about €500,000). It was also a very early form of a public-private partnership. In addition to the money given by the State, the royal family and the interest on the founding capital, there were donations, legacies, and income from the sales of the Company’s products. It was a national company with local departments. These departments were responsible for choosing and sending the colonists, recruiting members and collecting money. In the olden days the poor were taken care of by local administrations, churches and middle-class organisations, but there were too many poor people to handle.
Who was the man who brought this idea to the attention of the King? Johannes graaf van den Bosch. He was born in the village of Herwijnen in 1774, went to Java as a lieutenant in 1797 and had a quickly escalating career. As a plantation owner he worked on drainage and land exploitation in the area of Batavia (now Djakarta). In 1811 he returned to Europe where he was a prisoner-of-war in England for a short while. Two years later he was back in the Dutch army. With his experience in the overseas colonies of the Netherlands he was well suited as Director of the Company of Benevolence to realise the plan made by his middle-class friends. They thought it best if the ‘riff-raff’ would leave their cities. It also suited the spirit of the Enlightenment: people are free and autonomous, they can change themselves for the better. In 1827 van den Bosch was sent to the West Indian colonies, Surinam and the Dutch Antilles. One year later he was appointed Governor-General in the East Indies to make these overseas areas profitable. He became the Minister of Colonies in the Dutch government in 1834. Five years later he resigned. He died in 1844.
In 1818 the Company of Benevolence started to buy land for the settlement of the colonies. They developed seven colonies in total. The land was uncultivated, found in the provinces of Drenthe in the Netherlands and Kempen in Belgium (part of the Netherlands from 1815-1830). The first-founded colonies were ‘free’ but by 1820 the colonies were a place where beggars (then a criminal offence) were put to forced labour on the land. The first experimental colony was Frederiksoord in south-east Drenthe, quickly followed by Wilhelmina and Willemsoord which made this a colonial area. It didn’t take long to realise that the colonies didn’t rise to expectations. It was much harder to discipline the colonists and they had misjudged the desire of city beggars to work the land. The critics labelled the colonists as serfs because the Company had its own rules and the colonists could never pay off their debts. The business model had not worked and Johannes van den Bosch had to look for different ways to make the colony feasible.
The first solution that he found was to accommodate beggars in a penal colony in a desolated military stronghold: Ommerschans just north of Ommen. Disobedient colonists were added too, sent there as a punishment. The concentration of a problematic group of people combined with strong falling prices of wheat, meant that a new course was necessary. A large group of vagrants, beggars, orphans, abandoned infants and families needed accommodation. A second penal colony was founded in 1822 next to Ommerschans: Veenhuizen near the village Norg. It became a colony covering 5685 acres.
People were not accommodated as families in Veenhuizen as in the first colonies, but in groups: men, women and children. Daily life was strictly regulated and included church and school attendance. The penal colony in Veenhuizen was organised in a totally different way than the older so-called ‘free’ colonies that looked like small farms. Three big square shaped buildings were built, each surrounded by a moat. Each of these Institutes could accommodate 1200 people, which made Veenhuizen the largest of all the colonies. Farms were located around these Institutes.
In 1859 the captive colonies are placed under the administration of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Ten years later the legislation of the care of abandoned children and orphans was repelled and Veenhuizen became a prison. Because of this change Veenhuizen fell under a different administration, the Ministry of Justice. In 1888 the name changed to the ‘State Institute for Recurrent Offenders’. Twenty years later the first prisoners arrived. The number of patients - as the first inhabitants were called - diminished rapidly. This can be seen by the way people were accommodated, not only for the inmates but also for the staff, and the new buildings on the premises, such as a hospital with pharmacy, a Roman Catholic church, barracks, slaughterhouse, mill, power plant, new farms and many houses for the staff. These buildings were designed by the architect working for the Ministry of Justice (J.F. Metzelaar sr) until 1883; followed by his son W.C. Metzelaar until 1914.
Veenhuizen became known as Dutch Siberia and became a self-sustaining community until 1980. At that moment the State pulled back and stopped maintaining the public spaces. The Ministry of Justice maintained the prison buildings on the estate (Esserheem and Norgerhaven). Ownership passed on to the State Real Estate Company with an unknown future. The owner decided not to put the Estate directly on the market but gave some direction regarding its future first. They started a campaign called ‘Veenhuizen boeit’ as explained at the beginning of this story. A partnership with the Dutch Design Academy Eindhoven resulted in innovative projects about the core values of Veenhuizen: imprisonment/ban, work/life, discipline/care, then/now and landscape. You can find these projects on the website Collectie Veenhuizen (2014-2019), including, for example, the Turver (writing with peat ink), Drents mud (mud mask) and LandWerkTuig (tools that are made in the prison and can be used to cultivate land such as shovels).
In 2021 the owner organised a competition to sell the estate. The Foundation Boei and Drents Landscape won the competition because they looked at the Estate as a whole and not just the buildings. The Foundation De Nieuwe Rentmeester (the New Commissioner) is now the owner of the land and its 80 monumental buildings. Their website notes the following:
‘Veenhuizen will be a place for New Colonists, a place for social and special experiments within a unique monumental ensemble. It will be the historical setting for culturally and socially spirited entrepreneurs and inhabitants who feel at home in this future and for the visitors who want to experience it. It is also a place for people who want to catch their breath in a special environment. In the future it will become a new home for the existing and new inhabitants.’
To us it seems like an appropriate direction for the future development of Veenhuizen, combining past and present with added value. Since the energy crisis following the war in Ukraine in 2022, sustainability is also a matter that needs attention. On of the 1st January 2023, Bas Morsink from Denekamp became the new Director of Veenhuizen’s future. It will be worthwhile to follow the future developments.
As a suggestion for the direction of your walk, we chose to walk from the First to the Fourth Institute: where one started at the beginning of the colony and where one would end. It may come in handy to keep the two maps next to each other: the original foundation map and a current map, either printing them or switching digitally from one to another.
You wouldn’t normally come here visiting Veenhuizen. It is at the edge of town and not open to public.
The former First Institute was demolished because of frailty and in 1884 a new First Institute was built, near the Limietweg. In 1929 it was reconstructed from a square into a U shape. In 2005 another reconstruction transformed the building into an office and Custody Centre belonging to the Justice department, bearing the name Norgerhaven. You will find some other old buildings close to the First Institute, and along the channel some company houses and a former school. Nearby you can find one of the last sheds built with peat. We were directed to this by the cheese company named Kaaslust (located in the Maallust complex). They use the shed for ripening organic peat goat cheese. It is just like in France where certain caves are used for ripening cheese as this adds a certain flavour. In the Netherlands we have wiped away our history of peat. Abroad, for instance in England or Germany, you can still find areas where peat is extracted and you can see peat stacked on the premises. It is fascinating to see it here used as a building material. I tried to get a glimpse of the interior by peeking through the cracks near the door, but it was too dark.
The Hoofdweg along the Veenhuizerkanaal (channel of Veenhuizen) is a very busy street nowadays, but is a good line to follow.
It takes you along some of the 20th century houses, and after the Esweg, you will pass the former location of the swimming pool. These houses and the pool were built after it appeared that some houses would have to be demolished to widen the channel. In the end only a few houses were demolished. As we come near the Kerklaan (Church Lane) we return to the more historical part of Veenhuizen. On the right-hand side of this street the old company houses for the lower civil servants can be found, dated 1904. Behind those houses you can find the Roman Catholic church, St. Hiëronymus Aemilianuskerk (1891-93), built by W.C. Metzelaar, the Company Architect. The church was closed in May 2012 and the building is now used by the Christian primary school. On the left-hand side of the church you can find the former vicarage from 1908, looking quite like one of the types of company houses seen somewhat often in Veenhuizen.
Walking back to the Hoofdweg you pass the Dutch Reformed Church built as a cupola church following the example of the church in Smilde. A plaque is in remembrance of the first stone laid by the wife of Generaal van den Bosch, Rudolphina Wilhelmina van den Bosch-Sturler on the 7th of July 1826. Outside the church you can still find two of the original eight urinals which the patients were expected to use before the commencement of the service. Jan can’t leave the urinal unused; he always does that when we encounter them. As he always says, ‘there is demand so they have to stay’. Going back to the Hoofdweg you can find the old verger’s house from 1865. It is also known as the little Pancake house.
We continue along the Hoofdweg to the west. Here you can find some remarkable buildings:
- The Assembly building, built in 1920-1922 by S. Wine, the State Architect, ordered by the Ministry of Justice. The building was for the personnel of the state prison Veenhuizen ‘for the relaxion of body and spirit’. Drama and gymnastics assemblies and the bowling alley were in this building.
- The Director’s house, a neoclassical villa was built in 1859, ordered by the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the year that they took over the colony. The villa is called ‘Little Soestdijk’ (little Royal Palace) by locals. You can find wrought iron lanterns made by Cornelis Nolet from Schiedam in the garden.
- The synagogue was probably built by the constructor Harm Wind in 1839. After closure in 1893, the building was transformed into the main office of the Board of the state prison Veenhuizen. To be honest, we didn’t recognize it as being a synagogue. It was good to have the signs to help us out.
This happens to be one of our favourite spots in Veenhuizen. It is a bit off the beaten track, but it is well signposted. You can find it on a side street off the Hoofdweg, but to keep everybody confused this side street is also called Hoofdweg.
Here you can find the complex Maallust, and No. 126 and No. 128 which are two company houses belonging to the grain mill at the back. No. 130 is the building where the grains were dried and a barn, probably from 1882-83. The barn is a beautiful example of a building designed to prevent grain from rotting, built on foundations above the ground so that the floor would always be ventilated. No. 132 is the remains of the old windmill. It was built before 1830 but unfortunately was destroyed by lightning in 1918. Herein you can find a shop called Pieper and Paupers (Potatoes and Paupers). The grain and flour storage is located at Hoofdweg No. 134, built in 1897. The barn next door was built much later, in 1958-54. Quite a different building can be found at No. 138. It is an elevator for grain. It was built by the architect J.G. Robbers in 1929. The surface of the facade is special, it seems to be processed with a special hammer.
We really come to the Maallust complex for the cheese and the beer! On the left-hand side of the grain and flour storage you will find the old dairy factory from 1903. In 1924 it was no longer profitable and closed. The current user of this building is a cheesemaker and the name Kaaslust (Love of Cheese) also suits its history. You can buy the peat goats cheese that we mentioned earlier, but different kinds of cheese (from the milk of cows, goats, sheep and water buffalo), are all made here in this building. You can see the cheeses ripening in the storage room behind the counter.
At No. 140 you can find the beer brewer and bar with the name Maallust in the old grain mill. The building is a whitewashed industrial building from late 19th century. The old drying machine for grains is on the first floor. If you know us, you know that we like beer. We have been here quite often, with family and friends, to have beer, either inside or outside on the terrace. Actually, it was one of the first smaller brewers – before that really became a rage – who started using their own recipes to make special beers. They put the name of the brewer on the building in the style used all over Veenhuizen, very good branding. Inspiration was found from the past for the names of their beers. What do the names constable beer, wretched table beer, stranger, vagabond, pauper, vagrant, and benefactor beer bring to mind? You can also buy these beers at several supermarkets, but not the whole collection and without this atmosphere.
We follow the Hoofdweg along the channel and turn right.
On the corner of the Generaal van den Boschweg you will see the boarding hotel Excelsior. The ‘Villa’ as it was called, was built in 1901, ordered by the Ministry of Justice for the visiting executive civil servants. You can find quite a lot of different company houses on this road: the Vice Director is at No. 6 and plainer houses further on in the street. There is farm at No. 2, at the corner of the Pastoor Smitslaan. It is quite a special type of farm only to be found in in Veenhuizen. The higher part where one used to live is in the middle and it has barns adjacent to it on both sides. The farm is also a design by W.C. Metzelaar, the Company Architect, and was built in 1890. We cross the water to take another peek into history. Alas the school from 1892, Leerlust (Love of Learning) and the bakery have been demolished.
We are now at the gate of the Second Institute. This is the best kept part of the original institutes.
It was built in 1823 and originally had four parts which made a square of 145 x 145 metres. The buildings are one storey high and were divided into an inner and an outer part. The long spaces on the inner side were thirteen houses for personnel and twelve halls for the orphans. Later, grown-ups came to live here as well. The people would sleep in hammocks which were pulled up during the day so the space could be used as a canteen and a workplace. The caretakers would live in between the halls, where they could keep an eye on the patients through windows in the in-between walls. On the outside there were nine houses for personnel and 102 one-bedroom houses for ‘outstanding’ families, six kitchens and halls for education and storage. This Institute could hold 1,200 people. In 1901 the Second Institute became the workplace of the Esserheem prison. This transformation demanded a lot of reconstruction works. The dividing wall between the inner and the outer part disappeared and the east wing was replaced by garages in 1928. The ends of the western and northern wings were reconstructed to become houses for the guards. The prison museum is now located in the Second Institute. Here you can get a glance of what life used to be like here in Veenhuizen and the development of prisons over time: a very suitable location, considering the history of the Second Institute. You can take a ride in the prisoners’ bus and visit the prison cells in De Rode Pannen.
If you leave the Second Institute by the gate in the back (direction Hospitaallaan, Hospital Lane) and keep following the old moat, you pass by a row of company houses and on your left-hand side (address Meidoornlaan) you can see the Veenhuizen prison, former Esserheem, which still functions today. You can recognize this by the high fence surrounding the complex. This too was built by W.C. Metzelaar, Company Architect in 1898-1900. A new wing was added in 1991, designed by Cor Kalsbeek. The wing with the higher volumes in the corners makes this building look like a portal building. More company houses from the 19th entury can be found at the end of the Meidoornlaan.
We go back to the Second Institute, follow the oude gracht (old moat) and find ourselves amidst the Crafts cluster.
The patients and later the prisoners would take part in wood and metal working. For instance, the furniture for the Institutes, the company’s buildings and housing was all made here. There used to be a lumber shop, a cart and furniture shop, a forge from the late 19th century and some barns from the early 20th century. If you walk on you will find the shed used to dry and store wood. It was once connected by small rail with the sawmill at the back from 1938. On the moat you will find the old powerplant from 1912. The original machines are still there: a Crossley peat gas generator from 1919 and a Kromhout gasoline generator from 1934.
We walk back to the gate of the Second Institute and follow the old moat to the west. The building that now houses the tourist information, was the old slaughterhouse from 1901. Here you can see the products of the Collection Veenhuizen. A bit further back you can find an old building dated 1860 with prison cells. The style is quite different from the other buildings here. It was built by A.C. Pierson, a commercial architect. Almost forty years later, W.C. Metzelaar, the Company Architect, reconstructed the building and added a company house. On the corner of the moat the GEWA barracks stand together with an educational center from 1950. GEWA stands for the Corps of the Guards of the Prison. They took over the security from the military police. They had their quarters in the barracks on the corner of the Hospitaallaan, built in 1886. This building was transformed into a hospital for contagious diseases from 1902 until 1925, just to find itself transformed back into a barracks afterwards.
We continue to walk along the Hospitaallaan to the north.
The first buildings at No. 2 and 4 are simple company houses. The larger company houses are located further along the road from No. 16 to No. 24. These houses are all part of the hospital complex. The doctor lived in the house with the name ‘Toewijding’ (devotion), and the pharmacist in the house ‘Plichtgevoel’ (sense of duty). The pharmacy was in the building named ‘Bitter en Zoet’ (bitter and sweet) which also included the house of the assistant pharmacist. Now it is a hotel restaurant. The name has a double meaning, the bitter and the sweet in life but also in food. Again, this is another connection between past and present.
You will find consistency in the names on the buildings in Veenhuizen: black capital letters in a black frame. It is usually a reference to the function of a person. It dates from the 19th century, so was not used during the foundation days but is still used today. Behind these company houses, the other buildings that are part of the hospital complex are found. The most eye-catching building has the high windows and is named ‘Vertrouw op God’ (Trust in God). This building may seem to be a church but it was a hospital building with twelve infirmaries, six on each floor. This building is now part of the Bitter and Sweet Hotel Restaurant and consists of hotel rooms. Next to this building you will find the quarantine building, leper house, the mortuary (1894) and the egg-shaped ice cupola (1893). The leper house is a one storey high building from 1867 that was especially for those who came from the East Indies. Some of these people suffered from leprosy and were isolated here from other patients. Behind ‘Bitter en Zoet’ there still is a one storey kitchen building which was later transformed into a bathhouse. We continue going north, passing several company houses which belong to the hospital.
Once we are on the Eikenlaan (Oak lane) we turn to the left and then on to the Oude Norgerweg to the right. We are now in the area where the Third Institute used to be.
The Third Institute was demolished in 1925; only several buildings have survived. What you can see is the outline on the ground of the square shaped building. Here you can find the oldest building in Veenhuizen: the farm called ‘Jachtweide’ (hunting meadow) dated 1723, and also a tavern. As the name suggests, wealthy citizens came to hunt here. The farm was reconstructed in 1935.
Behind Jachtweide we walk on the Stoomweg (Steam Road) and find ourselves in front of the Stoomhoeve (Steam Farm). Originally built in 1870, it was reconstructed in 1890 and 1920 into a house with a barn for the carts, a fireroom and shed. You can see the old cotton and weaving mill from 1839 at No. 3 and No. 5 on the Oude Norgerweg. This mill worked using steam engines. This was the first steam-powered mill in northern Netherlands. ‘Het Stoom’ (the Steam) as it was called, used to be a weaving mill with smaller buildings and houses and cotton mill on the west side and a gas factory at the east side of the moat around the Third Institute. Cotton was made here to make the clothing for the inhabitants of the Institutes. About 200 patients worked here, 12 hours a day. The mill closed twenty years later, no longer profitable in the year the Ministry of Internal Affairs became in charge of the colony. The cotton mill building was later used as a school and after that as a care home for old patients (the "old men’s house"). Many buildings fell out of use after a fire in 1962. The main building has been restored by a private owner.
If you walk further along the Oude Norgerweg, you find what is called the Spanish graveyard. It is a circular bump in the woods, 40 metres wide, 1.5 metres high. Many stories are told about this area. Old maps show a chapel or a church with a churchyard.
On to the The walk takes us back to the Eikenlaan and we continue to walk to the east.
We pass the Gardens of Benevolence before we reach the cemetery of the colony. This was called the Forth Institute, the last resting-place. Patients were buried here in one of the four fields starting in 1831. It is estimated that about 12,000 patients were buried here. It is very hard to imagine. When the Ministry of Justice took over as the new owner in 1875, they changed the way people were buried. They planned the cemetery to distinguish not just between patients and civil servants, but also by religious denomination and social class. Next to these fields there were separate fields for deceased Belgian refugees from the First World War, for Catholics and the older ex-prisoners who chose to stay in Veenhuizen of their own free will between 1916 and 1934. Prisoners were buried here until 1951. We often visit cemeteries on our trips. They reflect how life was in that area, sometimes it is easy to recognise, but sometimes it takes more effort. It reflects a piece of history. There is not much you can find here, but if you read about it, you realize that the Forth Institute is part of the story of Veenhuizen.
In the book ‘Koloniekind, Opgroeien in het gevangenisdorp Veenhuizen’ (Child of the colonies, growing up in prison village Veenhuizen, 2022) writer Mariët Meester who grew up in Veenhuizen as a child, says the following about the cemetery:
‘There is now a ‘new’ Catholic part where patients as well as inhabitants lay. Wim Pannebakker is missing here, a Catholic inhabitant who was cremated after his death. He had a great association with this cemetery. Not only was his wife one of the first volunteers to keep this cemetery, but as Director of General Maintenance, the highest in rank in Veenhuizen, Pannebakker was also able to extend a special aspect of the Fourth Institute for some time. A few years before he died, he told me his story. Because the inhabitants of the justice system lived so far away, they had all kinds of advantages in addition to their salary. They could go to their own swimming pool in Veenhuizen, skate on their own ice rink and also get buried in the cemetery until eternity, all for free. When Pannebakker became Director of General Maintenance, in the time when inhabitants had to leave after becoming 65 years of age, he received a letter from a former work master of the prisons, a painter chef who also had to move. Was the man allowed to add a note to his Will that he would like to return to Veenhuizen after his death? One month later he received a call: the wife of the former main director had died; was she allowed to be buried next to her husband in Veenhuizen? Requests like these kept coming and at a certain moment he created a file ‘future customers for the cemetery’, as he called them. At the moment that the Fourth Institute would be handed over to the municipality, which eventually occurred, Wim Pannebakker and his colleagues wondered how things would be in the future, with the rights, the extras and the free graves being taken. He was able to negotiate for all inhabitants and their descendants to get one last chance to make sure that they kept this privilege, and - in his words – ‘half of Veenhuizen’ did do that.
If you walk a bit further on the Eikenlaan you reach the Sterrebos (woods in the shape of a star). This was probably constructed in the second half of the 19th century. Part of the typical structure of the paths can still be recognised. From the Sterrebos we walk back to Norgerhaven (the former First Institute). Our walk through Veenhuizen with its history ends here. We hope that you too are now intrigued by this place.
2023
