Middelburg – Wis[s]e Words

Going boozing with the parents

Published on May 10, 2015Leave a comment

the abbey garden at the beer festival

So I went back to Middelburg this weekend for Mother’s Day, not because the first Abdijbierfestival was going to be held on Friday and Saturday. Nu-uh. But since I was in town anyway it wou;d’ve been a shame if I didn’t go. Luckily my parents enjoy their tipples too and because as they’re fond of the stronger Belgian beers and as the name hints at, the focus was on abbey brewed beers, this was right up their street.

cloister halls at the beer festival

The Middelburg abbey hasn’t been used as such since the Eighty Years War and currently is used by the Zeeland Province government; the festival was held within the cloister walls around the herb garden. It was a great setting for a trappist/abbey beer orientated festival and all the great Belgian names were represented: La Trappe, Maredsous, Affligem, Rochefort, Westmalle, Achel, Chimay, Orval, etc. What’s more, the local beer enthusiasts club had gotten a lot of much more obscure beers in bottle, including Westvleteren 8 and 12. There were also several tables with hobby brewers and small, regional brewers. And because this is Zeeland, one of those was Emelisse, not to mention Brouwerij Kees, started by an ex-Emelisse brewer and which for me had the best beers of the beerfest. Evidence for which can be found in my Twitter timeline

It was a fun little festival, but it was noticable this was the first time it was organised. At times the hallways were slightly too narrow, especially around the more popular stands. What was lacking were seating/standing areas away from bbeythe stands themselves, apart from the cloister garden, which would’ve been too small too if more people had discovered it. Also lacking: food stands. There was the abbey’s own catering, but that was located before the main festival itself, at the entrance which didn’t invite to go get something, having to run the gauntlet of people entering and exiting. Finally, a very novel complaint for a festival: the glasses were too big, almost normal beer glasses size, which is great value for money but does mean you get pissed a lot quicker than at say a Borefts.

All in all a fun way to spent an afternoon, but not quite something you could spent a whole day at. Mum and dad liked it as well, but there was no need to buy more coins. Hopefully it will be held again next year, with more participants and hopefully outside in the abbey square, weather permitting.

Middelburg 17 May 1940 — the Forgotten Bombardment

Published on May 17, 20103 Comments

the Middelburg market square after the bombardment
Market square after the bombardment.

If the bombardment of Rotterdam, together with that of Warsaw is one of the biggest atrocities of the early Second World War, it was not the only one. Three days after the bombardment forced the capitulation of the Netherlands, another Dutch town was bombed to the ground: my hometown, Middelburg.

Unlike Rotterdam, Middelburg has been somewhat forgotten outside Zeeland, only a footnote to the history of the German invasion in the “frightening May days of 1940”. But since this is the seventieth anniversary of the bombardment, some care has been put into making sure it won’t pass by unnoticed again. An academic research and lecture programme has been set up, as well as a series of more conventional remembrances, an educational package has been prepared for the province’s secondary and primary schools, all of which is of course coordinated with a frankly not very good website. A bit of a waste opportunity that site, only available in Dutch, with the history of the bombardment, the most important part, hidden away in PDF files. On the plus side, it has some good pictures of the devastation caused by the bombardment, the picture above being one of them.

aerial picture of a devastated Middelburg
What Middelburg looked liked after the bombardment.

On 10 May 1940 the Germans invaded the Netherlands and Belgium on their way to France. As they had tried more or less the same thing in the First World War the French strategy was to meet them halfway, moving into Belgium and the Southern Netherlands to stop them. As you know this wasn’t quite succesful, but some French units (including French Moroccan units) managed to get as far as Breda before retreating westwards into Zeeland. This was the reason why the Dutch surrender on the fifteenth did not include Zeeland, as that was occupied by French troops. The slow withdrawal of the French meant that on the 17th Middelburg was near the frontline, with most inhabitants fortunately evacuated already as a precaution. That day a combination of aerial and artillery bombardment by the Germans broke the last resistance in Zeeland, with the last French soldiers already having disappeared into Belgium.

Twentytwo people died in the bombardment, which could have been much higher had there been no evacuation. The material devastation however was enormous, with most of the historical centre — some parts dating back to around 800 CE — destroyed. Some 253 houses and 320 shops and other business buildings were destroyed, as well as another 18 or so public buildings, including the old abbey and the city hall. The evacuation may have saved lifes, but it also meant there were few people other than the voluntary fire fighters available to extinguish the many small fires that the bombardment started; much of the damage therefore was done by fire rather than explosion. That it was such nice, warm, dry spring weather didn’t help either…

Unlike Rotterdam the bombardment was not intended as a terror bombardment, but a tactical decision to break the remaining resistance in Zeeland. The Germans supposed that Middelburg was were the French units had their headquarters and allegedly also believe there were artillery and anti-aircraft guns in place in the city, which was not the case. These reasons for the bombardment do not excuse the crime of course, but do make the bombardment more understandable than that of Rotterdam.

Middelburg today.

After the war the rebuild of Middelburg had to start. Where in Rotterdam the city had chosen to be brutally unsentimental in rebuilding its city centre, chosing for a throroughly modern approach, Middelburg chosen to try and recreate the old centre, though it did take advantage of the opportunity to rationalise the centre somewhat. The large open market in the heart of the city was split in two by creating a new row of houses through the middle of it, several smaller streets completely disappeared, while a few other changes meant the rebuild city hall and abbey were more visible, no longer hidden behind cramped streets. It worked out well in the end, though the price was high.

News from nowhereThe Netherlands

Published on September 14, 20062 Comments

First, for the obsessive compulsives amongst y’all, Google has finally put their fingers out and updated their Google Earth photos for the Netherlands. It may not mean much to you but it means endless hours of fun looking for my house, my old house, my parent’s house, the office I currently work at, the previous offices I’ve worked at and so on und so weiter, all to get pictures like this:

My home town Middelburg.

Meanwhile, with slightly more relevance to people not called Martin Wisse, minister of Justice Piet Hein Donner has called the wrath of the entire Dutch right wing upon him, by explaining in an interview that of course, if two-thirds of Dutch voters want to introduce Sharia law to the country, that’s democracy and the vote of the majority counts. Cue all the usual anti-islamofascist white knights to wax indignantly and ask for his resignation, while his own party has made use of the opportunity to reiterate that they want a general ban on any party that wants to introduce sharia law (not that there is any) or might threaten to do so and oh yes, pedo parties should be banned as well. Not that this isn’t as big a threat to our democracy as having sharia law introduced here would be, of course not, no…

It’s all fairly childish as all people involved should know that a) few if any sane people want sharia law here b) the chance that at any point there will be enough people to vote it in is non-existent and c) even if a two-thirds majority could be found it would immediately run afoul of not just the Dutch constitution but also European law. The whole debate is just another snow job, a bit of posturing before the elections start. It would work too, if the Dutch voters weren’t sick and tired of Islamophobic fearmongering!

But mabye there is something to worry about, as Dutch protestant fundies found out their children think one fundie religion is as good as the other, by allegedly switching in their masses from Christianity to Islam. The big draw apparantly being the clear and simple moral guidelines Islam offers…