Carel Gerretson
Encyclopedia
Doctor Frederik Carel Gerretson (born Kralingen
, February 9, 1884 - died Utrecht
, October 27, 1958) was a Dutch
writer, essayist, historian, and politician.
before continuing his education there and in Amersfoort
. He undertook officer training at the Koninklijke Militaire Academie
in Breda
before switching to academic study at the University of Utrecht, the Solvay Institute of Sociology
and the University of Heidelberg.
, especially in the Dutch East Indies
. In this area he was involved in a noted academic dispute with the marxist
historian Annie Romein-Verschoor
over the personality of Jan Pieterszoon Coen
. Where Romein-Verschoor characterised Coen as an imperialist Gerretson, a staunch nationalist
and supporter of the empire, argued that Coen should be reappraised and suggested that it was only due to a tendency against hero worship
in the collective Dutch psyche that Coen was not widely celebrated as a Dutch great.
He also published books on a number of books on the petroleum industry
, with works such as Geschiedenis der "Koninklijke" and a history of Royal Dutch, before branching out into other areas. Gerretson had been a secretary and board member at Bataafsche Petroleum Maatschappij, a predecessor of Royal Dutch, since 1917. He was awarded the prestigious Constantijn Huygens Prize
in 1950 for his writings. He had also written for a number of newspapers and journals including De Groene Amsterdammer
, Utrechts Provinciaal en Stedelijk Dagblad, Leeuwarder Courant
, Het Vaderland, Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant
, Algemeen Handelsblad
and numerous others.
Using the pseudonym
Geerten Gossaert, Gerretson also became noted as a poet with his work De moeder receiving regular reprints. He also published works under the name Arthur Lawick.
Calvinist
Christian Historical Union
(CHU) before moving to the fascist
politics of the National Union
, of which he was one of the founders in 1925. In 1933 he took the leadership of the 'Corporative Concetration', an attempt to unite the Netherlands' divided extreme right spearheaded by Alfred Haighton
, although Gerretson proved a divisive leader as he clashed frequently with Jan Baars
. As a consequence Baars and his followers left the movement and the General Dutch Fascist League
, which was the main entity in the alliance, collapsed, allowing the initiative to pass to Nazi
-inclined elements such as the National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands
of Anton Mussert
and Ernst Herman van Rappard
's National Socialist Dutch Workers Party
.
Gerretson returned to the CHU and became a leading figure in the party at the head of a pro-colonial faction based in Utrecht. A strong voice on the right of the party, noted for his rhetoric, Gerretson would later become an isolated figure within the CHU. He was elected to the Senate of the States-General of the Netherlands
in 1951 for the CHU as a representative for South Holland
and served in the first parliamentary commission for foreign policy, where he was in disagreement with the spirit of decolonisation that pervaded in the commission. Gerretson was a CHU candidate in the 1956 general election
but lost his Senate seat. He was a policy adviser for the party from 1951 to 1955 and was also a regular contributor to the CHU organ De Nederlander.
Kralingen
Kralingen is a former village in the Dutch province of South Holland, now a neighbourhood of Rotterdam. It is located about 3 kilometres east of the city centre, in the borough Kralingen-Crooswijk....
, February 9, 1884 - died Utrecht
Utrecht (city)
Utrecht city and municipality is the capital and most populous city of the Dutch province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, and is the fourth largest city of the Netherlands with a population of 312,634 on 1 Jan 2011.Utrecht's ancient city centre features...
, October 27, 1958) was a Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
writer, essayist, historian, and politician.
Early years
Gerretson was educated in a public elementary school in RotterdamRotterdam
Rotterdam is the second-largest city in the Netherlands and one of the largest ports in the world. Starting as a dam on the Rotte river, Rotterdam has grown into a major international commercial centre...
before continuing his education there and in Amersfoort
Amersfoort
Amersfoort is a municipality and the second largest city of the province of Utrecht in central Netherlands. The city is growing quickly but has a well-preserved and protected medieval centre. Amersfoort is one of the largest railway junctions in the country, because of its location on two of the...
. He undertook officer training at the Koninklijke Militaire Academie
Koninklijke Militaire Academie
The Royal Military Academy is the service academy for the Dutch Army and the Dutch Air Force. Located in Breda, the Netherlands, the KMA has trained future officers since 1828.-Description:...
in Breda
Breda
Breda is a municipality and a city in the southern part of the Netherlands. The name Breda derived from brede Aa and refers to the confluence of the rivers Mark and Aa. As a fortified city, the city was of strategic military and political significance...
before switching to academic study at the University of Utrecht, the Solvay Institute of Sociology
Solvay Institute of Sociology
The Solvay Institute of Sociology [SIS; Institut de Sociologie Solvay] assumed its first “definitive form” on November 16, 1902, when its founder Ernest Solvay, a wealthy Belgian chemist, industrialist, and philanthropist, inaugurated the original edifice of SIS in Parc Léopold...
and the University of Heidelberg.
Academic career
As professor of colonial history at the University of Utrecht Gerretson was particularly interested in the Dutch colonial experienceDutch Empire
The Dutch Empire consisted of the overseas territories controlled by the Dutch Republic and later, the modern Netherlands from the 17th to the 20th century. The Dutch followed Portugal and Spain in establishing an overseas colonial empire, but based on military conquest of already-existing...
, especially in the Dutch East Indies
Dutch East Indies
The Dutch East Indies was a Dutch colony that became modern Indonesia following World War II. It was formed from the nationalised colonies of the Dutch East India Company, which came under the administration of the Netherlands government in 1800....
. In this area he was involved in a noted academic dispute with the marxist
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
historian Annie Romein-Verschoor
Annie Romein-Verschoor
Anna Helena Margaretha Romein-Verschoor was a Dutch writer and historian...
over the personality of Jan Pieterszoon Coen
Jan Pieterszoon Coen
Jan Pieterszoon Coen was a officer of the Dutch East India Company in the early seventeenth century, holding two terms as its Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies....
. Where Romein-Verschoor characterised Coen as an imperialist Gerretson, a staunch nationalist
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
and supporter of the empire, argued that Coen should be reappraised and suggested that it was only due to a tendency against hero worship
Hero worship
Hero worship is defined as the foolish or excessive adulation for an individual. In Wikipedia, you may be searching for:*Hero Worship , an album released by Sandra Bernhard*Hero Worship...
in the collective Dutch psyche that Coen was not widely celebrated as a Dutch great.
He also published books on a number of books on the petroleum industry
Petroleum industry
The petroleum industry includes the global processes of exploration, extraction, refining, transporting , and marketing petroleum products. The largest volume products of the industry are fuel oil and gasoline...
, with works such as Geschiedenis der "Koninklijke" and a history of Royal Dutch, before branching out into other areas. Gerretson had been a secretary and board member at Bataafsche Petroleum Maatschappij, a predecessor of Royal Dutch, since 1917. He was awarded the prestigious Constantijn Huygens Prize
Constantijn Huygens Prize
The Constantijn Huygens Prize is a Dutch literary award.-History:Since 1947, it has been awarded each year for an author's complete works by the Jan Campert Foundation , a foundation named in honor of the Dutch writer Jan Campert who died while helping Jews during WWII...
in 1950 for his writings. He had also written for a number of newspapers and journals including De Groene Amsterdammer
De Groene Amsterdammer
De Groene Amsterdammer is an independent Dutch weekly newsmagazine published in Amsterdam and distributed throughout the Netherlands. It is conventionally considered to be one of the four most influential written media in its sector, along with HP/De Tijd, Vrij Nederland and Elsevier.- History and...
, Utrechts Provinciaal en Stedelijk Dagblad, Leeuwarder Courant
Leeuwarder Courant
The Leeuwarder Courant is the oldest daily newspaper in the Netherlands. Founded by Abraham Ferwerda, it first appeared in 1752. The Leeuwarder Courant was the first paper in the Dutch province Friesland and its capital Leeuwarden...
, Het Vaderland, Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant
Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant
The Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant was an influential Rotterdam-based liberal daily newspaper, founded in 1844 by Henricus Nijgh.It merged in 1970 with the Amsterdam-based liberal daily newspaper Algemeen Handelsblad to form the NRC Handelsblad....
, Algemeen Handelsblad
Algemeen Handelsblad
Algemeen Handelsblad was an influential Amsterdam-based liberal daily newspaper, founded in 1828 by J.W. van den Biesen. At the peak of its influence -- from the time of the Boer War, when it championed the Boer cause in South Africa, through World War I -- it was edited by Charles Boissevain.It...
and numerous others.
Using the pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
Geerten Gossaert, Gerretson also became noted as a poet with his work De moeder receiving regular reprints. He also published works under the name Arthur Lawick.
Political career
Gerretson's nationalist principles led him to politics and he initially was associated with the conservativeConservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
Calvinist
Calvinism
Calvinism is a Protestant theological system and an approach to the Christian life...
Christian Historical Union
Christian Historical Union
The Christian Historical Union was a Dutch conservative Protestant political party. The CHU is one of the predecessors of the Christian Democratic Appeal.-History before 1908:...
(CHU) before moving to the fascist
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
politics of the National Union
National Union (Netherlands)
The National Union was a Dutch fascist political party active during the 1920s and 1930s.The Union was set up in 1925 by Carel Gerretson and Robert Frédéric Groeninx van Zoelen initially as a study group with the intetion of arresting the factionalism that was gripping the Dutch far right at the...
, of which he was one of the founders in 1925. In 1933 he took the leadership of the 'Corporative Concetration', an attempt to unite the Netherlands' divided extreme right spearheaded by Alfred Haighton
Alfred Haighton
Coenraad Alfred Augustus Haighton was a millionaire businessman and the leader of the Netherlands' first fascist movement.-Fascism:...
, although Gerretson proved a divisive leader as he clashed frequently with Jan Baars
Jan Baars
Joannes Antonius Baars was a leading Dutch fascist during the 1930s.During the 1920s Baars emerged as part of the group associated with De Bezems, a fascist journal aimed at the poor. The magazine split in 1930 and Baars supported Alfred Haighton over H.A. Sinclair de Rochemont, joining Haighton's...
. As a consequence Baars and his followers left the movement and the General Dutch Fascist League
General Dutch Fascist League
The General Dutch Fascist League was a minor Dutch fascist party founded in 1932. The party sought to create a volksfascisme, although they failed to fully define this aim and were considered closer to Mussolini than Hitler despite their rhetoric. The party failed to gain support in the 1932...
, which was the main entity in the alliance, collapsed, allowing the initiative to pass to Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
-inclined elements such as the National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands
National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands
The National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands was a Dutch fascist and later national socialist political party. As a parliamentary party participating in legislative elections, the NSB had some success during the 1930s...
of Anton Mussert
Anton Mussert
Anton Adriaan Mussert was one of the founders of the National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands and its de jure leader. As such, he was the most prominent national socialist in the Netherlands before and during the Second World War...
and Ernst Herman van Rappard
Ernst Herman van Rappard
Ernst Herman ridder van Rappard was a Dutch Nazi and anti-Semite...
's National Socialist Dutch Workers Party
National Socialist Dutch Workers Party
The National Socialist Dutch Workers Party was a minor Dutch national socialist party founded in 1931 and led by Ernst Herman van Rappard...
.
Gerretson returned to the CHU and became a leading figure in the party at the head of a pro-colonial faction based in Utrecht. A strong voice on the right of the party, noted for his rhetoric, Gerretson would later become an isolated figure within the CHU. He was elected to the Senate of the States-General of the Netherlands
States-General of the Netherlands
The States-General of the Netherlands is the bicameral legislature of the Netherlands, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The parliament meets in at the Binnenhof in The Hague. The archaic Dutch word "staten" originally related to the feudal classes in which medieval...
in 1951 for the CHU as a representative for South Holland
South Holland
South Holland is a province situated on the North Sea in the western part of the Netherlands. The provincial capital is The Hague and its largest city is Rotterdam.South Holland is one of the most densely populated and industrialised areas in the world...
and served in the first parliamentary commission for foreign policy, where he was in disagreement with the spirit of decolonisation that pervaded in the commission. Gerretson was a CHU candidate in the 1956 general election
Dutch general election, 1956
A general election of the House of Representatives of the Dutch Parliament was held in the Netherlands on June 13, 1956.The 1956 election marks an important change in the history of the Dutch House of Representatives: the number of seats in the House was increased from 100 to 150.-National...
but lost his Senate seat. He was a policy adviser for the party from 1951 to 1955 and was also a regular contributor to the CHU organ De Nederlander.