From Kuyper to King
The archives included on the UNESCO heritage list cover the period up to and including 1972. That was the year in which the VU left the city center to settle on the edge of the city. Flipse calls the period from ‘Kuyper to King’.
“The VU archive actually shows the changes in the Netherlands very well, because the VU also played an important role in this. It is not only the period in which Abraham Kuyper has put a mark on society, but it is also the post-war period, the desert.”
Proud
The VU was – at least for the Reformed people – a place where that also started a bit, those changes. “The honorary doctorate given to Martin Luther King was a bit symbol for that. It also shows how the Netherlands changed in the sixties. From a pillarized society to a completely different society.”
Flipse is proud that UNESCO sees the value of the VU archive. “It is also a piece of National Archives, and – as UNESCO says – part of our collective memory.”