Powder fumes and the smoke from fired cannonballs fill the air in the Van Heutzpark in Coevorden. Today so-called re-enactors reenact the Battle of Coevorden. 350 years ago this year.
In the Disaster Year 1672, the bishop of Münster, also known as Bommen Berend, was driven out. Schoolmaster Meindert van der Thijnen forged a plan. He managed to get inside the city walls and eventually recaptured the fortified city with about 1,000 soldiers.
A camp has been built in the Van Heutzpark where it looks like it is 1672 again. The tents, spears and drums are ready in the camp. And those weapons are not only used by Coevorden residents. Dozens of people from Europe have come to the city to reenact this battle.
Re-enacting a historical event is also called re-enactment. In re-enactment historical events are re-enacted. The players walk in old clothes and immerse themselves in a certain period in history. So today they went back to 1672. Between the two performances, the actors remain in their roles. They then walk through the city or stay at their tent in the camp.
“We have a large number of reenactment groups from Europe and the Netherlands who have come here to re-enact the battle,” says organizer Herman Woltersom. “The States troops fight on the one side and the Münster troops on the other. Afterwards they go into the center cheering because then Coevorden is liberated.”
Dirk Boerma of Exercise Peloton Bourtange is present at the camp. “There are all different groups from different time periods. That makes it even more fun,” says Boerma. With his group he normally re-enacts the Eighty Years’ War (1568-1648). “We’re all mixing it up. It’s all the same game, because waging war keeps killing each other and the strongest wins.”