The vanished city: The war plays a major role in Beethovenstraat

The Beethovenstraat was created about a hundred years ago as part of Plan Zuid. The famous architect Berlage was commissioned for a major area expansion south of the then city limits.

“It is a huge area that runs from the Olympic Stadium to the Berlage Bridge,” says Frank van Kolfschooten. He lives in Beethovenstraat himself and has made it his life’s work to describe the history of the street.

The area mainly consisted of meadows and farms, so it took a lot of effort to realize the plan here.

Work began on digging canals north and south of the expansion area. The water connection was necessary in order to be able to bring in sand by ships in order to raise the entire area by one meter of sand. This alone took about ten years to realize. Construction could finally start around 1925.

War

The history of Beethovenstraat is inextricably linked with that of the war. Before the war, many Jewish families settled in this new-build street. These were Dutch, but also Germans who had fled after Hitler came to power. You could still find a home relatively easily in this neighborhood. Lunchroom Delicia was an important meeting place for the German Jews.

Van Kolfschooten: “German Jews had started a lunchroom and pastry shop here. They sold typical German cakes. Many German migrants came here. They bought the things they had at home here. They missed their country very much, because the German Jews felt German in the first place.”

But it didn’t end well for many of these Jewish people. Most of them were deported to the extermination camps. Also the owners of lunchroom Delicia. There are now stumbling stones with their names and those of their relatives in front of the door of the former business.

Van Kolfschooten: “There were so many Jews living in the Beethovenstraat who did not survive the war that you could put them anywhere. You could literally stumble over the many stumbling stones.”

war memorial

On the corner of Beethovenstraat and Apollolaan is an impressive war memorial. It’s three men in front of a firing squad. It is a reference to an execution of a large number of resistance members on this spot in October 1944. The reason was the attack on a Nazi by the resistance. In revenge, two houses were set on fire and 29 members of the resistance were brought here from prison and shot.

“After the war, this became the most visited memorial site after Dam Square,” says Van Kolfschooten. “A lot of Jewish families also come because there has been so much Jewish suffering here.”

artists

The Beethovenstraat was also a popular place for artists. The famous actress Fien de la Mar lived there. And also Max Beckmann. Beckmann was a German painter of great reputation. He was not Jewish, but after his art was considered “Degenerate art” by the Nazis, he decided to flee anyway. He ended up in a boarding house in Beethovenstraat, directly opposite Van Kolfschooten’s current home address.

Another renowned artist was ceramist Bert Nienhuis. He lived at number 19. His grandson Bert, who would later become a well-known photographer, often visited his grandfather because his school was around the corner. He stayed with grandpa. Bert still recognizes a lot of the atmosphere of. “It was an exclusive street,” Bert recalls. “People were rich and well-dressed. People also spoke a bit affected.”

To Bert’s delight, the Van Rossum bookshop is still present in the street: “I bought my first photo book there. I wanted to be a photographer from the age of nine and had that book when I was ten. And that’s how it started.”

princess flat

The Beethovenstraat is now a kilometre-long street that runs under the A10 to the Zuidas. With Frank van Kolfschooten we descend in a southerly direction. It looks very different here from the first and most famous part of the street, where all the shops are. Here are flats on both sides, built in the fifties and sixties. It gives the street a less exclusive look, but there are still a few gems in between. The highlight is the monumental Princesseflat by the architect Mart Stam. It is now a national monument. “The building is very well put together,” says Van Kolfschooten. “It is also called the star flat, because it has a star-shaped floor plan. The windows and the balconies are made in such a way that you have sun at all times of the day.”

valley

The final piece of the street and perhaps the highlight, is the futuristic building valley by Winy Maas. People from all over the world are already coming to Beethovenstraat to see it. “In that building are very expensive rental homes and there are also all companies in it.” There will be a sky bar at the very top. Van Kolfschooten can’t wait for it to open. “Then you will have a magnificent view, where you can probably see all the way to the beginning of Beethovenlstraat.”

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