In the eighteenth century some 30,000 small farmers, farm labourers and young farmers' sons left Westphalia (Germany) every spring for the Netherlands. After sowing wheat and planting potatoes, they then went to cut peat, for example in Drenthe. And then to mow and make hay in Friesland. If all went well, they returned home just in time for the harvest. Ids Wiersma painted these so-called 'hannekemaaiers' in 1930.

FB Oranjewoud Foundation Collection

Seasonal workers often returned to the same employer. Especially if they liked the work. Every year, a group of young men from Brual in Germany went to cattle farmer Rintje Bootsma in Loënga (Friesland). The reapers regularly sent Bootsma letters between 1859 and 1885 asking how the family was doing, the state of the harvest and, of course, whether they could come back to work. They usually wrote in Low German, which was easy for Dutch people to understand.

Frisian Maritime Museum Collection

In Groningen, German seasonal workers not only worked in agriculture and peat, but also in the brick industry. The German brick makers came mainly from the small kingdom of Lippe-Detmold. One of them made this stone stove in his spare time. He scratched this text into it: ‘Heinrich Friedrich Wilhelm Siekmann, born 19 February 1844, in memory.’ On the other side is the year 1870.

Emslandmuseum Collection

Seasonal workers travelled fully packed, carrying tools, provisions and often a bundle of homemade linen to sell. They usually travelled in groups. This was safer. They could also transport their luggage together on a flat cart. In Germany the Hollandgänger walked, in the Netherlands they preferred to take the tow barge. A walking stick was indispensable on the journey, both for support and as a weapon. Some seasonal workers even hid a sword in it.

Emslandmuseum Collection

In the early nineteenth century, around five to six hundred seasonal workers travelled to Drenthe each year to work in the peatlands around Smilde and Hoogeveen. They mainly came from the county of Bentheim. The conditions were harsh, the food was frugal and sometimes there was little to drink other than ditch water. Because of the performance-based pay, the workers put in up to sixteen hours a day. One of them was Bernd Münnink from Bramsche. This is his work permit.

Emslandmuseum Collection

In the 1920s, German cities issued so-called ‘Notgeld’ to get hard currency. It was souvenir money for tourists and had no real value. The notes depicted important historical events. In the city of Freren, Hollandgänger were shown on the 75-pfennig notes. One Reichsmark notes depicted a local hunebed. This illustrates how important the role of seasonal work has been in this region.

Emslandmuseum Collection

There are almost no portraits of travellers from the distant past. But they appear everywhere in painted landscapes. This is also the case in the work of Egbert van Drielst (1745-1818), who often drew and painted in Drenthe. In this landscape near Yde you can see a pedlar on the road with his precious cargo. Van Drielst made this etching in 1794.

Drents Museum Collection

For pedlars and other travellers, church towers and way stones were for a long time the most important landmarks in the landscape. It was not until 1780 that bailiff Sigismund van Heiden Reinestein had signposts installed for ‘ignorant foreigners’. This signpost probably stood for many years on the Lugtenburgerweg, the old road between Gieten and Rolde. On the right, the place name ‘Rolde’ can just be read. Carel Lodewijk Hansen made this drawing around 1800.

Drents Museum Collection

Around 1630, about 22,000 people lived in Drenthe (now more than 500,000). In that empty world, the people of Drenthe depended on itinerant pedlars for many products. These traders set out from fixed sleeping places. Usually an inn or a place at a farmer's. In return for board and lodging, they were allowed to eat, sleep and store their supplies there. They had their supplies brought over from their home town. Dirk Piebes Sjollema (1760-1840) probably painted this pedlar near Heerenveen.

Frisian Maritime Museum Collection

A pedlar carried his merchandise on his back. Depending on the products he sold, he chose a crate, a pannier, a basket of woven willow branches or a chest (of drawers). The chest of drawers or ‘kiep’ gave pedlars the name ‘kiepkerels’ (or ‘kiep’ men). If you added up the weight of the merchandise, it easily came to 30 to 40 kilos. Most kiepkerels came from Germany. Some sold mainly (pickling) pots, while others sold haberdashery, hardware, textiles or household goods.

Frisian Maritime Museum Collection

One of the products sold by German pedlars was the ‘German pipe’, which came into fashion around 1750. The pipe had a porcelain bowl, on which the customer could have his name painted. Because not all pedlars spoke Dutch well, spelling mistakes were common. The German pipe was not popular with everyone. For example, Nicolaas Beets wrote in his book Camera Obscura about ‘an ugly, snake-like, stinking, bubbling, thoroughly filthy Kraut thing.’

Drents Museum Collection

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, almost a thousand ‘tödden’ came to the Netherlands every year. These poor farmers from northern Münsterland earned some extra money in the spring and autumn by going door to door with textiles. In addition to orders, they brought samples of fabric with them to take new orders. Wholesalers ensured the central purchasing of textiles. This seventeenth-century coin treasure with 379 Dutch coins was found under the house of wholesaler Jan van Brandlecht from Schapen (Germany).

Emslandmuseum Collection

In wild Drenthe, with its vast heathlands and peat bogs, pedlars found their way with the help of guides, church towers and way stones . The indispensable distance table indicated how far it was to the next village. In a mini-almanac they could look up when an annual fair would be held somewhere, an ideal place to sell their products.

Drents Museum Collection - almanac Drenthe Archive Collection - distance table

In the eighteenth century, many German Jews left for the Netherlands as pedlars. They lived mainly in villages along the main trade routes. In Drenthe, they were found on the routes from Meppel to the north and east, and later also on the route from Coevorden to Groningen. Jacob de Vries - better known as 'Jeuden Jaopie' - sold textiles door-to-door in the area around Dwingeloo. Engelke Jan Boneschanscher photographed him between 1908 and 1912.

Drenthe Archive Collection – reproduction due to the sensitivity of the original photo to light

Begging has existed throughout history. In the Middle Ages it was not an issue, because giving away money was considered a good deed according to the faith. However, as the market economy emerged, more and more wealthy people found that a life without work was purposeless. Artists, on the other hand, have always been very curious about beggars. Rembrandt van Rijn practiced a lot on painting this group of people, as can be seen in this print from the mid-seventeenth century.

Groninger Museum Collection

Christian charity and the custom in rural Drenthe of helping each other - so-called naoberschap (or neighbourliness) - ensured that there was a lot of informal care for the poor. Poor people did all kinds of paid chores for the villagers. They made heather scrubbers and heather brooms, cleaned ditches, caught sparrows, pounded boulders and spun wool and flax. This print by Egbert van Drielst shows a woman selling baked goods. She was allowed to keep part of the proceeds.

Drents Museum Collection

Poor relief has been provided through the church for centuries. Old age, illness, disabilities, crop failures and cattle deaths were reasons to qualify for help. This could be money, but also items such as food, clothing or even a house. The Drenthe churches were quite generous. Many church councils were afraid that the poor would otherwise wander off, beg and steal. The money came from believers who put it in a collection box, such as in this example from Beilen.

Drents Museum Collection

In poor relief, each municipality helped its own beggars. To qualify for help, a person had to have been born in the municipality or have lived there for six years. Outsider poor and beggars were mercilessly put across the border of their own municipality or province, unless they had a good story to tell. In the accounts, the poor board kept precise records of who it gave money or items to. These are the 1748 accounts of the church of Gieten.

Drenthe Archive Collection

The so-called ‘New Year’s walk’ earned the poor a little extra. On New Year’s Day, they went from door to door to wish everyone a happy new year. In return, they received a New Year’s waffle, a drink and sometimes some change. In 1770, the church of Coevorden persuaded the municipal government to ban the New Year’s walk because of excessive drinking. During the waffle iron riot, angry Coevorden residents successfully objected. During the protest at the town hall, they took their waffle irons with them.

Drents Museum Collection

In the peat areas, seasonal poverty prevailed. As soon as the peat digging season was over, peat workers called on the poor relief en masse. In the winter of 1776, the number of beggars going from door to door in Hoogeveen was so large that begging was banned. Eventually, the administrators in Hoogeveen decided to establish a workhouse for the poor, which opened its doors in 1810 with the support of the province.

Drents Museum Collection

In the nineteenth century, Drenthe acquired several workhouses because of the rapidly rising number of poor people. The advantage for the churches was that they no longer spent money on house rent for the poor. Moreover, the church administrations put the poor to work, so they themselves recouped part of the expenses. At the same time, the poor could be educated to become neat, good citizens. Anthon van Rappard painted this spinning woman in Rolde's almshouse in 1889.

Drents Museum Collection

During the nineteenth century, the population of Drenthe grew rapidly, and so did the number of low-paid and poor people. Colonies of shacks and peat huts emerged in various places in Drenthe. The residents were often unemployed and earned some extra money by collecting oak bark for tanneries, selling home-made baskets, brooms and scrubbers, but also by such things as poaching, begging and prostitution. Sometimes a small vegetable garden and a goat provided fresh vegetables and milk.

A. Postcard of the former caravan of German merchant's son Hans Gunther and his wife Ytje - (Griet) Schuurmans from Workum (Friesland), photographed near Balloo between 1900 and 1903. ‘Hans and Griet’ were notorious vagrants who met in Ommerschans after being convicted of begging. From 1868, they travelled around with a caravan.

B. In Assen, two large colonies of peat huts and shacks emerged in the 1840s: Aardscheveld and Lombok. This postcard shows the shack of the Blijleven family on Aardscheveld in Assen, 1900-1904. Mother Henderkien Hadders does the laundry; her children find the photographer more interesting.

C. As photography became more popular and accessible in the late nineteenth century, more and more photographers visited the colonies of shacks and peat huts in Drenthe. The shacks on Aardscheveld and Lombok, located close to Assen railway station, were especially popular. This postcard shows the peat hut of Roelof Abbring and Antje Philips (right) on Aardscheveld in Assen, 1899-1901.

D. The peat hut of Jan Schothorst and Maria Schothorst-Vlieg on Aardscheveld near Assen. In 1879, Aardscheveld had 313 residents. This photo is from 1896. In the foreground, clothes are hanging out to dry over the wire that is stretched around the vegetable garden.

Drenthe Archive - Drents Museum Collection

In 1900, 28% of Dutch families (with an average of four people) lived in a one-room dwelling. In Drenthe, this was 66%. Hoogeveen and Emmen were outliers with 72.5 and 80%. With the Housing Act of 1901, the government wanted to put an end to the miserable living conditions and thereafter set minimum requirements for houses. Some of Drenthe's peat hut and shack residents then opted for a caravan or houseboat. These were relatively cheap and far less strict requirements applied to them.

Drents Museum Collection

Craftsmen who had a trade that was only needed occasionally, travelled from village to village. Think of tinkers, plasterers, sauerkraut cutters, weavers and tailors. Many of these artisans came from Germany. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries it was very common to depict crafts on the tiles around the fireplace. On these tiles from 1625-1650 you can see a chair-bottomer, a scissors grinder, a basket maker, a coppersmith and a pedlar.

Dutch Tile Museum Collection

As early as the Middle Ages, groups of Sinti and Roma travelled through Western Europe. They were first reported in the Netherlands in 1420. Evidence of their presence in the northern Netherlands is a word list by the Groningen nobleman Johan van Ewsum from the mid-sixteenth century. The words from their language that he noted down indicate that the group he spoke to came from a German-speaking country. The Sinti and Roma were initially received very hospitably.

Groningen Archives Collection - Until June 15, you can see the fragile original here, afterwards a facsimile version.

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Sinti and Roma often earned their money as coppersmiths, musicians or by selling medicinal herbs. They also engaged in fortune telling. Not so strange in a time when people were constantly uncertain about their future. Arent Arentsz painted this scene between 1625 and 1630. A group of Roma have pitched their tents on the banks of a river. A Roma woman is reading the palm of a fisherman's boy, while someone else is paying the bill.

Rijksmuseum Collection

Special groups of travellers were musicians, fairground travellers and circus artists. They often travelled greater distances than travellers who were tradesmen or who worked as craftsmen. Among the circus artists you would find acrobats, ventriloquists, sword swallowers, fire eaters, magicians and fortune tellers. Fairground travellers might operate a shooting gallery or a merry-go-round. And what certainly should not be missing at the fair was the barrel organ. Otherwise, until the beginning of the twentieth century, a fair was still most like an annual fair today.

A. Jacobus Ludovicus Cornet from Leiden made a whole series of prints of street musicians in the 18th century.

Fries Museum – Koninklijk Fries Genootschap Collection

B.In 1910, the ‘steam carousel’ at the fair in Dwingeloo was packed with people. The carousel was stopped for a moment especially for the photo.

Drenthe Archive - Drents Museum Collection

C. It was fair time in Dwingeloo. Head teacher and amateur photographer Engelke Jan Boneschanscher took a look at the wagons of the fairground travellers, 1908-1912.

Drenthe Archive - Drents Museum Collection

Around 1630, the number of vagrants in Europe increased sharply. This was due to a declining economy, the growing number of peasant sons without land and the many disbanded, wandering mercenaries after the end of years of wars. In this 1616 painting, Esaias van de Velde shows a raid by unemployed mercenaries. A popular theme at the time, when robberies and looting were common. The man in the foreground does not seem to survive the robbery.

Rijksmuseum – Loan from the Koninklijk Oudheidkundig Genootschap

The nuisance caused by vagrants was quite large in Drenthe at the beginning of the eighteenth century. That is why the Landschap (province) drew up a ‘plakkaat’ (law) in 1726 against ‘vagabonds and vagrants’. Between 1679 and 1782, 122 criminals were convicted, 77 of whom came from outside Drenthe. Some were branded on their faces or backs, 22 people were sentenced to death. These were mainly convictions for vagrancy, theft, burglary and begging with threats.

Rijksmuseum de Gevangenpoort Collection - branding iron Drenthe Archive Collection – ‘plakkaat’

Reverend Johannes Ledeboer from Groningen set off to visit his ailing father in Enschede in September 1780. In Zuidlaren, he met Anton Link. As Ledeboer did not know the way very well, he accepted the offer of the deserted soldier to walk further together. Just outside Zuidlaren, Link shot the reverend with this weapon and ran off with his victim's watch and money. Anton Link was arrested and received the death penalty.

Drents Museum Collection

The wars in the time of Napoleon caused the number of poor people in the Netherlands to increase enormously. In 1817, no fewer than 745,000 people in the Kingdom of Holland applied for poor relief. That was almost one in seven inhabitants! Authorities increasingly chose to set up poorhouses and workhouses and to provide work. Special penal colonies were even established in Ommerschans (1819) and Veenhuizen (1823/1824), where thousands of vagrants and beggars from all over the Netherlands could be imprisoned and re-educated.

Drents Museum Collection

Jan Peeks' father was a wealthy farmer from Hoogeveen. Jan started his career as a bargeman’s mate. In 1812 he had to go into military service, but he deserted. A few years later he ended up in prison for vagrancy and theft. In 1827 Jan Peeks ended up in Veenhuizen after a new conviction, as this register shows. At the age of seventy he died in Hoogeveen’s poorhouse. His son Kornelis Euvelman was a street musician and bought a caravan in 1883.

Drenthe Archive Collection

The history of travellers making their way through Drenthe in a caravan goes back to at least 1876. On Saturday 26 August of that year, P. Kremer placed an advertisement in the Provinciale Drentsche en Asser Courant. He was looking for the owner of the dog that had accompanied him. It was certainly not a stray, because the animal was wearing a leather collar. We don’t know whether the owner eventually reported to Kremer's caravan.

Source Provinciale Drentsche en Asser Courant 1876

Doctors, pastors, businessmen and politicians tried to improve the living conditions of the two million poor people in the Netherlands in the late nineteenth century. To achieve this, the poor had to start leading orderly lives. During this time, hundreds of thousands of people learnt to behave like decent citizens, who then looked down on travellers. Artists found the people in the caravans especially interesting objects of study. Groningen painter Otto Eerelman created the painting ‘Between the fairground wagons’ between 1900 and 1918.

Groninger Museum Collection – Gift from Gemeente Groningen

Since 1870, municipalities had been responsible for the poor living in their village or city. Although caravan dwellers usually had a good income, municipalities were nevertheless afraid that they would use the poor fund. They asked Minister of Justice Robert Regout to take measures. In 1911, he had research done into caravan and houseboat dwellers. To his surprise, more than half of the travellers lived ‘orderly’ lives. In 1918, the Caravan Act was finally introduced.

Drenthe Archive Collection

In the 16th century, making money became more important. As a result, ideas about people travelling around changed dramatically. Many thought they were lazy or engaged in criminal activities. And even at that time: unknown made unloved. In books, prints and plays from the following centuries, you can always find the various prejudices about travellers. This applies to prejudices about German hawkers and seasonal workers (nowadays called Jenischen), and certainly to prejudices about Sinti and Roma.

Sinti en Roma:

A. The famous Drenthe historian Johan Picardt wrote in 1660 what many people in Drenthe at that time probably thought about Sinti and Roma: 'They have shown that they were a lot of whores and crooks, witches and warlocks, who were better trained in nothing other than in skilful stealing.'

Drents Museum Collection

B. Jacques Callot made a popular series of prints about the life of so-called ‘bohemians’ between 1621 and 1631. While Roma women read the palms of interested people, their travelling companions stole food and other items. The text reads: if you enjoy their words, take care of your linen, coins and weapons.

Groninger Museum Collection (until 15 June) / Fries Museum Collection (from 15 June)

C. The popular print is a precursor to the comic strip. This copy from 1873 gives an idea of ​​how most people in the Netherlands viewed Sinti and Roma in the nineteenth century.

Fries Museum Collection

D. Master Jan Pan was a councillor at the Drenthe court. In 1862, he wrote a history book about Drenthe. In it, he told about Sinti and Roma and other itinerant groups that ‘the pretended profession or handicraft is often a cover for robbery or laziness and the means to intrude in the houses in the countryside’.

Drents Museum Collection 

Pedlars:

E. Prejudices about pedlars are very old. In this special print by Johannes Wierix from the sixteenth century, a pedlar offers his wares. The text says that the pedlar offers worthless goods, but that the customer is not crazy.

Rijksmuseum Collection – Acquisition from the F.G. Waller Fund

German seasonal workers:

F. De Stiefmoer (The Stepmother) by Thomas Asselyn from 1684 is a so-called ‘Kraut farce’. In this type of play, German migrant workers and pedlars were ridiculed. In this play, the repulsive, domineering and clumsy German servant Machteld - a ‘dirty, stinking Westphalian Moffin’ - is the butt of all ridicule.

Tresoar Collection

G. At the end of the eighteenth century, there was a lot of unemployment in the Netherlands. At that time, Pieter ’t Hoen wrote a ‘Kraut farce’ in which servant Jurjen Lankbein is ridiculed. ’t Hoen had a great dislike for German seasonal workers, whom he called ‘snakes in our bosom’ and who, according to him, were the ‘stupidest creatures’.

Drents Museum Collection

In de jaren twintig en dertig gaat 90% van de reizigers regelmatig op pad met de wagen. Veel reizigers zitten in de handel of hebben beroepen zoals scharenslijper of stoelenmatter. Vaak werkt de hele familie mee, waarbij kinderen het vak spelenderwijs van hun ouders leren. Ze verdienen doorgaans een goede boterham. In de wintermaanden staan de families meestal op een vaste plek. Soms wordt de ‘hit’ (paard) dan verkocht om geld te besparen voor de stalling.

In the 1920s and 1930s, 90 per cent of travellers regularly moved around by wagon. Many travellers were tradesmen or had professions such as scissors grinder or chair-bottomer. Often the whole family worked with them, with children learning the trade from their parents as they went. They usually earned a good living. In the winter months, the families usually stayed at a fixed place. Sometimes the ‘hit’ (horse) was then sold to save money for stabling. Listen here to stories from several Drenthe travellers about life on the road from World War II to the late 1970s.

A. Tinus Wolters (1936)

I had an uncle, who was sick and he always wanted to drive at night. And then he’d say, I'm going to drive tonight. Well, then he put his horse in front of the wagon. And, then my father put the horse in front of his wagon too. And whoever was there would also hitch up their horses. And then... yes, there were no cars on the road. So then they sat in the front of the caravan with a lamp. They had the lamp there in their hand. A paraffin lamp.. And then they drove to another place. Of course it wasn't that far. Ten kilometres further, say. And then they stopped again. And then they had a place again. They stayed there for another week. Or a fortnight. And so they moved from one place to the next. It was very easy. If there was a spot free, you parked your wagon. Done. Then I would sometimes hear, ‘Oh, Pieter and Leida are coming.’ My father was very well known. And so was my mother. But only among our own people. It was like one big family. Yes, we all knew each other. And that wagon was … I think, five metres long. Two metres wide. It was pulled by a horse. So it couldn’t be too big. Just made of wood. His house had a set of wheels underneath. Just like those farmers’ carts used to have. With those hoops on them, you know. Terrible. Ten people slept in them. Yes, there were families who slept with fifteen people in one wagon. They made a bed right there on the floor. Most of the time, one person’s toes were practically in the other's mouth. You see, my father, he took good care of his family. He was a chair-caner, that’s what he used to be. Scissor grinders. Chair-caners. In Drenthe that was … those were trades people. Later my father switched to textiles and such. He bought them from the wholesaler and then he went out selling … door to door, with suitcases. When he opened his suitcase … then he’d try to sell his goods to the woman or man. And he sold them. Yes, we played the guitar a lot. Yes, when the weather was nice, they would sit on the plank at the front of the wagon and they would start playing. And then everyone would come out of the wagons. And then they would all stand up and start dancing over the camp. And then they would take their harmonicas. And then they would sit on the plank at the front of the wagon and start playing. And then everyone from the wagons would gather around, watching and listening. And then they would start dancing all over the camp. I just thought that was beautiful. A ‘rolleman’, that’s a caravan. ‘noppes flikken’, don’t do it. Among us, some simply spoke nothing but Bargoens. The Bargoense language. I knew it very well, very well. My wife didn’t know it that well. If I started speaking it, saying something in Bargoens, she wouldn’t understand me anymore. But now, it’s mostly in the past… or you just don’t think about it anymore… If you spoke like that, I would know what it was. But we never speak it among ourselves anymore. A ‘sjossem’, a horse. What was in that wagon? Yeah, not much of course. My first cupboard was a Javanese cupboard. Do you know what that is? An orange crate. No really, an orange crate. We had made curtains for it. But we were very happy. Even if it was small. If it is small, it can still be beautiful. Small does not necessarily mean that you have to throw in the towel. No, you have to make do with what you have. And that is what we did. That is how we lived. Free, a beautiful life.

B. Coba van der Weide-Wolters (1939)

Every now and then he would say, take that horse with you and let it graze for a while. Then I had to go and let the horse graze. I would get up on the horse, and I felt like a cowboy. Well, I would stand with my feet on a little board or whatever you could stand on. Then I would throw my legs over it and sit down. Then off I went. I held on to its mane. Just a horse, without a saddle, of course. Yeah, yeah. I even made up a song. "Hurry up blaze, today you're my cowboy horse. Hurry up blaze, with your old, ragged tail." Because it had a tiny little tail. Well, that was when my father was making good money. Then we’d stay for a few days. But otherwise, we’d keep moving on. Then there were new sales rounds again. With horse and cart in front. With say, the wagon, then the horse in front of it. And behind the cart, we had the "hittekar" or “feed cart” ... that's what they called it. Because they would put grass for the horse there, so the horse could eat it during the day. My father always took me along to sell things. And then I'd get shoe laces and... elastic. Those little packets of elastic. Back then, everyone had elastic in their underwear and knee socks. And you'd sell that to the farmers. So, I’d walk around with elastic. When it was sold out, I wouldn’t have any left. I’d think, oh, now I am going to be bored because my father’s not back yet. So, I’d go back to the farmers and ask, "Do you have a few packets of elastic for me?" And then I’d say, "Do I need to pay you back?" "No, never mind, just leave it. It's fine, child." I always earned double. Yeah, because if I had to wait a long time and just stand there watching, it felt like it took even longer. I had tried that a few times, but it didn’t work. But this way, I scored them back and then I sold them further. Yeah, I was about seven years old back then. I did go to school, but only in the winter. In the summer, we travelled with the wagon, and the children came along. So, we didn’t have school, but we did have work. That little wagon wasn’t bigger than this kitchen. It really wasn’t any bigger. And that was your cot—a kind of double bunk bed. And then there was a little space, there stood four chairs and a small table. And that was it. Besides that, you had kitchen cupboards like that. Those were the groceries. We also used orange crates as cupboards, with a little cloth in front and a small rack. Yes, it wasn't like that in the past either... that you could say what a luxury we had. I was seventeen when I started dating my husband. And that was in Kibbelveen. They were digging potatoes there. Yes, in Drenthe. We always went for a walk on Sundays, just us girls. And then we passed by there. And he was playing with a bone. He said: ‘Here, a bone.’ I said: ‘Give it to the dog.’ I will never forget that. He said: ‘That’s nice.’ I said: ‘Give it to the dog. I don’t need a bone from you. If I want a bone, I’ll get it myself.’ Yes. Those were the first words we said. And we’ve been together since. That was all done in the past, running away. To his family. Or to acquaintances. And he said: ‘Come over here, ……’. Well, we walked there. And I say walked, but we were on a moped. The two of us. Back tyre flat. No idea. You didn’t have sex before marriage in those days, you know. Really. A little kiss from a distance. But if you get into bed together, yes. Then you know how it goes, yes. Then things start happening. You run away for that, otherwise you shouldn’t run away. That you want each other. That’s how it is. That’s how it used to be. That’s not the case anymore, you know. When I saw a car, I thought my father was coming. Then Trude said: ‘Go to bed.’ That was an aunt of my Jans. ‘Go to bed, child.’ I said: ‘No, I’ll just sit here for a while.’ And I didn’t go to bed. I’ll never forget it. I was so afraid that the family would come and take us away from there. And then I came home again. He says: 'Well, my child, now you are a woman and he is the man, now you have to see.'

C. Bart Bauer (1971)

As far as I can remember, I went along with my father and grandfather. I’d sit in the back seat. You’d just stop at a farm and ask if they had any… antique cabinets for sale, or antique toys, or whatever. And you’d ask for the most ridiculous things. But of course, the goal was to get inside and have a look around. Small items usually went in the car… and the larger ones on the trailer. The point was actually quite simple—it was just going door to door and ringing the bell. Either selling something or offering your services for repairs. That could be sharpening scissors, grinding tools, or re-caning chairs. My father mainly peddled small items to antique dealers—selling little snuffboxes, actual antiques. He had a very skilled goldsmith who could craft them. And make them so well that even an antique dealer would mistake them for genuine antiques. No, it wasn’t… well, now it would be. But back then, it wasn’t. And that’s what my father did. I didn’t have to go with him—I wanted to. That was just normal. No, that was during the week. School wasn’t that important. The teachers didn’t make a big fuss about it. I mean, they could have, but over the years, they had gotten used to it. They knew they could try to make a problem out of it, but in the end, it wouldn’t change anything. Who was going to come fetch you from the camp? The school inspector? No way. It was a surprise every Monday who had arrived that weekend and who had left. That could vary from ten children to eight children to sixteen, seventeen children. You had people who went from one camp to another camp. And then on Monday there were suddenly new children in the class. I was used to that, but the other children were used to it too. And usually everywhere you went, there was also family around. Children you had seen more often. No, that was never the problem. If you just arrived at the camp ... you could end up at a large camp or a small camp. But when you get there: within two or three days you actually know everyone. You were just outside, and they would come over and start talking to you. They'd offer you a cup of coffee. For example, if I walked into a friend's house and it was five o'clock, it was just like, "Hey Bart, what do you want to eat? We got takeout from the Chinese place. You want some? Sit down." Later, you'd meet guys outside the camp, and you'd think: I'll just walk over there. It would be five o'clock, and they’d say, "Yeah, we’re about to eat, come back in an hour." Come back in an hour? Why? Well, I thought that was strange. Very strange. And we had an amazing headmaster. Now they call them directors. Yeah, he did the craziest things with us. I remember, we were twelve years old at the time. Then he said, "Well, boys..." Because we didn’t want to go to secondary education. Then we got an extra class so that the boys stayed a bit longer at school. "What do you want to do?” "We want to learn how to drive, teacher." "Well, we’re going to do that." So, we went to Schoonhoven, and we drove around the car park in his car. It was a little Citroën 2CV. No kidding, there were about five of us in that tiny thing. And the teacher just kept laughing. And I think the poor guy thought, "Well, if they crash into a tree... so be it." Back then, anything was possible. Yeah, I went to secondary school. For a whole three months. It just wasn’t in the system. No one really thought about it. And if someone wanted to continue their education, they'd say, "Oh, what nonsense, you’re just going to sell things." And if a girl wanted to continue her studies, they’d say, "Oh, you’re going to be a housewife anyway." Silly, right? But that’s just how it was.

After the war, many travellers ended up in the metal trade and car junkyards. Sometimes the metal scrap reached the steps of the caravans. No matter how messy the camp was, inside the wagons it was usually spotless. Travellers could dream of the smell of bleach, and rugs were beaten more often than was good for them. In the seventies, Annie ‘Wieffie’ Hendriks beat her rugs with this carpet beater at the caravan site in Coevorden.

Private Collection

Wealthy traveller families decorated their carriages with beautiful wood carvings. Inside, their wealth was plain to see from the numerous porcelain figurines. During the journey, these were placed between the blankets or (packed) in a bucket to prevent them from breaking. This flower hanger came from Belgium. It was often travellers who imported this type of porcelain and sold it to other travellers. This example from the fifties is an heirloom from the Drenthe traveller family Kallenkoot.

Private Collection

Although sleeping in a caravan was more comfortable than outside or in the hay, it could be freezing cold in the caravans in the winter. The caravans were single-walled and the wood or coal stove went out at night. Most travellers were far too afraid of dying from the effects of ‘coal vapour’, something we now know as carbon monoxide poisoning. A hot-water bottle offered a solution. Piet Veenstra from Westerbork warmed his feet with this hot-water bottle at night.

Private Collection

The trailer camps where travellers had to park their wagons from 1918 onwards were often located far outside built-up areas. For a long time, the only facilities were a sign indicating ‘caravan site’, a barbed-wire fence, a tap, a toilet and a stable. There was usually no pavement or lighting. To fetch water, each family had a bucket or milk churn next to the wagon. This milk churn belonged to Marinus Spijkerman from Assen and later served as a piggy bank.

Private Collection

Traveller's wives worked hard. They often had a business in trinkets, slippers or homemade scrubbers. As they went door to door, they asked if there was anything to grind, to reseat or to harvest. Once home, they took care of the food, the laundry and cleaning the children. In order to heat water in the large zinc tubs, they placed a paraffin stove between a pile of bricks. This paraffin stove was used by fairground traveller Mina Bakker from Groningen.

Private Collection

In the 1990s, photo collector Herman Visser from Groningen donated a special album to the Drents Museum. The album contains 37 rare photos from the 1930s of various caravan camps in Drenthe, such as Schoonoord, Norg, Emmen, Assen and Beilen. The photos are accompanied by brief descriptions, such as ‘Coba's shack’, ‘Derk Toxopeus, lives alone’ and ‘G.J. Kok, council wagon'. Some of the photos were taken by photographer Arends from Emmen.

Drenthe Archive - Drents Museum Collection

Ina van der Werff-Braaksma (1925-2021) grew up in Assen. For her studies at the Minerva School of Applied Arts in Groningen, she made a series of drawings of travellers, which she worked out at home into a colourful watercolour. The drawings were made within cycling distance of Assen. Van der Werff must have spent many hours at the camp observing people, animals and wagons. From experience she knew that people often found it interesting and also an honour to be a model.

Private Collection

During the early years of World War II, caravan dwellers could continue to move around. Until June 1943. They then had to leave the Dutch coastal region. On 1 July, a general ban on moving followed and from the end of July 1943, caravan dwellers were placed by the police in 28 assembly camps. Five of these camps were located in Drenthe: Assen, Emmen, Hoogeveen, Meppel and Westerbork. Many caravan dwellers decided to sell their caravan or park it at a farmer’s, and 'move' to uninhabitable houses or self-made huts and holes.

Historisch Centrum Leeuwarden Collection (facsimile)

After the ban on moving, the misery was not over for the caravan dwellers. On 28 December 1943, the German government started requisitioning caravans. They wanted to use the caravans as emergency shelter in case of calamities. The provinces of Friesland, Groningen and Drenthe were the first in line. After the residents had been evacuated, all usable caravans went to Camp Westerbork. From the camp, Hertha Metz-Baumgarten drew the caravans standing along the barbed wire. A military policeman took a unique photo of them.

Camp Westerbork Memorial Centre Collection - Until 15 May, you can see the fragile original here, after which a facsimile version will follow.

Camp Westerbork Memorial Centre Collection - reproduction due to the sensitivity of the original photo to light

Listen here to the story of traveller Drikus Termohlen (1938) from Assen about his stay in Westerbork during the Second World War.

Late at night, a plainclothes police officer came to our door in Utrecht. Normally, they came in uniform, but this time he was in plain clothes. He said, "There will be a raid tomorrow." But we thought it was only for the men. So, all the men from the camp went into hiding. That’s how they didn’t get caught. That’s how it happened. They arrested us because they thought we were Jewish. My father was a scrap dealer, dealing in old iron and metals. And Jews were always traders; they were business people. So, they assumed we were Jewish and took us. Later, they found out we weren’t Jewish, just travelling people. We were put into a truck. And then, we were taken by train. To Westerbork. I was six years old. Look, as a child... Yeah, you know what it's like? You're so... you see it as an adventure, you see a train, and you think where are you going? Yeah, that's how it goes. My mother was very scared. And all my oldest brothers too. But we were a lot younger. We looked at it very differently. Only when we were in the camp, yeah, then that’s when things changed. The first thing we had to do was report. My mother, mind you, not us. We had to wait outside. Yeah, then we were separated. My oldest brothers went to one side. And we went to the other side. They had to work. And then we were taken to these barracks. And there people were stripped completely naked. And they had to shower. There was one woman who walked in. She kept shouting: ‘My honour has been violated”. We weren't allowed in, you know. Me and my brother Chris. He was with my mother. My mother refused to let go of us. I was hit on the head with one of those rifles. There was a big scar here. That's practically gone now. I've never talked about that with anyone. A German soldier just hit me, on the top of my head with his rifle. That's because ... I was holding onto my mother. The Germans wanted to take us away from her. From my mother. She was supposed to take a shower too. And that one German just hit me over my head with that rifle. I don't even know how it ended. I was all bandaged up and covered in blood. Yes, it was a miserable time there. You were bored to death, you couldn't go outside. You had nothing in those barracks. There were a few cots with a few beds and you lay on them. That was all there was. No. If we were allowed outside, we could see our brothers, they were on the other side. And then the Germans stood in front of those fences with guns. You were allowed to wave and all that, but nothing else. But not for long. Maybe five minutes outside. Yes, we did get food, yes. It was boiled potato peels. Only the peels, yes. Potatoes were a luxury. But you ate it, because you were hungry. And then those Germans would come in again with their dogs. Names were called out - people who had to leave. There was an officer with those boots on, with a little whip in his hand. Tapping those boots and everything. You were scared to death of that. And my mother was really scared. Then she’d say: ‘Oh, now it’s going to be our turn.’ Then you’d be taken away, right? Until it really was our turn. Then I also thought we were being sent away. Somewhere else. But then we were allowed to go home. After two months or three months, we don’t know exactly. We couldn’t check that. We were overjoyed. My mother refused to leave without all the children. No, she was strict. The children had to come with us. But then we had to walk from Westerbork to Utrecht. That was quite a walk to Utrecht, phew. We slept in haystacks at night. Lodgings. We had a lot of lodgings, you know. Let’s see. One, two, three or so. Some farmers would chase you away when you came to their door. We’d ask: ‘Do you have a haystack we can sleep in or something?’ Then we’d be chased away. ‘Get out of here. Caravan dwellers out!’ Or ‘chicken thieves’. They called you all sorts of things. Yes, that’s what it was like.Until we arrived in Utrecht again. And our two caravans were still there. Everything else was gone. Our horses were gone, the carts were gone. Only two worn-out caravans. When we arrived in Utrecht, my father came back later. Then the war had eased a bit. I wanted to forget it. You shouldn't think about that anymore. But still, it stays with you. I hope I won't have to experience it again.

On Tuesday morning, 16 May 1944, raids were carried out throughout the Netherlands to round up Sinti and Roma. 578 men, women and children arrived at Camp Westerbork. Some of them were travellers, but they were allowed to leave the camp. Three days later, 245 Sinti and Roma were deported to Auschwitz. Only 31 of them returned, the rest were murdered. Among them were nine-year-old Settela Steinbach and her brothers and sisters. Settela is the girl with the headscarf in the Westerbork film.

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Erasmus Bernhard von Dülmen Krumpelmann (1897-1987) followed a drawing training at the Hendrick de Keyserschool in Amsterdam. Because he played truant too often, he was expelled from school after a year. But his love for drawing remained. He enjoyed making drawings and watercolours in the rougher neighbourhoods of Amsterdam, such as around the Zeedijk and in the Jordaan district. In 1921, Von Dülmen Krumpelmann left for Drenthe, where he became a well-known painter. He made these watercolours on trailer camps in Drenthe.

Loans from Private Collection

Prejudices about travelling people have existed for centuries, most of them negative. However, from 1830 onwards strongly romantic and idealised portrayals also began to appear in literature. In particular, the beauty of the women, the dancing, the music and the nomadic lifestyle were described in a more positive light. This may well have influenced the artists who depicted these bon vivants (lovers of life). The Drenthe-born artist Erasmus Herman von Dülmen Krumpelmann (1925–2000) painted this romantic-looking caravan camp in 1951.

Private collection

The first travellers’ wagons were dog carts. During the day, the goods or tools were put in the wagon; at night they were slept in. At the end of the nineteenth century, real caravans appeared on the road. When the government laid down measurements in 1918, caravans became more similar. As early as the 1950s, building ‘miniature wagons’ became a favourite hobby among travellers. These model wagons were built by Harm Smit. He presented one of his self-built wagons to Queen Juliana.

Private Collections

Children's books are an excellent way to convey values ​​and standards. Contrasts are often used. For two centuries, children's book writers have liked to set 'good' citizens against 'bad' caravan dwellers. Order versus chaos, clean versus dirty, civilised versus uncivilised, religious versus unbelieving and trustworthy versus untrustworthy. Although the number of prejudices in children's books is decreasing, caravan dwellers are still portrayed as 'different'. A common theme in books about Sinti and Roma is the myth of child theft.

A. In How Hendrik Eichenfels came to the knowledge of God (1825), ‘a heathen, an old, ugly woman, with pitch-black hair and a darkish face’ kidnaps the noble Hendrik. The boy grows up in a dark den: a ‘dwelling of horror’.

B. In Trineke from the caravan (1907), the neglected fourteen-year-old traveller's daughter Trineke ends up in the home of a friendly young lady. Only then does real life begin for her, far away from her rough, cursing and malicious father in his 'filthy' wagon.

C. In Neighbours (1927) by Jac. van der Klei, Sien's father is a chair-bottomer. Schoolchildren are afraid of him. After all, he comes from 'a very far away country' and is 'not to be trusted’.

D. In Thérèse (1931) by P.A. Sparenburg, a young woman runs away with ‘gypsy’ Jacques, ‘the man she hated and feared more than she loved’. Together with other ‘evil-doers’, he devises the ‘diabolical plan’ to kidnap the noble Thérèse ‘whose beautiful curls shone like gold in the sunlight’.

E. In Sikko the trailer boy (1981) by L. Janse, Sikko lives in a trailer with his rough stepmother, his indifferent father and his thieving sisters. Through the good farmer's wife on the Zeldenrust farm, he is introduced to religion. As a result, he realises more and more how thoroughly bad and anti-social his own family is.

F. In Paul van Loon's Griezelbus 7 (Horror bus 7) (2008), the main character Onnoval is kidnapped by travellers from Transylvania. These ‘soulless werewolves’ also want to ‘de-soul’ him. Onnoval defeats the evil leader of the travellers and takes over the leadership of the group.

Drents Museum Collection

As early as the nineteenth century, journalists liked to write about accidents and crime. Drenthe villagers were described as residents of village x or y. Travellers, on the other hand, were always referred to as ‘residents of a caravan’. The behaviour of the individual traveller therefore reflected on the entire group. Until 1940, caravan dwellers were mainly featured in the section on court reports or in articles about objections to the construction of a caravan park. This mainly negative reporting about caravan dwellers reinforced existing prejudices.

Source Provinciale Drentsche en Asser Courant (1876-1940)

Most municipalities appointed a manager who supervised the caravan site. At first, he did little more than collect the fees. When the camps became increasingly larger in the fifties, the manager was given a full-time job working at the camp. They were mini-societies with their own school, their own doctor and their own sports field. In this diary, Berend Kremer kept track of everything that happened at the camp in Emmen in 1973.

Private Collection

The traveller’s wagon - or traditional wooden caravan - symbolises a way of life. That is why you see wagons and wheels in all sorts of places with travellers. In miniature form on the windowsill, as a key ring, in the travellers' flag and as a tattoo. The classic wooden wagon also keeps coming back in paintings and drawings. Nieding Wolters from Noordscheschut made hundreds of drawings of caravans and happily gave them away to anyone who liked them.

Private Collection

There were far too few pitches at the large caravan camps for the growing number of travellers. The pitches for passers-by, therefore, soon become permanent ones. But even that proved insufficient. Travelling from camp to camp was almost impossible in the late 1960s. Reporter Han van der Meer of current affairs programme Brandpunt followed a group of travellers from Drenthe travelling through the Netherlands in August 1972. Trader Willem Kallenkoot acted as spokesman for the travellers in the programme.

Beeld & Geluid (Image & Sound) Collection

Around 1900, more and more steel ships were built. People with travelling professions in particular bought the old wooden ships. In 1911, there were 584 caravans and 1,123 houseboats in the Netherlands. Due to the housing shortage after the war, the number of houseboats continued to grow. When the roads improved and the number of rental properties increased, many houseboat residents opted for a caravan or house. The best-known houseboat resident in Drenthe was ironmonger and amateur archaeologist Tjerk Vermaning. He sold these irons to the Drents Museum in 1985.

Drents Museum Collection

In the first half of the twentieth century, caravans were often lavishly decorated with wood carvings. The most important decorative elements were the so-called ‘angels’, which were located at the front and the back just under the roof of the caravan. Woodcarver Gerard Twickler (1915-1990) from Stadskanaal created many wood carvings for the furniture factories WAKO and KNICOS. He also made custom pieces, including chairs, Christ figures, table legs … and angels for travellers. This angel was part of a set of angels that was never collected by the customer.

Private Collection

In the traditional single-walled caravans it could get quite cold in the winter. Because most caravan sites were unpaved until the sixties, keeping your dirty shoes on was not an option. Self-knitted caravan slippers offered a solution in such a case. These slippers were knitted about twenty-five years ago by Annie ‘Wieffie’ Hendriks from Coevorden. You could recognise your own slippers by the decorative edges.

Private Collection

Before the war, most travellers moved around a region within a radius of up to 50 kilometres. A small group covered longer distances. In winter, many travellers chose to stay in a fixed place. In the marriage book of Dirk and Cornelia Hendriks, you can see by the birthplaces of the children how they travelled around. After the war, car dealers often chose a fixed location, traditional craftsmen like scissors grinders continued to work regionally, while textile sellers travelled throughout the country.

Private Collection

Before the war, people often had multiple professions and easily changed their living arrangements. This also applied to Jeep Posthumus (1892-1963) from Roderveld. After a turbulent youth, he ended up in a shack near Norg in 1922 due to the housing shortage. Later, he and his wife Marie lived in the trailer park on Lonerstraat in Assen. In 1940, he bought a house in Nieuw-Roden. Jeep traded in horses, sheep, goats, hides and holly. He also sold farm wagons and carriages.

Private Collection

During the Second World War, it was difficult to get enough food. However, travellers had two advantages over civilians: they were used to trading and they could move around easily. In order to distribute the scarce goods fairly, rationing coupons were introduced. With these coupons, the government regulated how much someone was allowed to buy of a certain product. This is the so-called ‘stamkaart’ (identity card) of little Willem Hendriks.

Private Collection

To live in a caravan, you have needed a permit since 1918. The permit comes with a registration number, the license plate of the caravan. In this case, merchant Marinus Spijkerman was the applicant for the permit. He was allowed to live with his wife and eleven children in the caravan with registration number D3138, at least until 12 January 1968. After that, he had to renew his permit.

Private Collection

Children of travellers attended school very irregularly until the end of the fifties, especially during the travelling season. As many as 56.7 percent of adult travellers were illiterate at that time. Girls attended school more often than boys, according to research. This apparently did not apply to Cornelia Hendriks. She could not write her own name and signed her passport with a cross.

Private Collection

In the 1950s, conditions at many trailer camps were degrading. Toilets were holes in the ground, electricity was often missing and there were vermin everywhere. Annie ‘Wieffie’ Hendriks fought for improvements to the camp in Coevorden. To the anger of the residents, the camp was disbanded in 1968. The Hendriks family ended up in a house that had been declared uninhabitable and then left for camp Collendoorn. There, Annie worked on plans for a new camp in Coevorden. She received a royal honour in 1989.

Private Collection

Everyone is happy when the circus comes to town. And certainly in Assen when the world-famous Strassburger Reuzen Circus arrived there in October 1928. The brothers Adolf and Leopold Strassburger led this circus that travelled throughout North-West Europe. The circus artists slept in caravans, which according to the Asser Courant they transported in a train with eighty (!) wagons: ‘The workhorses were unloaded first, followed by the elephants, who seemed to find it cold and in chorus made a terrifying trumpeting sound.’

Allard Pierson Collection – Amsterdam University

Travelling life is not conducive to church attendance. Nevertheless, faith plays an important role in travellers' lives at important events such as a birth, first communion, Easter duty, marriage and death. Initially most travellers were Catholic, in recent years more and more travellers are opting for the Pentecostal Church. At some camps, a special wagon is set up as a church.

A. This home stoup hung for years in the bedroom of Lammechien Bakker from Hoogeveen. She crossed herself when she got up and went to bed. She also did so when there was a thunderstorm, because she was terrified of it.

B. The cross comes from the wagon of Hendrik Spijkerman from Coevorden. When his sons practiced throwing knives, Jesus lost an arm. Father Spijkerman repaired the cross with a piece of rope.

C. Salesmen always carry a wallet. In addition to small change, it often contains a lucky coin. This was also the case with Annie Smit's wallet. However, she was not granted happiness: she was only 58 years old when she died in Hoogeveen in 1978. The second wallet belonged to her husband Marinus Spijkerman, who traded in rags.

Private Collections

Travellers still have to deal with prejudices. This has a major impact on their lives. For example, children of travellers are often bullied at school because of their background. And many adult travellers do not dare to say that they live on a caravan site for fear of losing their job or trade. Prejudice-confirming series such as ‘Bij ons op het kamp’ (‘With us at the camp’), reports in the media and all the prejudices that circulate on the internet contribute greatly to the negative image of travellers and other caravan dwellers.

Source GeenStijl

For many travellers, getting married is seen as nothing more than a formality. Perhaps that is why the feast of the first communion is celebrated so exuberantly. Annie Hendriks was 8 years old when she took communion in the Catholic church of Coevorden in 1992. Together with her mother, she bought this beautiful dress at the Black Market in Beverwijk. That year, she was the only communicant who came from the camp and she stole the show with her outfit.

Private Collection

Family is very important to travellers. It makes sense, because they have been travelling with their families for almost a century. Grandparents play a central role and keep the family together. According to a research report from the fifties, the love travellers have for their (grand)children is ‘almost limitless’. Thus, despite the small living space, there is room for children's toys, such as this wind-up mouse with the Spijkerman family and this pre-war scooter with the Veenstra family. The toys have been kept for generations.

Private Collections

For a long time, children of travellers only attended school when it was convenient. Sometimes this was a camp school run by the Roman Catholic Association for Residential Caravan Charities, much more often an ordinary village school. Martha Scheper and her father Arend lived in a caravan in Ees. The village school's absence books from 1948/49 note exactly when Martha and her father went ‘wandering’. Remarkably, at ten years old, she was still in first grade; her classmates were three years younger.

Private Collection

In 1954, Emmen got its own ‘travellers school’. From 1963 onwards, the toddlers were taught by teacher Mieke Haitel. She picked the children up from the camp herself. She blew her whistle at the water tap. When all the children were there, they went to school together. When she left in 1998, she was given the school bell as a gift. She also kept the hand clipper she used to cut the children’s hair, a few reading books, a tuning fork, a letter box and the school stamp.

Private Collection

Travellers love listening to music. Researchers already noted in 1959 that almost every wagon had a radio. They noted a preference for ‘sentimental songs’. Travellers also like to make music themselves. For example, Annie Hendriks from Coevorden produced various pirate records in the eighties. And when nine-year-old Dirk Veenstra received an accordion from his grandfather in 2017, a new hobby was born. Some travellers from Drenthe gained recognition with an (inter)national audience, such as Bouke Scholten and singer Jannes.

Private Collections

In addition to Catholic and Protestant football clubs, clubs from other social groups also emerged in the sixties. For example, Hendrik ‘Grote Geert’ Wolters, Jozeph Bakker and Hinneman Hindriks founded WKE in 1966, the football club of Woonwagen Kamp Emmen. The footballers started in the lowest class of the Drenthe Football Association, but in 2009 they became the best amateur club in the Netherlands. There was a big celebration in Emmen. In 2016, after bankruptcy, the club was given a new name: WKE’16.

WKE’16 Collection

Since 1918, travellers have had to have a permit to live in a caravan. The caravan had to meet legal requirements, as did the behaviour of the residents. The caravans were given a number and a letter, in Drenthe this was a D (later: Dr). Numbering the caravans should make it easier for the police to track down suspects of a crime. The permit system existed until the end of the nineties. This caravan permit is from 1990.

Private Collection

The products that travellers sold changed with the times. Before the war, these were mainly home-made products, after the war mainly cars, carpets, trinkets, antiques and textiles. Julius ‘Juul’ Haverhoek came into possession of this impressive German pipe through the antique trade. When his grandson asked him repeatedly if he could have the beautiful pipe, he finally agreed. But on one condition: ‘if you can get a good price for it, you have to sell it!’

Private Collection

Traditional traveller professions were scissors grinder and chair-bottomer. Professions that we hardly know anymore in our throwaway society. With a needle and a hammer as his only tools, a chair-bottomer weaved a new seat of rushes or bulrushes into a chair. This weaving mallet once belonged to the most famous traveller in the Netherlands: Harm Smit alias ‘Rood Kooltje’ from Hoogeveen. The needle is made from the tine of a broken pitchfork and was used by chair-bottomer Willem Hendriks from Coevorden.

Private Collections

Before the war, travellers often sold home-made products. Afterwards they mainly sold carpets, trinkets and cheap textiles. In the seventies, the Kallenkoot sisters drove their car full of textiles from village to village in Drenthe, Friesland and Groningen. Griet was behind the wheel, while Saak did the selling. When the stock ran out, they went to the wholesaler in Buitenpost to stock up with new products.

Private Collection

With the new caravan law, the government wanted to improve the social position of travellers, in the hope that more travellers would opt for regular housing. The starting point was the construction of fifty large collective camps with modern facilities. The 'principle of descent’ was intended to limit the growth of the camps. You could only get a permit if your parents lived in a caravan. Harm Smit received this copy of the Caravan Act from PvdA member of parliament David van Ooijen during the recording of Brandpunt in 1972.

Private Collection