The University of Twente launched in 1964 as the first campus university in the Netherlands. The idea was that of civitas academia, an academic community where even first-generation students would feel at home. On campus there would be peace and regularity, with a focus not only on studies, but also on cultural development and living together. The establishment of student associations in the form of sports and cultural clubs was encouraged, but corporal associations were kept out. There was an effort to integrate technical and social sciences, and in 3.5 years, students could pass the baccalaureate, which in principle made them ready for a job in business.
The story of the early years of the then Technische Hogeschool Twente is well documented. What is less clear is how all the ideals of the founders turned out in practice. The Archive Department of the LISA (Library, IT Services & Archive) department has set up an oral history project in collaboration with Stichting Universiteitsfonds Twente, in which about 20 students from the first batch are interviewed about their experiences between 1964 and 1972. Why did students choose Twente, what were their expectations? How did female students experience their time on campus? What did studying at UT and the process of coming of age on campus give students of that time? An interesting area of tension is the desire to prepare students better for social life than was common at technical universities, while at the same time housing and educating them on a campus far from the city.
Marjan Beijering (History Lab) supervised the project. About five interviewers (almost all members of GEWIS, the association of UT pensioners) attended oral history workshops and worked closely with UT’s video team, which lent recorders and secured the recordings afterwards. Arjan van Hessen helped work with ASR. By the end of September 2023, 20 oral history interviews will be ready, recorded on audio and including permission for inclusion in archives, metadata, summaries. Some of the interviews will also be recorded on film. Interviewer Martin Bosker will use some of the interviews as the basis for his podcast Campuswalks.
The collection has not yet been digitized and therefore cannot be viewed directly at Sound & Vision. Digitization can, however, be requested from Sound & Vision via: zakelijk@beeldengeluid.nl
Gerard Kuys – De vrees voor wat niet kwam : nieuwe arbeidsverhoudingen in Nederland 1935-1945, aan het voorbeeld van de Twentse textielindustrie
Niek Vos – De rauwe wet van vraag en aanbod: arbeidsverhoudingen in de Twents-Gelderse textielindustrie 1945 tot 1949
raditionally, Twente was an important center for the textile industry. Since 1830, the state invested in Twente. At its peak, about 160 factories were operating. Twente possessed a culture of strike action. As early as the end of the nineteenth century, factory workers began to unite in labor associations. The interviewees stand in these traditions and recount their experience between 1930 and 1960.
The interviews were conducted as part of the doctoral theses (economic and social) history (KUN) of the four interviewers, N. Vos, G. Kuys, J. Vos and E. Theloosen, on the subject of the labor movement and labor relations in the Twente textile industry 1930-1960.
A number of interviews were conducted with more than one person at a time. For example, Duyn, Ter Haar, the Kapitein couple and Pieperiet are together in one interview and the same goes for Messrs. Meijer and Tijdeman.
Almost all persons speak about the situation in the Twente textile industry from an active position in the leftist (trade) movement, especially NVV, NSV, NAS, EVC and OVB, in which, incidentally, a strong aversion to the CPN emerges. The exception is the liberal politician Stikker, who speaks more from the position of employers than from his views on the new (postwar) forms of cooperation between employers and employees. Among other things, he was the initiator of the Labor Foundation in 1945.
The collection has not yet been digitized and therefore cannot be viewed directly at Sound & Vision. Digitization can, however, be requested from Sound & Vision via: zakelijk@beeldengeluid.nl
The Twente System
The manufacturers, united in the Enschedesche Fabrikanten Vereeniging since 1888, generally reacted as a collective. A strike at one of the member companies was followed by the shutdown of several factories, with the exclusion of all the workers who worked there. This applied to 5,000 men in 1890, 2,000 workers in 1902, and 7,500 in 1909. The strike at Van Heek & Co in 1902 met with much sympathy in and outside Twente. Henriëtte Roland Holst gave flaming speeches throughout the country and collected money with her husband to supplement the strike payouts. In the end, however, the manufacturers won. In 1909, Pieter Jelles Troelstra, the leader of the SDAP, spoke before an audience of 7,000 textile workers. In that case, commitments were made by Menko’s management.
Working in textiles after World War I was not a fat lot. Much had improved since the previous century, but the workers were now well organized and no longer accepted the large profits in the family businesses. They wanted better things for themselves. At a protest march, a worker with a cargo bike full of broomsticks made this clear: “Big steal and small steal, big steal the most.” In 1923, a major strike broke out at Van Heek & Co. The application of “the Twentse Stelsel” put many other textile workers out of work as well.
Seven people were interviewed in the context of the 1931-1932 Twente Textile Strike and the textile industry of the 1930s:
J. van Baaren
J. Fahner
H. van Genugten
J.A. Middelhuis
R. Slok
F. Stuvé
J. Vunderink
For more information about the interviews and the interviewees, see: SFW work issue no. 8 (1995), pp. 2, 20, 21, 33, 39, 42, 50.
The Twente textile strike is included in the Canon of the Netherlands.
See also the collection Arbeidersbeweging Twente (1930-1960)