Vanaf mei 1940 verschijnen plotseling geen weersverwachtingen meer in onze kranten. Maarten onderzoekt het belang van weersvoorspellingen in oorlogstijd.
In de vroege ochtend van 13 december 1917 worden de inwoners van Eemnes wakker met een wel heel vreemd uitzicht: op een boerderij in het dorp 'crasht' een luchtschip, een zeppelin zonder geraamte, van bijna 50 meter. Aan boord: zeekaarten, een machinegeweer en wat Engelse papieren, maar van de bemanning ontbreekt ieder spoor…
Maarten is walking through the Griftpark in Utrecht today. During his sunny and pleasant walk with historian Hans Buiter, you will learn all about the park's troubled past.
Maarten cycled hundreds of times past the house of Sybold van Ravesteyn, the architect of many Dutch railway stations. He is also the architect of the old Central Station of Utrecht so missed by Maarten. Van Ravesteyn's house has recently been opened to the public. So finally Maarten can take a look at the house he designed himself on the Prins Hendriklaan in Utrecht, where the architect lived for most of his life.
Maarten has been taking his evening walk on the Maliebaan in Utrecht for forty years. A plaque has been hanging at number 36 for a number of years. Philosopher René Descartes lived here. And Maarten wants to know all about that. In Van Rossem Tells, he therefore talks to Descartes expert Erik-Jan Bos And guess what: behind the plaque on Maliebaan a dramatic story unfolds. Descartes lived there for a few years around 1630 and in Utrecht he probably also wrote his famous statement: 'Cogito ergo sum', or 'I think, therefore I am'. But the city has not been kind to the great thinker, to say the least.
Going back to your homeland, there's a term for that: repatriation. From 1945 until well into the sixties, the Dutch government repatriated people from the Dutch East Indies and later Indonesia. The irony is that many of the approximately 300,000 Indo-Dutch people had never been to their 'homeland', Holland.
Van Rossem Tells is about the murder of a mayor. That is of course bad news and does not happen often. This story takes place 600 years ago in the city of Utrecht. On August 21, 1425, a number of butchers invaded the home of the then Mayor Beernt Proys on the Oudegracht. If they find him in bed, they immediately stab him to death.
If there is one photo that depicts the Dolle Mina and second wave feminism, it might be the photo with the bare bellies described. The photo was taken in Utrecht at the Jaarbeurs. Connie van Nieuwkerk was standing on the left. Maarten van Rossem talks to her in the old meeting room of the Dolle Minas in the Kargadoor on the Oudegracht. Who wrote 'boss in her own belly' on her belly with lipstick? And what changes has second wave feminism brought about? Watch the broadcast here.
There are still four water towers in the city of Utrecht. The towers are no longer used, their function - building up water pressure - has been taken over by electric pumps. Pump and tower had the same purpose: to build up water pressure. They are no longer needed, but many water towers are still there, much to Maarten's delight. The tower in Bilthoven is still completely in its original condition and that is reason enough for Maarten to climb up with a camera and nodding knees.
Alfred Tepe was an architect in the mid-nineteenth century. He was best known for the 70 churches he designed. Churches that are often still in our region. And what does Maarten learn in this episode? Many of those designs are similar. The churches are tall, slender, inspired by cathedrals with a high nave and pointed arches. From now on you will never pass a 'Tepe church' again!
He was a prominent VOC member, respected governor, talented naturalist and beloved in London. Why do we know Joan Gideon Loten in Utrecht so poorly?!
Hendrik Scholte became a wealthy orphan at the age of 22. He started his own church in Utrecht and eventually left for America with 800 followers to found his own city.
To conclude the 'Week of History' - which this year has the theme 'Getting to work!' - Maarten is a guest at the glass factory in Leerdam. He sees the appalling conditions under which (young) children worked for years and discovers how much the director regretted employing those children at the time.
