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24/2/2017 / Issue #011 / Text: Jacob Kollar

It was once the ‘Kraakliedenbuurt’

There is no doubt the squatting movement in Amsterdam has contributed greatly to the creative culture and history of the city — most famously in its contribution to preserving the iconic city centre. The movement has also been credited for spawning many of the cultural centres that are now taken for granted. Fewer people though would remember the important role many squats played in community development throughout the city. 

The main focus and discussion of this contribution focuses on the large squats which existed in the older parts of the city — like the ‘Groote Keyser’ on the Keizersgracht, the more infamous ‘Lucky Luyk’, or the more recently closed ‘Slang’ in the Spuistraat. Despite the raised profile of these places, it was the discretely placed Staatsliedenbuurt which ended up housing the greatest concentration of squatters, and those who took up residence in the area, formed a unique culture which defined a whole neighbourhood.

“Squatting in the Staatsliedenbuurt was different,” said squatting historian Eric Duivenvoorden. While the inner city squats were being gradually evicted, the Staatsliedenbuurt was left alone, and as a result a unique community evolved. 

Eric explained, because the ‘buurt’ was tucked away from the rest of the city, the government left it alone, and it eventually grew to host around 800 squatters. 

Eric said the more prominent squats around the city were based on taking a whole building, while in the Staatsleidenbuurt, sqautting took place in the many empty apartments which were scattered through the neighbourhood as a result of the working class exodus out of the city in the 1960-70’s. 

“With a squatted building, you could easily evict everyone at the same time. Trying to evict people from individual flats was much more difficult,” He said.

Because of their unique status of being left alone, and out of need to stand together for their common goals in a larger and more decentralised situation, the area’s squatters were able to create strong organisations, and this was the platform for much of the innovation within the area. Their influence was so distinct the area was even given the nickname Kraakliedenbuurt.

Aja Waalwijk, a resident in the Zaal100 — a former squat — said this was particularly interesting because there was lot of diversity in the neighbourhood, and people had different reasons for why they were squatting — political, practical and many other reasons. “There were the Portugese people, who were running away from the army, there was a woman’s home, the lesbian cafe Wicca over the road and there were the anarchists.” 

Like the city in general, the Staatsliedenbuurt’s few cultural centres remain the most vivid reminder of it’s squatting past. However, Aja said, “it is the arts that have been raised up, but it was not just creativity in art here.”

“Now the government talks of making these creative ‘broedplaatsen’ (breeding grounds), but creativity can’t exist on it’s own, it needs a community to support it. In the Kraakliedenbuurt you had people cooking for everyone, some of them were looking after the children, there were people repairing things. There was a lot more going on.”

Aja used his recently deceased friend, Ralph Rietveld as an example of the community. He said it were people like Ralph, who just wanted to help in practical ways, that made the creativity flourish.

Aja said he was always there to help people fix things, “he made it his life to help maintain the free cultural places,” and in the eulogy he wrote to his friend, he said Ralph was, “seen by many people as giving the Staatsliedenbuurt its cultural distinction.””

Aja also used Ralph to highlight the diversity of creativity by pointing out his contribution in setting up the ‘Blauwe Duim’, an initiative in which poorer residents in the area could borrow the tools they needed fix their places for minimal costs. 

The ‘Blauwe Duim’, which is still open today, is of course just one example of the innovation and initiative from these uniquely united individuals who lived throughout the area. Zaal100 and the Filmhuis Cavia remain as other visually active elements. However, between the early 1980’s to 1990’s, the neighbourhood hosted the Staatsliedengreep street arts festival. It also grew to host the Staatsradio and StaatsTV, a number of street newspapers, kraakcafés and open kitchens — some of which still operate in some form today.

The visual evidence of squatting’s influence faded out gradually. Even into the mid 1990’s the action continued to show itself. Now, the area still houses many former squatters in what have become official social housing apartments. Many creative offices have taken up residence in the area, perhaps attempting to grasp some of the creativity of the past. But, as one former resident said, “now it’s all about individuals.” People don’t seem to want the community that originally brought the Staatsliedenbuurt to life. 

Recommended reading: Een dwarse buurt: het herscheppingsverhaal van de Staatsliedenbuurt en Fredrick Hendrikbuurt 1971-1996, Leo Adriaenssen

 

Pictures:
1)
Demonstratie van Staatsliedenbuurt naar hoofdbureau politie naar aanleiding van ontruimingen en dood kraker Hans Kok in politiecel. Foto: Bogaerts, Rob / Anefo, Nationaal Archief / Anefo, licentie CC-BY 
2) Spandoek in Staatsliedenbuurt (vandaag Singel 114, morgen Van Thijn) (1984), Vollebregt, Sjakkelien, / Anefo, Nationaal Archief / Anefo, licentie CC-B
3) Ontruiming Groen van Prinstererstraat Staatsliedenbuurt. Foto: Fotograaf Onbekend / Anefo, Nationaal Archief / Anefo, licentie CC-BY 
4) Onbekend
5) Krakers uit van Beuningenstraat (Amsterdam) verlaten kraakpanden voor nieuwbouw; krakers dragen van Beuningen ten grave (1986). Foto: Croes, Rob C. Anefo, Nationaal Archief / Anefo, licentie CC-BY
6) Assistent Fred Buma van kunstenaar Willem Nell “bekleedt” dichtgetimmerde ramen in Staatsliedenbuurt met schoenen (11 December 1986). Foto: Croes, Rob C.  Anefo, Nationaal Archief / Anefo, licentie CC-BY
7) Krakers uit van Beuningenstraat (Amsterdam) verlaten kraakpanden voor nieuwbouw; krakers dragen van Beuningen ten grave (1986). Foto: Croes, Rob C. Anefo, Nationaal Archief / Anefo, licentie CC-BY
8) Ontruiming kraakpand in van Bossestraat in de Amsterdamse Staatsliedenbuurt (Juni 19 1986), foto: Molendijk, Bart / Anefo, Nationaal Archief / Anefo, licentie CC-B
9) Krakers uit van Beuningenstraat (Amsterdam) verlaten kraakpanden voor nieuwbouw; krakers dragen van Beuningen ten grave (1986). Foto: Croes, Rob C. Anefo, Nationaal Archief / Anefo, licentie CC-BY