About life in Veenhuizen

Expert, Experience expert

1,5 hour

NL, EN

Human rights,
Cultural differences,
Architecture,
Generations

Relax,
Inspire,
Dealing with change

Heritage guide Peter talks about life in the closed prison village and UNESCO World Heritage Site Veenhuizen in Drenthe. Life in the Colonies of Weldadigheid and prisons are also discussed and a good and engaging story with no open doors

A beautiful and inspiring lecture/presentation about growing up in UNESCO heritage Veenhuizen. Known as a prison village where half of the Netherlands had to stay for a while due to being caught too often behind the wheel with too much alcohol.

Less known is the special social life in this forbidden village with only civil servants with fine salaries and nice houses. No grandparents or poverty. Growing up among hoeing inmates but strangely no police.

How different it was in 1823 when Veenhuizen was built for 6,000 orphans (from Amsterdam) as plan B of the Maatschappij van Weldadigheid. The cradle of our current welfare state and the first attempt in world history to address it on a national level. A huge contrast to my own super-free 1970s childhood in this ironic free state.

Meanwhile, Veenhuizen is also known for books like Het Pauperparadijs, Koloniekak, Hollands Siberië, the Children's Colony and De Vondeling van Veenhuizen. But also of brewery Maallust and, of course, the National Prison Museum.

More than enough to fill an hour and a half in an engaging and light-hearted way with beautiful photo material of the more than 100 national monuments and beautiful nature by a good narrator and not boring heritage guide with lots of room for (critical) questions. (Does imprisonment actually work?)

Speaker and heritage guide Peter has eleven also worked in many prisons for 5 years, including at the prison Mobile Unit and actually has a nuanced opinion.

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