Hoogeveen


Hoogeveen is a municipality and a town in the Dutch province of Drenthe. It is located in the south of the province and shares a provincial border with Overijssel. The municipality has a population of 56.897, of which 40.560 reside in the town of Hoogeveen itself. The second largest population center in the municipality is Hollandscheveld.
Hoogeveen was developed in the 17th century as a peat colony. Today it is a central town with many urban amenities. There is a wide range of shops and substantial employment in industry. Religiously, the town is highly fragmented.

History

Peat colony

The history of the raised bog area of what would later become the municipality of Hoogeveen has been documented since 1551. In that year, Reinold van Burmania and his wife purchased the so-called Meppense Venen, the southeastern half of the future municipality.
Hoogeveen dates its history to 20 December 1625, when Roelof van Echten bought a large tract of peat land from farmers of the district with the plan to harvest its peat. One old map of the area called it Locus Deserta Atque ob Multos Paludes Invia, a deserted and impenetrable place of many swamps. Hoogeveen was founded in 1636 by Pieter Joostens Warmont and Johan van der Meer, investors from Leiden in the Hollandsche Compagnie who, after fierce conflicts with Baron Roelof van Echten tot Echten, had decided that their workers should be able to settle permanently on the peat bogs.
The excavated peat was transported by water to Meppel and beyond via a canal. Smaller canals, called wijken, were dug perpendicular to this canal at intervals of 160 meters. This distance was still easily covered by a laborer with a wheelbarrow full of peat. This created a grid of intersecting canals. New canals, the "opgaanden," also connected systems of neighborhoods further on in the peat bogs to the Hoogeveense Vaart canal. Shopkeepers, peat cutters, land agents, and craftsmen soon settled at the main intersection, called the Kruis. Hoogeveen remained a peat colony for centuries.

19th century

In 1811, the municipality had 4,794 inhabitants, in 1840 there were 7,339, and in 1874, 10,763. Only at the end of the 19th century did peat become less important and people switched to agriculture, livestock farming, and industry. This was particularly noticeable after the opening of the Meppel-Groningen railway line on 1 May 1870. Well-known factories in that period produced products like dairy, cheese and frozen food.
The coat of arms of Hoogeveen, granted 10 November 1819, is white, with a pile of peat covered in straw in the center and beehives on each side, representing the town's first two major industries.
Vincent van Gogh visited the area in the fall of 1883.

World War II

Soon after the German occupation in 1940, Hoogeveen became a center of resistance. Encouraged by Reverend Frits Slomp, persecuted people began finding their way to Hoogeveen and the surrounding area. The illegal newspapers Trouw and Vrij Nederland were also distributed from Hoogeveen. The notorious resistance group Nico and Victor came from Hoogeveen.
On 29 July 1943, the NSB mayor of Oud Schoonebeek was assassinated by members of the resistance group De Krim. This incident had far-reaching consequences for the Hoogeveen resistance. The day after the assassination, a raid was conducted in Hoogeveen by the Grüne Polizei. Between 25 and 30 detainees were transferred to the holiday camp "Noorderhuis," located north of Hoogeveen. Three of them were executed there. On 17 February 1944, the post office in Hoogeveen was robbed. With the cooperation of the counter clerk Henk Raak, who was later executed, 13,000 ration cards were stolen.

Recent history

The first important transportation connection was provided by the railway line, with Hoogeveen railway station opening in 1870. Since the early 1970s, access to the town has been provided by the A28 highway, and in the early 2000s, the A37 highway was expanded from a provincial road to improve the region's connection to Emmen and further to Germany.
In the second half of the 1960s, Hoogeveen was the fastest growing town in the Netherlands. Until that period, the town contained a number of canals, which had been dug in the area's early days when it was a prime source of peat and maritime transportation was a necessity for efficient transportation of cargo. By the 1960s the rise of the automobile and truck-based transportation meant the canals had lost much of their economic function, and the canals were filled in.
Philips and Fokker, among others, established themselves in the town. To meet the enormous population growth, large new housing estates were built. However, in the 1980s the growth stopped. Instead of the previously expected 100,000 inhabitants around 1990, the number of inhabitants stabilized at around 45,000.
Since 1997 the Hoogeveen Chess Tournament has been organized here.

Geography

Population centres

, Fluitenberg, Hoogeveen and Noordscheschut, which still have the canals which used to be throughout the town. Other villages of the town are Hollandscheveld, Nieuw Moscou, Nieuweroord, Nieuwlande, Pesse, Stuifzand and Tiendeveen.

Infrastructure and transportation

Hoogeveen is located at the eponymous Hoogeveen interchange of the A28 and A37 motorways, and the N48 provincial road. Hoogeveen has a strategic position with a direct connection to the south with Overijssel and northeast that makes Hoogeveen a hub for regional amenities.
Hoogeveen is located on the Meppel-Groningen railway line. Hoogeveen station opened on this line in the year 1870. The current station building dates from 1984, designed by architect Cees Douma.
Steam tram connections were established in the 1900s. These connections were operated by the Eerste Drentsche Stoomtramweg-Maatschappij and Dedemsvaartsche Stoomtramweg-Maatschappij companies. EDS itself was based in Hoogeveen and operated lines from to Nieuw-Amsterdam, from Coevorden to Assen, and a branch to Emmen and Ter Apel. DSM opened and operated a line to Slagharen. Shortly after the Second World War, steam tram services were discontinued, and passenger transport was taken over by buses.
Hoogeveen also has a small airport that attracts some tourism. The airfield has one grass runway: runway 09-27, approximately 1200 m long. This makes it the longest grass runway in the Netherlands.

International relations

Twin towns — Sister cities

Hoogeveen is twinned with:

Notable people

Academics

Religion

Politicics

Sport

Culture

Varia