Heldring in Venedig

PH-AKR 'Rietvink'. This DC-2 aircraft carried the letter from Bandoeng to Amsterdam Schiphol

In the 1930s the world became increasingly smaller by the introduction of regular flights between every possible destination. The aircraft industry could barely keep pace with the ever demanding airlines, which asked for safe, less noisy, air-pressured cabins and larger aircraft. Comfort and luxury were key words for 1930s passenger airlines. But aircraft were of more use than only transporting passengers: they became a very important means of transporting freight and mail. Especially the last category could be transported in large quantities. For the first time in history Dutch inhabitants of the Indies (West and East) could communicate with their relatives in the Netherlands without having to wait six or more weeks for an answer. In addition to this the leading Dutch airline (KLM) improved her service every year. In the early 1930s it took more than ten days for a KLM aircraft to fly from Bandoeng to Amsterdam. In the late 1930s new modern (American) DC-3 aircraft could make the journey in a time span of only two days! That's what you call progress!

Letter departed Bandoeng on the 2nd of August 1935 and was probably forwarded from Amsterdam to Venice on the 20th of August. Attractive stamping of the square 12 1/2c Queen Wilhelmina 'Kreisler' and the 30c Seegers' lonely ship stamp.

This letter departed Paroengkoeda (now Parungkuda) on the 2nd of August 1936. First you might think that it arrived in Amsterdam on the 20th of the same month. A longer than usual travel time, isn't that a bit odd? With the introduction of the modern DC-2 flying machines a journey from the Indies to the Netherlands took only 5 days in the summer of 1935...so first thing what came to my mind was an engine failure. They often occurred in these days.

After a while though I wasn't so sure anymore: I looked the flight up in TSchroots' great airmail encyclopedia and read that the DC-2 'Rietvink' departed Bandoeng on the 3rd of August and arrived accordingly to its flight schedule in Amsterdam on the 8th. No engine failure whatsoever, just a lazy philatelist which jumped to conclusions too quickly.       

It think we might have been tricked by the Amsterdam postmark. This 'pseudo-arrival' postmark is probably only an indication of the time and day on which the letter was forwarded to Venice (and since you're probably more shrewd as I am, you might have guessed that already).

'Forwarding postmark' Amsterdam Central Station?

The sender of the letter was not aware of Mr Heldring's departure to Italy - obviously - so Mr Biesenbach's of Paroengkoeda letter was at the mercy of the postal services now. In these days you could still rely on such an forwarding immaculate service. The European postal agencies quickly forwarded his letter to Venice. It arrived there only two days later on the 22nd of August.

Close-up of the two stamps and postmarks

Now two questions come to mind:

• What is the reason of the 18-day gap between the send date and forwarding date?  Did it took Heldring's family so long to forward the letter to him from their home address in Amsterdam? Or did Mr Biesenbach's letter linger in the Javanese forests for some time before reaching Bandoeng? Or...? 
• What were Mr Heldring businesses in Kaprun and Venice? His wife (or assistant) first wrote down the wrong address (Hotel Kesselfall, Kaprun) before correcting it into the more famous Grünewald Hotel in Venice. I think the 'corrector' was perfectly aware of Mr Heldring's travel schedule. He appears to me as an important man. Moreover, his name rung a bell when my eyes met this cover. In fact, in the end I bought the cover because of this name and not because of it's attractive stamping and neat postmarks.

Ernst Heldring - Dutch entrepreneur

Much Dutchmen probably don't remember his name, and if they do they remember his name because of his son. The addressee - Ernst Heldring - nevertheless was a famous and very influential individual during the first half of the last century. Born in 1871, he was educated at the Public School of Trade in Amsterdam during the 1880s. Within 10 years he had established good contacts with the Dutch Indies where he was responsible for numerous (industrial) initiatives, such as the the construction of a harbour in Sabang and a new ship route which connected Java to Japan. He started this last venture in 1902 after having becoming president of the prestigious Royal Dutch Steamboat Company (KNSM) in 1899. Perhaps more important for philatelists is his function as president of the Royal Dutch West India Mail (KWIM) between 1912 and 1928. By that time people called him a proper shipowner ('reder' in Dutch) and in the Netherlands with its long history of trade and ships such a function meant (and still means) influence and prestige. Soon he became known as the Viceroy of Amsterdam. He made it into the upper class of Dutch society. 

Ernst Heldring on the roof of his house (De Lairessestraat 96). Viceroy of Amsterdam.

In the 1930s Heldring occupied numerous functions, most of them commissionerships, at the Dutch National Bank, the Hoogovens and the Dutch Trade Company. Most notably for our letter tracing process could have been the position he held at the Holland Bank for the Mediterranean in the mid thirties. Which sort of other business could possible distract you from simmering Italian summers.... 

For the sake of all of us, he had the extraordinary gift to keep his diary up to date. So here are some notes of his own hand, written in September 1935 which will tell you his real activities in the summer of 1935.

~

Gisteravond thuisgekomen van 4 weken vacantie in Beieren, Oostenrijk en Italië met Jet als reisgezelle. We hadden prachtig weer, behalve in de bergen, waar we ons voornemen tochten te maken moesten opgeven, toen we voldoende getraind waren. De laatste 8 à 9 dagen brachten we te Venetië, Padua en Verona, Brescia, Bergamo en Milaan door. Venetië is een oude bekende, die ik gaarne terugzie. Ditmaal was er in het Palazzo Pisaro een prachtige tentoonstelling van werken van Titiaan, waar zijn meesterschap in portretkunst, het coloriet en de compositie, doch ook zijn tekortschieten in geestelijke diepte - geheel overeenkomstig zijn tijd en omgeving - gedemonstreerd werden. Ditmaal bezocht ik ook het oud-Romaansche, half-Byzantijnsche kerkje te Torcello op een afgelegen lagune-eiland. Heel mooi. De Giotto's en Mantegna's te Padua waren een verrukking bij het weerzien na 30 jaren, zoo ook Verona. De musea in beide steden, vooral dat te Padua, vond ik uitmuntend gereorganiseerd. Te Brescia waren we slechts een paar uur tusschen 2 treinen, wegens slagregen grootendeels in een café. Het oude Bergamo op den berg gelegen met zijn door kerken en loggia's omgeven piazza is een juweel.

~

Translation:

Yesterday I returned after having spend 4 weeks of holidays in Bavaria, Austria and Italy with Jet as my travel companion. The weather was great, except in the mountains, where we had to give up our intention of making walks after sufficient training. The last 8/9 days we stayed in Venice, Padua, Verona, Brescia, Bergama and Milan. Venice is like an old acquaintance, whom I very much like to visit again. This time there was a beautiful exposition of pieces of Titian, where his mastery in portrait art, of colorite and composition, but also his under performance in philosophy- which perfectly corresponds to his age and surroundings - was demonstrated. I visited the old and small Romanic, half Byzantine church of Torcello as well this time, which stands on a remote island in the lagoon. Very pretty. To see  the paintings of Giotto and Mantegna again in Padua was a sheer delight after 30 years. The same applies to Verona. I found that the museums in both cities were very well organized, especially in Padua. Since we had to switch trains in Brescia, we had only a couple of hours to visit this city. (Unfortunately) We had to take shelter in a cafe because of a downpour. The ancient city of Bergamo situated on its mountain and its piazza surrounded by churches and loggia's is a gem.

So Mr Heldring was not for business in Italy and Austria: he enjoyed a lengthy holiday there! One mystery solved.

   

The West Frisian Dialect

Wervershoof 30-05-1913. Mrs Maartje Hooijveld-Mantel sends a postcard to her niece who lives in the neighboring village of Andijk:

~

"Efrouw!

Hiermede bericht ik u dat a.s. zondag P.B. komt, dus verwacht ik later bericht van u. Warm wéér te schoonmaken Ant! maar op bloote benen in de klompen

Nahartelijke groete

M. Mantel-Hooijveld"

~

 In English:

~

"Efrouw!

Herewith I let you know that P.B. will visit me this Sunday, so I expect you to inform me soon. Warm weather to do cleaning Ant!, on bare feet (legs) in our wooden shoes it is then.

Wit kind regards,

M . Mantel-Hooijveld"

 ~

The postcard is somewhat stained, so the true reason I bought this was the message it contains. Especially the last 'cleaning'- sentence sparked my interest:

"Warm wéér te schoonmaken Ant! maar op bloote benen in de klompen"It is written in 'pseudo' West Frisian, to be precise the dialect variant of the Dutch language, not the one labelled as language and which is spoken in the province of Friesland across the IJsselmeer.

A short piece on this dialect can be consulted on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Frisian_Dutch but alas there is no grammar available for English readers, so I will show you a couple of linguistic phenomena typical of West Frisian from the handbook "Hé, is dat Westfries?" by the great H. Langedijk:

Different conjugation of irregular verbs

Dutch: helpen, hielp, geholpen
West Frisian: helpe, holp, holpen
English: help, helped, helped

A peculiarity of West Frisian is the absence of the 'ge'-prefix for the present perfect: so, "holpen" instead of "geholpen"

Another one:
Dutch: hangen, hing, gehangen
West Frisian: hange, hong, hongen
English: hang, hung, hung

Different auxiliary verbs

Dutch: Jij bent niet mee geweest.
West Frisian: Jij hewwe niet mee weest.
English: You haven't come/'been' (with us).

In West Frisian the auxiliary verb of 'to be' = a form of 'hebben' (hewwe) and not 'zijn' (bent) as in Dutch. It sounds very odd if you're not from West Frisia and would be the equivalent of replacing the English 'haven't' with 'wasn't': 'You wasn't come with us'...

The real surprise, if you have been paying close attention, is the fact that English uses the auxiliary verb 'to have' for the present perfect 'been' as in West Frisian but unlike the Dutch 'to be'.

Vocabulary

Enough grammar for now, since the real reason why West Frisian is such a fun language to learn results from its vocabulary and proverbs. It is well-known Frisian is more closely related to English than Dutch and therefore West Frisian has some conspicuous anglophone words as well which are non-existent in Dutch: e.g.
Dutch: Schemerig
West Frisian: Tweilichtig
English: Twilit / dusky

Other wonderful West Frisian expressions (some derive from older Dutch or French words, but other are definitely 'original' and very creative):

Dutch: 't Is mistig.
West Frisian: 't Is moordenaarsweer.
English: It is foggy [murders' weather].

Dutch: Dat was een welkome verrassing.
West Frisian: Dat was in de emmer.
English: That was a pleasant surprise [That was in the bucket].

Dutch: Hij keek erg teleurgesteld.
West Frisian: Z'n lip hong op 't onderste knoupsgat.
English: He looked very disappointed [His lip had fallen to his undermost buttonhole].

Dutch: Daar komen van die hooghartige dames aan.
West Frisian: Deer komme van die grooske tieten an.
English: Those arrogant women are approaching [those arrogant tits are approaching].

Now the grand finale: a proverb which is said of lazy and/or tired people:

West Frisian: 'Louf? Louf ken lang an: eer je biene bai je kniese of benne kèn je nag zestien jaar te wortelewuden nei de Langedoik.
English: Tired? Fatigue can take a long time: before your legs have been worn up to your knees, you're still able to weed amid the carrots in Langedijk for sixteen years.

There you have it: a small introduction to West Frisian because of Maartje Mantel's:


"Warm wéér te schoonmaken Ant! maar op bloote benen in de klompen"
Although she tried to make her West Frisian more Dutch, she made one mistake: to place the essential subordinating conjugation 'om' before the 'te': het is warm weer om te schoonmaken'. But overall, she did a good job: she didn't wrote 'skoonmaken' instead of the Dutch schoonmaken (to clean) and she didn't wrote 'biene' for the Dutch 'benen' (legs).

Large round postmark of Wervershoof on a ¢2½ Vürtheim stamp

The decline

Already in 1913 West Frisians seemingly wanted to speak and write as 'normal' Dutch (whatever that means...). After WWII when the Netherlands prospered and West Frisians could afford study and travel, they tried even harder to ban West Frisian because you made yourself look ridiculous in company of more decent people (from Haarlem, The Hague, Utrecht etc.). The rise of television didn't help much either to preserve the language.
Nowadays you could still hear some reminders of the West Frisian dialect in people's tongue. Especially the melodious aspect of it and the 'wrong' pronunciation of the sch- as in Schaatsen (Ice-skating) which becomes 'Skaatsen' is something difficult to get rid of. But the true soul of the language: the vocabulary, typical expressions and grammar have sadly all become something of the past.

Typenrader arrival 'Langebalk' postmark of the neighbouring village of Andijk 

A 'Classic' cover (2)

Albert Willem de Groot (1892-1963)

As the seal in my previous blog post points out, the sender of this cover had some kind of connection with the University of Amsterdam's Institute of Classical languages. Nowadays the study in Ancient Greek & Latin is still practiced in Amsterdam, although the average quality of its students will stand by sharp contrast with the students of Professor De Groot. Prior to WWII, Classics was deemed the most valuable and esteemed study you could possibly follow and it was appreciated as such until the late sixties when other studies began to emerge. The translating abilities of students Classics dwindled since then, as the Latin and Greek curriculum at grammar schools was sharply reduced.

Willem de Groot was born in Groningen on the 13th of January 1892. A part of his obituary reads as follows:

"Willem de Groot werd in 1892 in Groningen geboren en liet zich in 1909 aan de Rijksuniversiteit aldaar inschrijven als student in de Klassieke Letteren na slechts vijf jaar over het gymnasium gedaan te hebben dank zij het met goed gevolg afleggen van het zg. Staatsexamen vanuit de vijfde klasse. Zijn belangstelling beperkte zich niet tot de oude talen, doch betrof tevens linguistiek, philosophie en psychologie. ...

... Nog geen dertig jaar oud wordt hij dan benoemd als hoogleraar in de klassieke taal- en letterkunde aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam. Dertig jaren heeft hij dit ambt bekleed. Hoewel hij voordien zich vooral bezig hield met de Klassieken in het algemeen, kan men reeds een aankondiging van zijn toekeer naar de algemene taalkunde beluisteren uit de titel van zijn oratie: ‘Over veranderde denkwijzen en nieuwe problemen in de Latijnse taalwetenschap’;"

"In 1892 Willem de Groot was born in Groningen. He was enrolled as student of classical philology at the State University in that city in 1909, after completing grammar school in just five years [instead of the regular six]. Apart from his interest in the classical languages, he was also charmed with linguistics, philosophy and psychology. ...

... Not yet having reached the age of thirty, he was appointed as professor in classics at the University of Amsterdam. For thirty years he held this position. Although he was primarily occupied with classics in his early years, one could already perceive a signal of his interest in linguistics when reading the title of his inaugural lecture : 'On the changing way of thinking and new problems in Latin linguistics';"

Apart from his contributions to the classical languages, Prof De Groot aimed for a practical approach to sounds and morphology in Dutch. This 'structuralist-functionalist' way of 'reading' a language was new and he fully dedicated himself to this project after the war. Together with Anton Reichling he created the journal Lingua, International Review of General Linguistics in 1948. After teaching classics and linguistics at the University of British Columbia between 1951 and 1956, he returned to the Netherlands and became professor of general and comparative linguistics in Utrecht. His lectures were of a brilliant quality:

"De omvangrijke kennis, het diepe inzicht en de jarenlange ervaring van De Groot kwamen eerst hier ten volle tot hun recht. De brillante geleerde trad ook met de eenvoudigste deelnemers in een eerlijke discussie, waarbij allen wisten dat alleen maar de objectieve stand van zaken de beslissing teweeg kon en mocht brengen. Men hoort het hem nóg zeggen: ‘Alleen maar de feiten, maar dan ook die alléén’."

"De Groot's extensive knowledge, profound understanding and his experience of many years reached their full in his classes. The brilliant scientist also debated sincerely with the most ordinary of participants, but all took into account that only an objective state of affairs might result in a decision. One could still hear him saying: "Only the facts, nothing else!"."

Charles Kay Ogden (1889-1957)

Charles Kay Ogden (1889-1957) had about the same age of De Groot and had more things in common with the Dutch professor. A Cambridge graduate in Ancient Greek, Ogden became a fervent advocate of Basic English from 1925 onwards. Basic English in essence is a simplified subset of regular English to be used as an aid for teaching English as a second language. Because of his particular legacy, other activities of this influential linguist have been somewhat forgotten. He, for instance, also founded the weekly, later on quarterly The Cambridge Magazine in 1912 to which noted literary figures contributed, including Bernard Shaw and H.G. Wells. In addition he translated over 15 books from French and German during the interbellum.

Now the question remains what the contents were of the letter Willem de Groot sent to Ogden in 1948. My educated guess would be that De Groot wanted to share some thoughts about his new magazine, Lingua, since the first edition was published that year... I haven't found any evidence (yet) that the two scientists knew each other personally, so I think we can exclude the possibility of an ordinary Christmas /wishing card. You will never know for sure, of course!

There is one fitting puzzle which still need to be solved: what about the marks under the 'par avion' label? They're quite illegible: no basic English to me!   

 

  

       

     

A 'Classic' cover (1)

The cover shown above was posted on the 10th of December 1948 from Amsterdam to London, at least, that's where the sender of the cover, Prof Dr A.W. de Groot, thought C.K. Ogden would dwell at the time.

The Wilhelmina "Konijnenburg" stamps which adorn the cover were initially issued in 1940, but after the German invasion of May 1940 the stamps were withdrawn from use as of 11 October 1940. The occupying force reasoned that the stamps could incite resistance, since the stamps bore the portrait of Queen Wilhelmina whom the Dutch considered their only dignity left, as she successfully escaped to England. After the war the stamps were reinstated although the paper quality was noticeably poorer than the 1940 issue. A small act of resistance during the war was to put a Wilhelmina Konijnenburg on cover with a 2 cent orange "Lebeau" Flying Dove stamp above. This would allude to the "Oranje Boven"- song which was (and is) a very popular song in the Netherlands:

Oranje boven, Oranje boven

Leve de koningin (2x)

Orange above all, orange above all,

Long live the Queen (2x)

After more than a century the Netherlands has a king once more, so we'll have to wait until Willem-Alexander's daughter ascends the throne before we can sing the song again...

The Lebeau 2 cent 'Flying Dove' Orange stamp. Artist Chris Lebeau, who helped Jews during the war by faking official documents, was betrayed and deported to Dachau where he died in April 1945...

I'm wandering off, since the real interesting part of this cover is the seal in the upper left corner, which was the reason I bought the cover at an auction in Diemen.

It reads Academia Amstelodamensis - Seminarium Classicum. In my next post I will reveal more about the sender and his relation to the department of classics of the University of Amsterdam and his even more intriguing relationship with the famous linguist/philosopher Ogden.