Chapter V
Leiden History 101
Introduction - T-rex Trixie, DJ van Buuren, and the Dutch Royal Family in Leiden
After the war, the Netherlands, supported by the Marshall Plan, started rebuilding the many houses, buildings, factories, and other infrastructure damaged or completely wiped out by bombardments and other acts of war. It was a difficult time characterised by famine, housing shortage, and unemployment, but after a couple of years, the country was rebuilt and the economy started to grow again.
A few months after liberation, Leiden University reopened its doors. For four days, from the 15th until the 18th of September, there were celebrations on campus and in the Hortus Botanicus. Even Queen Wilhelmina was present given that she had studied at the university.
Princess Juliana would later follow in her mother’s footsteps, and so would her daughter, Beatrix. It seems to have become a tradition for Dutch Royals to spend their student years in the city, since Willem-Alexander, current King of the Netherlands, did so as well.
The second half of the 20th century in Leiden saw too many developments to cover in this short introduction, however, the following chapter covers some of the key moments in the city’s recent history.
Keukenhof
From 1943 to 1945, the Keukenhof Castle was reserved for German soldiers, but in 1949 a group of flower bulb growers and exporters took over and proposed to organise a yearly flower exhibition.
Not long after these talks, the plan came to fruition on a patch of land in Lisse, with the park opening in 1950 with immediate success as it drew almost 250 thousand visitors.
Today, the garden has become internationally renowned containing over 800 different types of tulips, apart from the many other types of flowers.
Jan Hendrik Wolkers
Jan Hendrik Wolkers, born in Oegstgeest (1925 - 2007), was a Dutch writer, sculptor, and painter.
Wolkers is considered one of the best authors in post-war Dutch literature, with his most famous novels being "Back to Oegstgeest" and "Turkish Delight".
Jan Hendrik Oort
Jan Hendrik Oort (1900-1992) was a world-renowned Dutch astronomer. He was an important pioneer and promoter of radio astronomy. The famous ''Oort Cloud'' is named after him.
Dutch mathematician, Willem de Sitter, brought the promising astronomer J.H. Oort to the Leiden Observatory, where he found dark matter and proved in 1927 that the Milky Way rotates.
Beatrix
Beatrix was the queen of the Netherlands from 1980 to 2013.
During her studies, Beatrix lived at Rapenburg 45 and studied at Leiden University, where her education was focused on her future duties as head of state.
In the summer of 1959, Princess Beatrix obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Law.
Boudewijn Büch
Boudewijn Büch (1948 - 2002) was a Dutch poet, writer, and television presenter.
During his student years, Büch wrote book reviews for the Leidsch Dagblad. Later on, "De kleine blonde dood" (The Little Blonde Death) became one of his best works and was even turned into a film in 1993.
Büch had a passion for Leiden and studied Dutch, among other subjects, at Leiden University.
Leiden Bio Science Park
The Leiden Bio Science Park is a terrain where research, education, and industry reinforce one another.
It was founded by different universities with the idea of finding a way to commercialize research results with a focus on biotechnology, particularly for medical applications.
In addition to various companies, it is also comprised of the university laboratories at Wassenaarsweg, the LUMC, and other related education institutions (ROC, Hogeschool, Instrumentmakersschool) and institutions (Naturalis, TNO).
The Science Park is one of the most successful science clusters in Europe.
Willem-Alexander
Willem-Alexander was born in 1967 as the eldest son of Princess Beatrix and Prince Claus.
He received his education at the Atlantic College in Wales, and the Dutch Navy, but also studied history at Leiden University while he lived at Rapenburg 116.
Willem-Alexander has been the King of the Netherlands since April 30, 2013.
Armin van Buuren
Armin van Buuren lives in Leiden and is a DJ and producer.
Van Buuren is considered the most prominent DJ of the moment and has been named the best DJ in the world on five separate occasions.
Interestingly, he found his first job as a DJ at the nightclub ‘’Nexus’’ in Leiden, during his third year of law studies at Leiden University.
T-Rex
In the spring of 2013, Naturalis went on its first T. rex expedition.
This expedition resulted in the discovery of parts of the left foot and leg. At the end of August of that same year, Naturalis continued to dig for another T. rex discovery - a part of the lower jaw, loose teeth, a part of the hip joint, and tailbone of this specimen had already been found.
The expedition members unearthed a very complete skeleton, and named it: Trixie. Ever since the skeleton has been exhibited in the museum’s permanent collection.
Corpus
Corpus is an interactive museum and conference centre in Oegstgeest, which was officially opened by Queen Beatrix on March 14th 2008.
The museum has a gripping design with a giant body of up to 35 meters tall sitting on the side of the building.
At Corpus, Latin for ‘’body’’, visitors can embark on a journey through the human body to not only study but to understand it.
Singelpark
Since 1659, there lies a six-kilometre-long moat around the historic city centre of Leiden - originally meant to make attacks on the city difficult.
The city's canals form one of the largest city defence works in Europe which has remained intact.
Recently, residents of Leiden launched an initiative to turn this unique cultural heritage into one large connected park: the Singelpark. The municipality of Leiden has embraced the citizen initiative and has allocated 9.3 million euros for the realization.
Leiden Continuum
Leiden, Key to Discovery, where the sum of science, culture, and freedom of thought equates to the rise and success of icons. From Rembrandt van Rijn to Armin van Buuren, from the Pilgrim Fathers to the T.rex, and from the tulip to Leiden Bio Science Park.
These figures, inventions, discoveries, and events, form part of Leiden's underlying DNA, which can be explored through the Leiden Continuum (Het Leids Continuüm).
