Squatting in the Netherlands (Dutch: kraken) is the occupation of unused or derelict buildings or land without the permission of the owner. The modern squatters movement (Dutch: kraakbeweging) began in the 1960s in the Netherlands. By the 1980s, it had become a powerful anarchist social movement which regularly came into conflict with the state, particularly in Amsterdam with the Vondelstraat and coronation riots.
Some squats in cities have successfully legalised into still extant social centres and housing cooperatives such as ACU in Utrecht, the Grote Broek in Nijmegen, the Landbouwbelang in Maastricht, ORKZ in Groningen, the Poortgebouw in Rotterdam and Vrankrijk in Amsterdam. There have also been squats in the countryside such as Fort Pannerden and the Ruigoord village.
Squatting was criminalised in October 2010. Between then and November 2014, 529 people were arrested. Some recent high-profile evictions have included ADM, the Tabakspanden and De Vloek. The social movement continues in diminished form, with squatting still being used by certain groups, for example the migrant collective We Are Here.
During the Great Depression of the 1930s, many workers lost their jobs and were unable to pay rent. This resulted in people occupying houses in order to force a rental agreement, although they did not see themselves as a housing movement. Their legal justification was based on a 1914 decision by the Supreme Court which ruled that in order to show residential use in a property, all that was needed was a chair, a table and a bed. [1]
Squatting in the Netherlands in its modern form has its origins in the 1960s, when the country was suffering a housing shortage whilst at the same time many properties stood derelict. Property owners kept buildings empty in order to speculate and drive the market price upwards. [2] As youth protest movements burgeoned, in particular Provo movement, squatting became seen as a political, anti-speculation protest. [2] [1] Marking the emergence of a squatters movement (Dutch: kraakbeweging) which focused upon collective action rather than individual initiatives, the term for squatting changed from "secret occupation" (Dutch: clandestien bezetten) to "cracking" (Dutch: kraken) and squatters became known as krakers. [1] [3]
As well as mobilising the 1914 decision, squatters employed a 1971 Supreme Court ruling that the concept of domestic peace (Dutch: huisvrede) required permission from the current occupant for anybody else to enter a property. This meant that property owners were required to evict squatters by taking them to court, instead of forcing entry. [4] This came about after squatters in Nijmegen were evicted from a property and prosecuted by the owner, who claimed that since the house was for sale it was in use. The squatters were convicted of an offence but appealed the decision and ultimately the Supreme Court ruled that a "on the basis of normal language use, 'a house in use' can only mean 'a house in use as a house'". [5]
The squatting movement took on an increasingly anarchist tone during the 1980s. In the Vondelstraat Riots, police moved to evict residents from a squatted building on the corner of Vondelstraat in Amsterdam, but it was immediately reoccupied and barricades erected. Street fights ensued between riot police and the squatters, with the building only being cleared when a military tank demolished the street barricades. [2] Queen Beatrix's coronation later that year saw more riots when squatters chanted "No home, no coronation" (Dutch: Geen woning, geen kroning). [2] [4] In Groningen the eviction of the WNC (Wolters-Noordhoff Complex) squat in 1990 led to 137 arrests and the mayor called it war. [6]
Some squats have gone through a process of legalisation, in which the building becomes owned or rented by the former squatters. In Amsterdam, the city council bought 200 buildings in the early 1980s, handing them over to housing associations which then made contracts with individual tenants. [3] The Poortgebouw in Rotterdam was squatted in 1980 and two years later the inhabitants agreed to pay rent to the city council, forming a housing cooperative of 30 people with a bar and alternative venue on the ground floor. [7] In Amsterdam, OCCII, OT301 and Vrankrijk are all examples of legalised social centres. In the 2010s, Vrankrijk hosts mainly punk and queer parties. [8] [9] The NDSM former shipyard zone was recognised as a cultural hotspot and breeding place, successfully institutionalising in the early 2000s. [10] The Grote Broek in Nijmegen was squatted in 1984 and legalised in the 2000s. The ACU in Utrecht was squatted in 1976 and bought by the squatters in 1994. It provides a venue space for benefit concerts, an anarchist library, a bar and a vegan restaurant. [11] ORKZ, or the Old Roman Catholic Hospital (Dutch: Oude Rooms-Katholieke Ziekenhuis), is located in Groningen on the Verlengde Hereweg. The hospital was squatted in August 1979 and legalised in 1986. As of 2004, 250 people lived there in 235 apartments. Another 150 people made use of the ateliers. [12] A derelict parking lot was taken over and made into a guerilla garden. Herbs and vegetables were grown in raised beds, fruit bushes were planted and an apiary was set up. The garden was legalised by the city council in 2012. [13]
There are also squats which refused or were unable to legalise such as De Blauwe Aanslag in The Hague, Het Slaakhuis in Rotterdam, ADM in Amsterdam and the Landbouwbelang in Maastricht. The Landbouwbelang is a former grain silo beside the Meuse (Dutch : Maas) river which houses 15 people and provides space for art exhibitions, music events and various festivals. [14] Vrijplaats Koppenhinksteeg in Leiden was occupied in 1968 and eventually evicted in 2010. The complex, which included a bar, a freeshop, a library meeting rooms and offices for a group supporting illegal migrants, had been negotiating with the city council in order to legalise its activities until the talks stalled in 2008. [15]
There are also some squats in the countryside such as a squatted village called Ruigoord near Amsterdam. Fort Pannerden (a military fort built in 1869 near to Nijmegen) was occupied in 2000 by people concerned about the state of the building. It was evicted on November 8, 2006, by a massive police operation which used military machinery and cost one million euros. [16] The fort was then re-squatted and the occupiers discussed a settlement with the local council and Staatsbosbeheer, the owner. [17]
In 1987, the law was changed so that an owner could take anonymous squatters to court, rather than being required to know their names. [18] A law was passed in 1994 which made it illegal to squat a building which had been empty for less than one year. [19] After this, it became conventional for squatters to call the police after occupying a building and if the police were satisfied that the building had been empty for more than a year and that the squatters were living there (as evidenced by having a chair, a table and a bed) then the owner would need to make a court case to regain possession. [18] Thus, squatting became a tactic to provide housing and also to fight speculation, conserve monumental buildings, provide groups with spaces and so on. [19] An example of conservational squatting is Huize Ivicke in Wassenaar, a building which the owner refuses to repair. The villa was placed on a list of the most endangered monuments in Europe and it was squatted in 2018 by people wanting to prevent further dilapidation. [20]
Squatting in the Netherlands, particularly in Amsterdam, became a rather institutionalised process, although the squatters movement continued to evolve with one development being the occupation of large office buildings by refugee collectives. [21] [22] One such group, We Are Here was established in 2012 and the collective had squatted over 30 buildings and parks by the end of 2017. [23] [24] In a different development, squatting was used as a tool to contest the construction of the Betuweroute, a freight railway route from Rotterdam to Germany. GroenFront! and other environmental protestors occupied several houses due to be demolished. This included a failed attempt to squat a building in Angeren. [25]
Squatting in the Netherlands became a criminal offence on 1 October 2010. In 2016, a report was published by the Dutch Government which stated that between October 2010 and November 2014, 529 people had been arrested for the new crime of squatting, in 213 separate incidents. Of these arrested, 210 received convictions and 42 were found not guilty. [26]
Following criminalisation, in Amsterdam an estimated 330 squats were evicted in two years. [27] Contested evictions included ADM, the Tabakspanden on Spuistraat, the Valreep and Villa Friekens. [28] [29] ADM was a former shipyard squatted for 21 years before its eventual eviction in 2019. Around 130 people lived there in buildings, boats and temporary structures. [30] De Vloek social centre in The Hague was evicted in September 2015 after long political struggle. There were seven arrests. [31] [32] In Utrecht, the disused Amsterdamsestraatweg Water Tower was occupied repeatedly in protest at the criminalisation of squatting. In 2019, a resquat was unsuccessful. [33]
Name | Location | History (green=ongoing, pink=closed) | Reference |
---|---|---|---|
ACU | Utrecht | squatted 1976, legalized 1994 | [34] |
ADM | Amsterdam | squatted 1997, evicted 2019 | [30] [35] |
Amsterdamsestraatweg Water Tower | Utrecht | squatted 1980s, 2013, 2014, 2017, 2018 | [36] [37] |
ASCII | Amsterdam | various squats 1999–2006 | [38] |
Blauwe Aanslag | The Hague | squatted 1980, evicted 2003 | [39] |
Effenaar | Eindhoven | squatted 1970, legalized 1971 | [40] |
Fort Pannerden | Near Nijmegen | squatted 2000, evicted 2006, resquatted 2006, legalized 2006, renovated 2009 | [41] |
Grote Broek | Nijmegen | squatted 1984, legalized 2000s | [42] |
Huize Ivicke | Wassenaar | squatted 2018 | [20] |
Landbouwbelang | Maastricht | squatted 2002 | [14] [43] |
Moira | Utrecht | squatted 1983, later legalized | [44] |
NDSM | Amsterdam | squatted 1990s, legalized 2000s | [45] |
OCCII | Amsterdam | squatted 1984, legalized 1989 | [46] |
OT301 | Amsterdam | squatted 1999, legalized 2006 | [8] |
Poortgebouw | Rotterdam | squatted 1980, legalized 1982 | [7] |
Ruigoord | Near Amsterdam | squatted 1972 | [47] |
Slaakhuis | Rotterdam | squatted 2003, evicted 2011 | [7] |
Tabakspanden | Amsterdam | variously squatted 1983 onwards, all evicted 2015 | [48] |
Tetterode | Amsterdam | squatted 1981, legalized 1986 | [49] |
Ubica | Utrecht | squatted 1992, evicted 2013 | [50] |
Vloek | The Hague | squatted 2002, evicted 2015 | [31] |
Vossiustraat 16 (squat) | Amsterdam | squatted 2022 | [51] |
Vrankrijk | Amsterdam | squatted 1982, legalized 1991 | [8] |
Vrijplaats Koppenhinksteeg | Leiden | squatted 1968, evicted 2010 | [52] |
WNC | Groningen | squatted 1985, evicted 1990 | [6] |
Wyers | Amsterdam | squatted 1981, evicted 1984 | [53] |
De Blauwe Aanslag was a squat and self-managed social centre in the Dutch city of The Hague. The oldest part of the building was built in 1886. The large building formerly housed tax offices and was occupied in 1980. When the local council took over the ownership of the building, it was agreed to renovate it in three stages, with the squatters living there. However the plans changed and since 1995 the council decided to widen the roads next to the building; for this reason the squat needed to be demolished. After many efforts to block the demolition with lawsuits, the squatters were evicted by military police on 3 October 2003.
The Poortgebouw is a national monument located at Stieltjesstraat 38 in the Kop van Zuid area of Rotterdam, the Netherlands. It was built beside the River Maas in 1879 and experienced a range of uses until it was squatted 3 October 1980. It had been standing empty for 2 years and was squatted as a protest intended to highlight the lack of affordable residential housing in Rotterdam.
Het Slaakhuis, or Slaakhuys, is a monumental building in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. It was the former offices of the socialist newspaper Het Vrije Volk. The building is a six-storey office block located on a street called Slaak and was squatted in May 2003. The snooker centre next door, which hosted greats such as Ronnie O'Sullivan was also later squatted. In 2011, the complex was evicted and by 2017 it had become a hotel and a Lidl supermarket.
Fort Pannerden is a disused military fort situated near the village of Pannerden in the southeast of the Netherlands. In November 2006, it became the focus of national news stories because a group of squatters were evicted in a large-scale operation by police, helped by the army. Later on in the same month, it was resquatted.
The Dutch squatting ban refers to the law introduced on 1 October 2010, under which squatting in the Netherlands became de jure illegal. Criminalization had first been proposed in the 1970s, but was opposed by the Council of Churches. In 2006, a new plan was proposed and backed by parties including VVD and PVV. When the new law was introduced, squatters occupied the former head office of the fire brigade and there were riots in Amsterdam and Nijmegen. In 2011, the Supreme Court of the Netherlands ruled that the legally forced end of squatting can only occur after an intervention of a judge. Between October 2010 and December 2014, 529 people were arrested for the act of occupying derelict buildings, in 213 separate incidents as a result of which 39 people were jailed.
Landbouwbelang (LBB) is a squatted industrial building in Maastricht, Netherlands. It offers working space for artists and social entrepreneurs and functions as a venue for cultural events. It has been squatted since April 2002.
ADM was a squat in the Port of Amsterdam, to the west of the city next to the North Sea Canal. The squat lasted from 1997 until its eviction in early 2019. Around 130 people lived on the terrain of 45 hectares in buildings, on boats and in vehicles.
Vrijplaats Koppenhinksteeg was a complex of buildings first squatted in 1968 in Leiden, the Netherlands. It took its name from the alley on which it was located and was run since the 1990s by the Vrijplaats Koppenhinksteeg Foundation. Various groups including Eurodusnie used the different spaces as a bar, café, a freeshop, a foundation to support undocumented migrants, an information centre, a library and a sports club. In 2010, the entire complex was evicted. From 2012 onwards a new space called the Vrijplaats Leiden was set up elsewhere.
We Are Here is a collective of migrants based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, which campaigns for human rights for its members and all undocumented migrants. The asylum seekers have in many cases had their applications to remain in the Netherlands denied but they either cannot go back or refuse to return to their country of origin. They demand access to social services such as medical care and housing. The group formed in 2012 and by 2015 contained over 200 migrants from around 15 countries.
Vrankrijk is a legalised squat and self-managed social centre on the Spuistraat in central Amsterdam. There is an events space on the ground floor and above it a separate housing group.
The WNC squat was a self-managed social centre in Groningen, the Netherlands. It was squatted in 1985 and evicted in 1990.
Ecotribe Teuge is a collective of people living on a squatted terrain in the Dutch countryside. It is located on the edge of the village of Teuge, in the province of Gelderland. The buildings were constructed by the Nazis and formerly used to house Moluccan soldiers. The site was occupied in 2001, when people began to live there in an off-the-grid and self-sufficient manner. Since 2018, there are plans by the province to develop the terrain.
The Tabakspanden are a group of buildings standing on the Spuistraat in central Amsterdam, adjacent to the Keizerrijk and Wijdesteeg alleyways. Named after a former owner, the speculator Hendrik Tabak, they were mostly squatted from 1983 onwards, although the artist Peter Klashorst also rented an apartment and gallery space. The best known building was Spuistraat 199, known as the Slangenpand (Snakehouse) because of the large mural which covered the front exterior. In 2015, the squatters were evicted and the buildings were mostly demolished prior to redevelopment. The new project is known as De Keizer and has 69 apartments, a restaurant and a gallery. Two of the buildings are registered as rijksmonumenten.
De Vloek was a squatted, self-managed social centre in The Hague, the Netherlands, between 2002 and 2015. Located on Hellingweg 127 in Scheveningen, beside the North Sea, the squat hosted workplaces, living spaces, a venue, and a vegan restaurant. The local council tolerated the occupation until 2014, when it decided to sell the building. A political struggle over the eviction began; some political parties supported the squatters and the Scheveningen Pier was briefly occupied as a protest action. A deal was made for the squatters to move to a former school building and the Vloek was eventually evicted in September 2015.
The Ubica buildings are two adjacent buildings standing at 24 and 26 Ganzenmarkt, in central Utrecht, the Netherlands. Number 24 is a rijksmonument. The first recorded mention of the buildings is from 1319. After centuries of residential use, the buildings were bought by the Ubica mattress company in 1913 and used until a devastating fire in 1989. The buildings were then squatted for 21 years, before being redeveloped into a hotel and café-restaurant in 2014.
The Amsterdamsestraatweg Water Tower is located in Utrecht, the Netherlands. The water tower was built at Amsterdamsestraatweg 380 in 1916, in the style of the Amsterdam School. It became derelict in 1986 and was repeatedly squatted before its redevelopment into apartments began in 2020.
Huize Ivicke is a monumental building in Wassenaar, the Netherlands. Constructed in 1913 for A. F. J. van Hattum, it is a replica of the Eremitageslottet hunting lodge in the Jaegersborg Dyrehave in Denmark. It was inhabited until the mid-1980s, when it became offices. Since 2000, it has been owned by speculator Ronnie van de Putte, known as the "Slum King of the Netherlands". He refuses to renovate the building, despite its monumental status. Heritage groups warned the local municipality in the late 2010s that the villa was severely dilapidated and it was placed on a list of the fourteen most threatened monuments in Europe. It is currently the subject of an intense dispute over emergency renovations and was squatted in 2018, by people wanting to carry out essential repairs. The house, the formal garden, the gate and the playhouse are all national monuments.
The Piersonstraat riots occurred in 1981 in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. After the city council decided to demolish a warehouse and houses in the city centre to build a parking garage, local activists and the squatters movemment combined to resist the eviction. This resulted in riots and the events have become part of Dutch history. The parking garage was not built.
The Wyers squat was a self-managed social centre on Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal in central Amsterdam, the Netherlands, between 1981 and 1984. The buildings of the Wyers former wholesale textile company were converted by the squatters into a range of living and work spaces. When the Government of Amsterdam decided to demolish the complex to make way for a Holiday Inn hotel, a car parking garage and apartments, the squatters made alternative proposals. The eviction was announced for February 14, 1984, and there were demonstrations in support of the squat around the country. On the day of eviction, 1,500 people stayed inside the building then left without conflict. The breeding place discourse of new cultural initiatives presented by the squatters was later adopted by the city council.
The death of Hans Kok occurred in the night of 24 October 1985, after he had been arrested in Amsterdam. The young squatter died in a police cell and the Dutch squatters movement believed he had been murdered. The following weekend, there were 40 arson attacks across the city and solidarity actions from other places. No prison officers faced charges; Kok's death has been memorialised in book, film and music.
'Het is oorlog', zei burgemeester Staatsen destijds.
In totaal zijn in Amsterdam sinds de invoering van de nieuwe wet Kraken en Leegstand in oktober 2010, 330 kraakpanden ontruimd.
De afgelopen jaren is Amsterdam een aantal van zijn vrijplaatsen binnen de stad kwijtgeraakt: het Slangenpand aan de Spuistraat werd ontruimd, de Valreep in Oost moest plaatsmaken voor woningbouw en Villa Friekens in Noord werd verlaten voordat de ME eraan te pas kwam.
"Het is een beloning voor slecht gedrag," vindt VVD-fractieleider Martin Wörsdörfer
Een poging om de watertoren aan de Amsterdamsestraatweg te kraken is zondagmiddag mislukt.
Na enige jaren van leegstand werden Voorstraat 71 en Voorstraat 73 in 1976 gekraakt.