Citation for published version (APA): Gaemers, J. H. (2006). De rode wethouder: de jaren Amsterdam: Balans

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1 UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository) De rode wethouder: de jaren Gaemers, J.H. Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Gaemers, J. H. (2006). De rode wethouder: de jaren Amsterdam: Balans General rights It is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulations If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible. UvA-DARE is a service provided by the library of the University of Amsterdam ( Download date: 09 Dec 2018

2 SUMMARY The red alderman. Willem Drees The years This book is the first volume of a political biography of Willem Drees, the socialist Prime Minister of the Netherlands during the years It describes his formative years and political career until World War 11, which interrupted his work in public office for a number of years. In the course of three decades, between 1910 and 1940, Drees developed from a local party activist en municipal councillor into a national politician with a prominent position in the Social Democratic Workers Party (Sociaal-Democratische Arbeiders Partij, SDAp).This study focuses on his activities as alderman in the city of The Hague from This period was known as the high tide of'municipal socialism': whereas the SDAP was restricted nationally to fruitless opposition, co-operation between socialists and 'bourgeois' parties proved perfectly possible in local politics. During the Interbellum Drees was one of a number of famous 'red aldermen' who succeeded in organising important municipal services notably in the fields of housing, social welfare and education. Willem Drees grew up in Amsterdam in a Calvinist family. His youth was marked by the early death of his father who died from tuberculosis when young Willem was onlyfiveyears old. His mother was left a widow with three young children, without real income: the bank where Drees' father had seemed to be heading for a promising career, did not have any pension provisions for widows. She took in lodgers to earn a living. Her brother-in-law helped by paying rent and school fees for Willem and his two sisters. But even with this support from Uncle Frits, who was also the childrens' guardian, the small family lived in very modest circumstances indeed.

3 After elementary school, Willem enrolled in a three year secondary school, followed by a School of Commerce. This Openbare Handelsschool which he attended from 1901 to 1903 was to have a profound impact on his later life. While he had already become aware of social injustices, several school mates were to make him acquainted with socialism. After witnessing an important electoral struggle in an Amsterdam constituency, he was won over to socialism for life at the age of sixteen. He also broke radically with religion. He had been an excellent Sunday school student for many years, yet decided in the end that he could not go through confession as a true believer. After his school years Drees became a junior clerk in the same bank that had employed his father. But he felt thoroughly unhappy in this job. He left the bank at the end of a three year contract, and decided to turn his hobby - stenography - into his profession. Already during his school years he had learned a new shorthand system developed by A.W Groote. He soon became one of the most highly-skilled practitioners and advocates of this system. In 1906 he was appointed a shorthand reporter for the Amsterdam City Council, and a year later he was appointed stenographer at the Dutch Parliament in The Hague. He also worked free-lance, in reporting numerous meetings of public bodies, private associations en professional organisations. His work as a stenographer provided important schooling in politics and public office. And, also very important: it left him considerable spare time. He used this from 1907 to 1909 to take lessons from the Marxist economist Rudolf Kuyper to prepare for higher examinations in the area of economics and statistics. In the following years he spent all his free time in political activities. From 1907 he had participated actively in debates within the Hague branch of the s DAP, whenever he was in town and not with his family and fiancee, Catharina (To) Hent, in Amsterdam. They married in July 1910 and moved permanently to The Hague. A few months later, Drees was elected member of the executive of the local party branch, the beginning of his long political career. In 1911 he became chairman of the local party, a post he was to hold for eighteen years, except for a short interlude. He played an active role in organising women and youth within the party fold, in workers'

4 education, in organising large manifestations in demand of general suffrage and in running electoral campaigns. In 1913 he was elected to a long-wished seat in City Council of The Hague. As a stenographer he had closely observed local council meetings and become fully aware of the important work to be done in municipal government. Drees concentrated his work as councillor on civil service affairs and on education. In his opposition to a far from energetic conservative alderman he was highly critical, but also matter-of-fact. He was mainly interested in practical affairs, and took little part in ideological debates. He soon gained a prominent place within the socialist party group in the municipal council: he was a candidate for alderman in 1917 and was elected the group's chairman shortly afterwards. Although Drees had been strongly impressed by prominent socialist poets like Henriette Roland Host and Herman Gorter, he did not share their radical political views. Initially, he regretted the 1909 exodus of later Communists from the SDAP, but soon proved to be a strong critic of that dissident group. In November 1918, when the socialist leader P. J. Troelstra announced a revolution to be inevitable, Drees did not share these expectations. But he fully embraced the demands for far-reaching reforms which the SDAP put forward in this turbulent month. In September 1919 Drees was elected the second socialist alderman in The Hague, next to the prominent socialist and later leader of the SDAP, J.W. Albarda. He was put in charge of social affairs, which included poor law relief, care for the unemployed, public health care and the working conditions of municipal personnel. During the first years as alderman he succeeded in substantially raising salaries of municipal workers. He much improved the system of consultation on working conditions, in concert with trade unions. Later on he had to accept a lowering of labour conditions, including a longer working week. Social welfare was considerably expanded and modernised during his period in office. A better care of the aged was provided by improving the existing old-age home and establishing two new ones on a more modern footing. He gave a great deal of attention to provisions for the unemployed and public work programs to provide employment for such groups, preferably within their own field of work. As an administrator Drees impressed by his practical orientation and his clear awareness of what was attainable under given political

5 conditions. Less than some other socialist aldermen elsewhere, he sought a distinctly'red' profile. But this did not mean that he gave his socialist convictions a secondary place, and he resisted allegations to the contrary when made. Even if he did not feel the need to constantly emphasise socialist principles, a strong idealism remained the motivating force behind all his official work. Much of Drees' achievements were obtained against considerable resistance, notably within the Board of Mayor and Aldermen which had a mixed political composition. Together with the second socialist alderman he frequently chose a minority position, voting in the council against the majority of that Board. If important social-democratic principles were at stake, he was prepared to resign, as happened in 1929 in a bitter dispute on municipal land ownership and long lease land rents as against the selling of building areas to private buyers. This crisis was eventually solved by a compromise, which led Drees and his socialist colleague M. Vrijenhoek to return to their posts. In 1931 Drees exchanged his social welfare portfolio for the post of alderman in charge of finance and public works. A difficult period followed when the consequences of the economic depression made themselves felt. He could profit from the solid financial policies of his predecessor, to which he himself had substantially contributed by his concern for economy and efficiency. Yet, lowering of the level of expenditure was inevitable, notably through cuts in the salaries of municipal employees. Unlike many members of his party, Drees did not reject these cuts on principle. He thought it natural that salaries of municipal employees would follow downward trends in general wage levels. In the end he voted against the proposed wage cuts in the council, but stayed in office and maintained his general views against pressures within the party which felt that socialists could never co-operate in wage cuts. In May 1933 Drees was elected to the Lower House of Parliament. Shortly afterwards he gave up his post as alderman, albeit with considerable regret. His work as a Member of Parliament for a party which was condemned to remain in opposition, was to give him much less satisfaction than his tenure as alderman had done. He found compensation in many additional activities besides his parliamentary tasks. One of the more important ones was his membership of the

6 National Executive of the SDAP to which he was first elected in In Parliament Drees was the party spokesman on home affairs, housing and care for the unemployed. But more and more he also began to speak on more general political affairs. His star rose quickly in the socialist party group. He was elected immediately as its second secretary in 1933, and in 1937 he became vice-chairman of the party group, as second in command under the party leader Albarda. Both within and outside Parliament, the fight against the depression became the central issue in Drees' work. He waged a constant battle against the policies of the Cabinet in office, which in his view was onesidedly aiming at cutting wage costs. He early on saw the importance of the ideas of socialist economists such as J. Tinbergen and H. Vos to promote large-scale public works programs, investments in industry and economic planning. Such ideas resulted in the Labour Plan (Plan van de Arbeid) which the SDAP put forward as the alternative for the deflationary policies of the Colijn Cabinet. He also became a strong advocate of giving up the gold standard, but found insufficient support for devaluation of the guilder within his own party. From 1933 the SDAP changed gradually from an ideologically isolated workers' party in a more general, broader-oriented volkspartij. The socialists revised their stance in relation to the monarchy and re-armament. Drees supported such changes, but emphasised the need to move slowly so as not to alienate the party's traditional followers and voters. An important factor in these developments was the rise of fascism and national-socialism, in other countries as well as in the Netherlands. The SDAP saw itself as a bulwark for democracy. Drees fought fascism in the strongest terms, in articles, speeches and in debates with representatives of extreme-right parties, in Parliament as well as in the Hague City Council of which he remained an active member until his internment in Buchenwald in October When in August 1939 the SDAP came to participate in a national Cabinet for the first time, Drees barely missed becoming a Cabinet Minister. But he became chairman of the socialist party group in the Lower House. He was to have little time to give substance to this post. Soon WorldWar 11 began, which led the Netherlands also to mobilise its military. By now Drees was without doubt one of the leading figures in

7 the SDAP. He developed as a politician in local politics and as an administrator in his post as alderman, which in hindsight he came to regard as the most satisfying position he had held. But through his work in Parliament, and the many additional tasks he had shouldered in civil society and advisory bodies, he had become an all-round politician, eminently prepared for the important role he was to play in future. A future no one could have foreseen at the time.

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