Sources

Greenmantle

Published in 1916, the novel Greenmantle was a wartime bestseller written by the English author John Buchan who also worked as a high-ranking propaganda official at the British propaganda office,…

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Themes: Religion; Race; Propaganda; Neutrality; Mobility; Language; Intellectual Exchange; Imperial Strategy; Captivity
Tags: anti-colonialism, Camp, Colonial Troops, German Revolutionary Program, Great-Britain, imperial strategy, Jihad, Muslims, novel, orientalism, Propaganda, South Africa, Wellington House

'Who still talks about decadent France?'
Cartoon 'The Battle of Verdun'

Cartoon on the Battle of Verdun by Johan Braakensiek, published in the Dutch weekly De Amsterdammer, 5 March 1916. The cartoon shows France imagined as a powerful 'antique' woman, who stops an…

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Themes: Religion; Race; Propaganda; Newspapers & Magazines; Neutrality; Intellectual Exchange; Gender
Tags: anti-German, cartoon, France, Gender, nationalism, Neutrality, pro-French, Propaganda, Race, The Netherlands

Report on French propaganda in the Netherlands, May 1916

In May 1916, the French propaganda official Maurice Gandolphe wrote an extensive advisory report to strengthen French cultural propaganda in the Netherlands. He had conducted a secret mission to the…

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Themes: Propaganda; Newspapers & Magazines; Neutrality; Language; Intellectual Exchange
Tags: cultural propaganda, French, newspapers, official documents, public intellectual, The Netherlands

Extract from a German report on bookstores in the Netherlands

Two pages of a German report from 1918 describing the books on offer at bookstores located within the train station in The Hague.

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Themes: Propaganda; Neutrality; Language; Intellectual Exchange
Tags: cultural propaganda, Dutch book market, Propaganda, The Netherlands, Translation

Confirmation of payment to the Dutch book dealer Mensing from the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs

The receipt is confirmation of a payment made in 1919. This was the final instalment (amounting to 7,500 fl.) of the total sum of 27,500 guilders, paid to the Dutch book dealer Bernard Mensing (whose…

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Themes: Propaganda; Neutrality; Language; Intellectual Exchange
Tags: cultural propaganda, Dutch book market, Propaganda, The Netherlands

East Indies

The poem 'Oostinje' is written by the Dutch cabaret artist Jacobus Speenhoff in which he pleas for a stronger Dutch allegiance to the Dutch East Indies in times of global war. To read the original…

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Themes: Religion; Race; Propaganda; Poem; Neutrality; Intellectual Exchange; Imperial Strategy
Tags: Dutch East Indies, German Revolutionary Program, Imperial identity, imperial strategy, Japan, Java, Muslims, Poem, Race, The Netherlands

Report of Richard von Kühlmann, German envoy in the Netherlands, to the German chancellor von Bethmann Hollweg, 5 October 1915

In this October 1915 report, the German envoy in the Netherlands, Richard von Kühlmann, discussed German ambitions in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Flanders. To read the original report, please click…

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Themes: Race; Propaganda; Newspapers & Magazines; Neutrality; Language; Intellectual Exchange; Imperial Strategy
Tags: Belgium, cultural propaganda, Flamenpolitik, Flemish, Flemish activism, German Revolutionary Program, Germany, imperial strategy, Language, Neutrality, official documents, Race, The Netherlands

Letter from Romain Rolland to Frederik van Eeden, 12 January 1915

On 24 January 1915, the Dutch writer Frederik van Eeden published a letter written by his close friend, the French writer Romain Rolland, in the Dutch weekly De Amsterdammer. In his letter to van…

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Themes: Newspapers & Magazines; Neutrality; Letter; Intellectual Exchange
Tags: Europe, French, internationalism, open letter, public intellectual, Rolland, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Van Eeden, writer

'The influence of the war on Dutch book production 1913-1920'

The article deals with book production in the Netherlands in the years 1913-1920.

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Themes: Propaganda; Newspapers & Magazines; Neutrality; Language; Intellectual Exchange
Tags: Dutch book market, The Netherlands

Pictures from Belgium

Brochure advertising a collection of pictures from wartime Belgium to Dutch cinema managers.

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Themes: Propaganda; Photograph; Neutrality; Intellectual Exchange; Film; Captivity
Tags: Belgian refugees, Belgium, film propaganda, Netherlands

Hindostan and El Dschihad

Hindostan and El Dschihad were propaganda newspapers for South Asian, Caucasian, and North African prisoners of war in the Halbmondlager in Wünsdorf and the Weinberglager in Zossen. These periodicals…

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Themes: Religion; Propaganda; Newspapers & Magazines; Language; Intellectual Exchange; Imperial Strategy; Captivity
Tags: anti-British, anti-colonialism, Arabic, Colonial soldiers, Colonial Troops, German Revolutionary Program, Halfmoon Camp, Hindi, Jihad, Language, newspapers, official documents, orientalism, orientalists, Ottoman Empire, pan-Islamism, POW, pow-camp, Propaganda, religion, revolution, Russian, Tatar, Urdu

Report by Raden Mas Sosrokartono to Henri Allizé, French envoy to The Hague, on Der Neue Orient, ca. 1917-1918

Plan written by the Indonesian journalist, translator and writer Raden Mas Sosrokartono to counter German imperial strategies in Asia, in particular the German journal Der Neue Orient. Armed with this…

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Themes: Religion; Race; Propaganda; Newspapers & Magazines; Neutrality; Language; Intellectual Exchange; Imperial Strategy
Tags: anti-colonialism, anti-German, colonial intellectual, Dutch East Indies, France, German Revolutionary Program, Imperial identity, imperial strategy, loyalty, newspapers, Propaganda, The Netherlands

For Europe: An appeal from Holland to intellectuals of all nations

In these two extracts from Au-dessus de la mêlée, Rolland first discusses the rise of the Dutch Anti-War Association in October 1914, then moves onto the Association's translated manifesto…

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Themes: Neutrality; Language; Intellectual Exchange
Tags: Europe, internationalism, Language, Neutrality, Rolland, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Van Eeden

Imperialism, World War and Social Democracy

Essay by the Dutch poet and socialist Herman Gorter on the First World War, imperialism, and the International (an international organisation of socialist parties). The essay was published in…

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Themes: Race; Neutrality; Intellectual Exchange; Imperial Strategy
Tags: anti-colonialism, Dutch, essay, imperial strategy, internationalism, Neutrality, public intellectual, revolution, socialism, The Netherlands, writer

Bei uns in Deutschland

Cover and extracts from Bei uns in Deutschland (Brussels, 1919), First World War memoirs of the Flemish author Ernest Claes, based on his time in a German POW camp in Erfurt.

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Themes: Race; Propaganda; Mobility; Memoirs; Language; Intellectual Exchange; Imperial Strategy; Diary; Captivity
Tags: Belgium, Camp, Flamenpolitik, Flemish, France, Germany, Memoir, Muslims, Personal Encounters, Soldiers, writer

Second plan of work for Bangkok by Ernest Douwes Dekker

In this report addressed to the German Foreign Office, the anti-colonial Indonesian writer and politician Ernest Douwes Dekker (image 1) describes his secret mission to travel from Rotterdam to…

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Themes: Race; Propaganda; Neutrality; Mobility; Language; Intellectual Exchange; Imperial Strategy; Captivity
Tags: anti-British, anti-colonialism, Berlin Indian Independence Committee, colonial intellectual, Dutch East Indies, Ernest Douwes Dekker, German Revolutionary Program, Germany, Imperial identity, imperial strategy, India, Java, nationalism, Neutrality, The Netherlands

'The Dutch and the French'

Written account of 'Hollandais et Français' ['The Dutch and the French'], a lecture given by the Dutch professor of Romance languages Jean-Jacques Salverda de Grave at the Alliance Française society…

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Themes: Race; Propaganda; Neutrality; Language; Intellectual Exchange
Tags: cultural propaganda, Dutch, France, Language, nationalism, pro-French, Race, The Netherlands

Poems by Albert Verwey

A collection of poems written by the most famous Dutch poet Albert Verwey, translated into German and published by the internationally renowned German publishing house Insel Verlag in Leipzig in 1917.…

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Themes: Race; Propaganda; Poem; Neutrality; Language; Intellectual Exchange; Imperial Strategy
Tags: cultural propaganda, Dutch, Europe, Flamenpolitik, Flemish, Germany, Language, poet, The Netherlands, Translation

Latin Spring. Essays and notes

In 1918 the Dutch poet and journalist Jan Greshoff compiled his newspaper articles and literary reviews in Latin Spring. Essays and Notes. These pieces had all been originally published in the…

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Themes: Religion; Race; Propaganda; Poem; Newspapers & Magazines; Neutrality; Language; Intellectual Exchange; Gender
Tags: anti-German, Dutch, essay, France, Germany, Latin, nationalism, Neutrality, Race, The Netherlands

'Germany's victory by Luis Antón del Olmet'

Short review of a pro-German book Der Sieg Deutschlands by the Spanish author Luis Antón del Olmet. Published in the Dutch weekly De Toekomst.

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Themes: Propaganda; Newspapers & Magazines; Neutrality; Language; Intellectual Exchange
Tags: Dutch book market, Germany, Propaganda, Translation

Interned British soldiers in Groningen crafting picture frames from cigar boxes to sell to British companies

A photograph taken in the English camp at Groningen during World War I. Members of the British navy are depicted crafting picture frames from cigar boxes.

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Themes: Photograph; Neutrality; Language; Intellectual Exchange; Captivity
Tags: Camp, Great-Britain, Neutrality, POWs, Soldiers, The Netherlands

Poem 'When I go from hence'

'Jabar dine' ['When I go from hence'] is poem number 96 in the Indian poet and intellectual Rabindranath Tagore's Nobel Prize winning collection of poems titled the Gitanjali. The British war poet…

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Themes: Poem; Intellectual Exchange

German propaganda in Islamic countries, March 1917

In this report of 18 March 1917, the French envoy Henri Allizé to The Hague listed all pan-Islamic propaganda printed by German officials in the Netherlands and circulated to the British and French…

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Themes: Religion; Race; Propaganda; Newspapers & Magazines; Neutrality; Language; Intellectual Exchange; Imperial Strategy
Tags: anti-colonialism, Dutch, Dutch East Indies, France, German Revolutionary Program, Malay, Muslims, official documents, pamphlet, pan-Islamism, Propaganda, revolution, The Netherlands

I accuse! (J'accuse!) By a German, with a preface by Frederik van Eeden, 1915

Dutch translation of the famous German, anti-war manifesto J'accuse by a German, written anonymously but most likely by the German pacifist Richard Grelling. To read the original introduction in Dutch…

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Themes: Propaganda; Neutrality; Language; Intellectual Exchange; Imperial Strategy
Tags: anti-German, Dutch, Van Eeden, writer

Of a Lost Summer by Cyriel Buysse

Of a Lost Summer is a travelogue by the Flemish writer Cyriel Buysse that documents the Western Front in France and Belgium, where he also visited the destructed towns in West Flanders where he was…

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Themes: Religion; Race; Propaganda; Newspapers & Magazines; Neutrality; Mobility; Language; Intellectual Exchange; Captivity
Tags: Flemish, Race, Senegalese, Soldiers, trenches, war novel