Hendrikus Colijn

Hendrikus "Hendrik" Colijn (22 June 1869 – 18 September 1944) was a Dutch politician of the Anti-Revolutionary Party (ARP; now defunct and merged into the Christian Democratic Appeal or CDA). He served as Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 4 August 1925 until 8 March 1926, and from 26 May 1933 until 10 August 1939.

His Excellency Hendrikus Colijn
Colijn in 1925
Prime Minister of the Netherlands
In office 26 May 1933 – 10 August 1939
Monarch	Wilhelmina
Preceded by	Charles Ruijs de Beerenbrouck
Succeeded by	Dirk Jan de Geer
In office 4 August 1925 – 8 March 1926
Monarch	Wilhelmina
Preceded by	Charles Ruijs de Beerenbrouck
Succeeded by	Dirk Jan de Geer
Minister of Foreign Affairs
In office 24 June 1937 – 1 October 1937 Ad interim
Prime Minister	himself
Preceded by	Andries Cornelis Dirk de Graeff
Succeeded by	Jacob Adriaan Nicolaas Patijn
Minister of Defence
In office 2 September 1935 – 24 June 1937
Prime Minister	himself
Preceded by	Laurentius Nicolaas Deckers
Succeeded by	Jannes van Dijk
Minister of Water Management
In office 13 January 1935 – 15 March 1935 Ad interim
Prime Minister	himself
Preceded by	Jacob Kalff
Succeeded by	Otto van Lidth de Jeude
Minister of Economic Affairs
In office 25 July 1939 – 10 August 1939
Prime Minister	himself
Preceded by	Max Steenberghe
Succeeded by	Max Steenberghe
In office 17 April 1934 – 25 June 1934 Ad interim
Prime Minister	himself
Preceded by	Timotheus Verschuur
Succeeded by	Max Steenberghe
Minister of Colonial Affairs
In office 26 May 1933 – 24 June 1937
Prime Minister	himself
Preceded by	Simon de Graaff
Succeeded by	Charles Welter
In office 4 August 1925 – 1 October 1925 Ad interim
Prime Minister	himself
Preceded by	Simon de Graaff
Succeeded by	Charles Welter
Minister of Finance
In office 19 May 1939 – 25 July 1939 Ad interim
Prime Minister	himself
Preceded by	Jacob Adriaan de Wilde
Succeeded by	Christiaan Bodenhausen
In office 11 August 1923 – 8 March 1926
Prime Minister	Charles Ruijs de Beerenbrouck (1923–1925) Hendrikus Colijn (1925–1926)
Preceded by	Dirk Jan de Geer
Succeeded by	Dirk Jan de Geer
Leader of the Anti-Revolutionary Party
In office 31 March 1920 – 18 September 1944
Preceded by	Abraham Kuyper
Succeeded by	Jan Schouten
Chairman of the Anti-Revolutionary Party
In office 6 September 1939 – 18 September 1944
Leader	himself
Preceded by	Jan Schouten
Succeeded by	Jan Schouten (1945)
In office 31 March 1920 – 26 May 1933
Leader	himself
Preceded by	Abraham Kuyper
Succeeded by	Jan Schouten
Minister of the Navy
In office 14 May 1912 – 29 August 1913
Prime Minister	Theo Heemskerk
Preceded by	Jan Wentholt
Succeeded by	Jean Jacques Rambonnet
Minister of War
In office 4 January 1911 – 29 August 1913
Prime Minister	Theo Heemskerk
Preceded by	Wouter Cool
Succeeded by	Nicolaas Bosboom
Parliament Parliamentary leader in the Senate In office 23 September 1926 – 17 September 1929 Preceded by Anne Anema Succeeded by Anne Anema Parliamentary group Anti-Revolutionary Party Member of the Senate In office 31 October 1939 – 18 September 1944 In office 23 September 1926 – 21 August 1929 In office 15 September 1914 – 10 November 1920 Parliamentary group Anti-Revolutionary Party Parliamentary leader in the House of Representatives In office 17 September 1929 – 23 May 1933 Preceded by Theo Heemskerk Succeeded by Jan Schouten In office 11 July 1922 – 11 August 1923 Preceded by Victor Henri Rutgers Succeeded by Victor Henri Rutgers Parliamentary group Anti-Revolutionary Party Member of the House of Representatives In office 8 June 1937 – 25 June 1937 In office 17 September 1929 – 26 May 1933 In office 25 July 1922 – 15 August 1923 In office 9 November 1909 – 4 January 1911 Parliamentary group Anti-Revolutionary Party
Personal details
Born	(1869-06-22)22 June 1869 Burgerveen, Netherlands
Died	18 September 1944(1944-09-18) (aged 75) Ilmenau, Germany
Cause of death	Heart failure
Political party	Anti-Revolutionary Party
Spouse	Helena Groenenberg ​ (m. 1893)​
Relations	Arie Colijn (brother)
Children	3, including Anton Colijn
Alma mater	Royal Military Academy
Occupation	Politician · Civil servant · Military officer · Teacher · Editor-in-chief · Businessman · Corporate director
Signature
Military service
Allegiance	Netherlands
Branch/service	Royal Netherlands East Indies Army
Years of service	1886–1909
Rank	Major

Early life

Colijn was born on 22 June 1869 in the Haarlemmermeer to Antonie Colijn and Anna Verkuijl, who had migrated to the newly created Haarlemmermeer polder from the Land of Heusden and Altena for religious reasons. He was the first of six children, all of whom were born in Haarlemmermeer. Colijn grew up in the Land of Altena.

Military service

At the age of 16, Colijn went to a military academy in Kampen for officer training, where he graduated as a second lieutenant in 1892. On 18 September 1893, he married Helena Groenenberg (23 September 1867 – 14 February 1947) and was sent to the Dutch East Indies. During his 16 years in the Dutch East Indies, he spent ten years in the colonial army. He served in the Aceh War as the lieutenant of J. B. van Heutsz and six further years in the colonial administration as a lieutenant when van Heutsz became Governor General in 1904.

Colijn's letters to his wife from his period on Lombok reveal that his participation in acts of brutality which by modern standards would be considered severe war crimes:

I have seen a mother carrying a child of about 6 months old on her left arm, with a long lance in her right hand, who was running in our direction. One of our bullets killed the mother as well as the child. From now on we couldn't give any mercy, it was over. I did give orders to gather a group of 9 women and 3 children who asked for mercy and they were shot all together. It was not a pleasant job, but something else was impossible. Our soldiers tacked them with pleasure with their bayonets. It was horrible. I will stop reporting now.

Early political career

After his return to the Netherlands in 1909, Colijn was elected as an Anti-Revolutionary Party Member of Parliament for the district of Sneek (before 1918, the Dutch voting system was the same as the British).

In 1911, he was appointed Minister of War and revised the Dutch Selective Service System. In May 1918, he acted as an intermediary between the British and Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany to arrange an armistice, resulting in the Wilhelm gaining refuge in the Netherlands.

Business life

In 1910, the Holland Dakota Landbouw Compagnie was established, with Hendrikus Colijn and his brother Arie Colijn as the primary shareholders.

From 1914 to 1922, he served as CEO for the Bataafse Petroleum Maatschappij (BPM). In 1925, he also became CEO of Royal Dutch Shell.

Colijn served as editor of De Standaard from 1922 to 1939.

Prime minister

In 1922, Colijn accepted the political leadership of the Anti-Revolutionary Party (Calvinist) from Abraham Kuyper. Only one year later, he succeeded the resigning Dirk Jan de Geer as Minister of Finance. In 1925, Colijn also became prime minister, but a year later, he had to step down when the House of Representatives accepted a resolution by Gerrit Hendrik Kersten of the Protestant Reformed Political Party that called for diplomatic mission to the Holy See to be recalled. That was unacceptable to the Roman Catholic State Party, which was then in government. Colijn then returned to the Senate and from 1927 to 1929 served as head of the Dutch delegation to the League of Nations in Geneva. At the election of 1929, he was elected for the House of Representatives, and he immediately became parliamentary leader of his party. That proved to be a success since at the election of 1933, the ARP gained two seats, and Colijn became prime minister again.

From 1933 to 1939, Colijn served four more times as prime minister. During the 1930s, his government faced the effects of the Great Depression, which took a heavy toll on the Netherlands. Colijn's government responded to the economic crisis with a strict protectionist policy, which continued to weaken the Dutch economy. Colijn's decision to adhere to the gold standard until 1936, long after most of the trading partners of the Netherlands had dropped it, was very unpopular with those in favour of government fiat money.

In 1939, Colijn's last cabinet, with Protestant and liberal ministers but without Catholic ministers, lasted only three days before a government crisis. He resigned as prime minister on 10 August, only three weeks before the outbreak of World War II.

World War II and death

After the Dutch defeat in the Battle of the Netherlands in 1940, Colijn published an essay entitled "On the Border of Two Worlds" (Op de Grens van Twee Werelden) in which he called for accepting German leadership in Europe immediately after the Royal House had fled to England and left him behind. His view was influenced by the tremendous show of force that the German blitzkrieg had shown and the relative weakness of the Allied forces. Soon thereafter, he tried to organize political resistance but was arrested in June 1941 and taken to Berlin for interrogation. The Germans tried to have him confess that he had conspired with the British to invade the Netherlands to serve as an excuse for the German invasion.

Late in the war, according to a grandson, after the tide had turned against the Germans, Heinrich Himmler wanted to keep Colijn available as a possible intermediary with the British, as he had done earlier for Wilhelm II. The very fact that the Gestapo allowed the visit suggests that Himmler was already making contingency plans in case of a German loss. In March 1943, Colijn was put under house arrest in a remote mountain hotel in Ilmenau, where he died on 18 September 1944.

Decorations

Honours

Ribbon bar	Honour	Country	Date	Comment
	Knight 3rd Class of the Military Order of William	Netherlands	1 August 1895	Style of Excellency
	Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Orange-Nassau	Netherlands	12 March 1926	Elevated from Grand Officer (5 September 1913)
	Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Netherlands Lion	Netherlands	31 August 1929	Elevated from Commander (11 August 1923)

Honorific Titles

Ribbon bar	Honour	Country	Date	Comment
	Minister of State	Netherlands	31 August 1929	Style of Excellency

External links

Official

• (in Dutch) Dr. H. (Hendrik) Colijn Parlement & Politiek
• (in Dutch) Dr. H. Colijn (ARP) Eerste Kamer der Staten-Generaal
• Newspaper clippings about Hendrikus Colijn in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW