Amsterdam: A Brief Life of the City

Geert Mak

2 ideas

1. The February Strike of 1941

   In February 1941, German raids in Amsterdam's Jewish quarter seized about 400 young Jewish men and deported them to Mauthausen. On 25–26 February, a strike organised by the underground Communist Party halted trams, shipyards and offices across the city, the only mass public protest against the persecution of Jews in occupied Europe. The Germans crushed it within two days, and afterwards the city largely complied as its Jewish population was registered, concentrated and deported.

2. Shared water threat breeds consensus governance

   A city built on reclaimed peat bog, below sea level, survives only if everyone maintains dikes, sluices and pilings together, because one neighbour's neglect floods everyone. This forced cooperation among burghers rather than rule by a feudal lord. The result was decentralised, negotiated, merchant-led government, a habit of consensus that shaped Amsterdam's political culture for centuries.

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