Rotterdam — latest news, discussion & facts — IJR

Early history

The settlement at the lower end of the fen stream Rotte (or Rotta, as it was then known, from rot, "muddy", and a, "water", thus "muddy water") dates from at least the year 950. Around 1150, large floods in the area ended development, leading to the construction of protective dikes and dams, including Schielands Hoge Zeedijk ("Schieland's High Sea Dike") along the northern banks of the present-day Nieuwe Maas river. A dam on the Rotte was built in the 1260s and was located at the present-day Hoogstraat.

On 7 July 1340, Count Willem IV of Holland granted city rights to Rotterdam, which then had a population of only a few thousand. Around the year 1350, a shipping canal (the Rotterdamse Schie) was completed, which provided Rotterdam access to the larger towns in the north, allowing it to become a local trans-shipment centre between the Netherlands, England and Germany, and to urbanize. However, the economy of Rotterdam was mainly based on herring fishing until the Eighty Years' War, when it turned out that it is one of the few Dutch towns with an easy sea access. As a result, William the Silent built new fortifications around Rotterdam.

Beginning in the 1600s, Rotterdam was involved in the Atlantic slave trade. According to historian Gerhard de Kok, "Rotterdam merchants were the pioneers of the Dutch slave trade". From the 17th century until 1814, when the United Netherlands abolished the Netherlands' involvement in the slave trade at the request of the British government, Dutch slave ships from Rotterdam sailed to Africa and the Americas as part of the triangular trade. Rotterdam merchants also sold significant quantities of gunpowder to Zeeland-based slave ships.

The port of Rotterdam grew steadily in importance, the new harbours were built, and Rotterdam became the seat of one of the six chambers of the Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC), the Dutch East India Company, and one of the five chambers of the West-Indische Compagnie (WIC), the Dutch West India Company. In the 17th century, the city grew beyond the fortifications, and by the 1670s, its population was around 30,000.

The greatest spurt of growth, both in port activity and population, followed the completion of the Nieuwe Waterweg in 1872. The city and harbour started to expand on the south bank of the river. The Witte Huis, or White House skyscraper, inspired by American office buildings and built in 1898 in the French Art Nouveau style, is evidence of Rotterdam's rapid growth and success. When completed, it was the tallest office building in Europe, with a height of 45 m (147.64 ft).

20th century

During World War I, the city was the world's largest spy centre because of Dutch neutrality and its strategic location between Britain, Germany and German-occupied Belgium. Many spies who were arrested and executed in Britain were led by German secret agents operating from Rotterdam. MI6 had its main European office on de Boompjes. From there the British coordinated espionage in Germany and occupied Belgium. During World War I, an average of 25,000 Belgian refugees lived in the city, as well as hundreds of German deserters and escaped Allied prisoners of war.

During World War II, the German army invaded the Netherlands on 10 May 1940. Adolf Hitler had hoped to conquer the country in just one day, but his forces met unexpectedly fierce resistance. The Dutch army was forced to capitulate on 15 May 1940, following the bombing of Rotterdam on 14 May and the threat of bombing other Dutch cities. The heart of Rotterdam was almost completely destroyed by the Luftwaffe. Some 80,000 civilians were made homeless, and 900 were killed; a relatively low number since many had fled the city because of the warfare and bombing going on in Rotterdam since the start of the invasion three days earlier. The City Hall survived the bombing. Ossip Zadkine later attempted to capture the event with his statue De Verwoeste Stad ('The Destroyed City'). The statue stands near the Leuvehaven, not far from the Erasmusbrug in the centre of the city, on the north shore of the river Nieuwe Maas. In 1941, 11,000 Jews still lived in Rotterdam. Before the war there were 13,000. Between 30 July 1942 and 22 April 1943, 6,790 people were deported in 8 transports via Loods 24. The vast majority of the Jews who were deported via Loods 24 were murdered in Sobibór and Auschwitz-Birkenau. Research in 2000 showed that 144 people survived the deportations. In 2013 the Jewish Children's Monument was unveiled.

In January 1948, Queen Wilhelmina presented the motto 'Sterker door strijd' (Stronger through effort) as part of the coat of arms of Rotterdam to the city government:

"...to serve as a record of the wartime experiences of Rotterdam residents and their role in national liberation..."

—Wilhelmina of the Netherlands

Rotterdam was gradually rebuilt from the 1950s through to the 1970s. Because the city centre was largely destroyed, new spatial infrastructure could be built, making it an open and modern city. In 1953 the Lijnbaan was opened, the first car-free shopping street in Europe. The progressive design attracted a lot of international attention, in which film and television played an important role. The new Central Station was completed in 1957, with the Groothandelsgebouw from 1953 next to it. The Euromast was erected in 1960 on the occasion of the Floriade.

From the 1980s onwards, the city councils began developing an active architectural policy. The harbours were moving westwards, and the old environment had to be reshaped. Daring and new styles of apartments, office buildings and recreation facilities resulted in a more 'livable' city centre with a new skyline. In the 1990s, the Kop van Zuid was built on the south bank of the river as a new business centre. Rotterdam was voted 2015 European City of the Year by the Academy of Urbanism. A profile of Rem Koolhaas in The Guardian begins, "If you put the last 50 years of architecture in a blender, and spat it out in building-sized chunks across the skyline, you would probably end up with something that looked a bit like Rotterdam".

Geography

Rotterdam is divided into a northern and a southern part by the river Nieuwe Maas, connected by (from west to east): the Beneluxtunnel; the Maastunnel; the Erasmusbrug; a subway tunnel; the Willemsspoortunnel ('Willems railway tunnel'); the Willemsbrug ('Willems Bridge') together with the Koninginnebrug ('Queen's Bridge'); and the Van Brienenoordbrug ('Van Brienenoord Bridge'). The former railway lift bridge De Hef ('the Lift') is preserved as a Rijksmonument (national heritage site) in lifted position between the Noordereiland ('North Island') and the south of Rotterdam.

The city centre is located on the northern bank of the Nieuwe Maas, although recent urban development has extended the centre to parts of southern Rotterdam known as Kop van Zuid ('the Head of South', i.e., the northern part of southern Rotterdam). From its inland core, Rotterdam reaches the North Sea by a swathe of predominantly harbour area.

Built mostly behind dikes, large parts of Rotterdam are below sea level. For instance, the Prins Alexander Polder in the northeast of Rotterdam extends 6 m (20 ft) below sea level, or rather below Normaal Amsterdams Peil (NAP) or 'Amsterdam Ordnance Datum'. The lowest point in the Netherlands (6.76 m (22.2 ft) below NAP) is situated just to the east of Rotterdam, in the municipality of Nieuwerkerk aan den IJssel.

The Rotte river no longer joins the Nieuwe Maas directly. Since the early 1980s, when the construction of Rotterdam's second underground line interfered with the Rotte's course, its waters have been pumped through a pipe into the Nieuwe Maas via the Boerengat.

Between the summers of 2003 and 2008, an artificial beach was created at the Boompjeskade along the Nieuwe Maas, between the Erasmus Bridge and the Willems Bridge. Swimming was not possible; digging pits was limited to the height of the layer of sand, about 50 cm (20 in). Alternatively, people go to the beach of Hook of Holland (which is a Rotterdam district) or one of the beaches in Zeeland: Renesse or the Zuid-Hollandse Eilanden: Ouddorp, Oostvoorne.

Rotterdam forms the centre of the Rijnmond conurbation, bordering the conurbation surrounding The Hague to the northwest. The two conurbations are close enough to be a single conurbation. They share the Rotterdam The Hague Airport and a light rail system called RandstadRail. Consideration is being given to creating an official Metropolitan region Rotterdam The Hague (Metropoolregio Rotterdam Den Haag), which would have a combined population approaching 2.5 million.

In its turn, the Rijnmond conurbation is part of the southern wing (the Zuidvleugel) of the Randstad, which is one of the most important economic and densely populated areas in the northwest of Europe. Having a population of 7.1 million, the Randstad is the sixth-largest urban area in Europe (after Moscow, London, Paris, Istanbul, and the Rhein-Ruhr Area). The Zuidvleugel, situated in the province of South Holland, has a population of around 3 million.

Economy

Rotterdam has always been one of the main centres of the shipping industry in the Netherlands. From the Rotterdam Chamber of the VOC, the world's first multinational, established in 1602, to the merchant shipping leader Royal Nedlloyd, established in 1970, with its corporate headquarters located in the landmark building the 'Willemswerf' in 1988. In 1997, Nedlloyd merged with the British shipping industry leader P&O, forming the third largest merchant shipping company in the world. The Anglo-Dutch P&O Nedlloyd was bought by the Danish giant corporation 'AP Moller Maersk' in 2005, and its Dutch operations are still headquartered in the 'Willemswerf'. Nowadays, well-known companies with headquarters in Rotterdam are consumer goods company Unilever (since 2020 London), asset management firm Robeco, energy company Eneco, dredging company Van Oord, oil company Royal Dutch Shell (since 2021 London), terminal operator Vopak, commodity trading company Vitol and architecture firms MVRDV and Office for Metropolitan Architecture.

It is also home to the regional headquarters of chemical company LyondellBasell, commodities trading company Glencore, pharmaceutical company Pfizer, logistics companies Stolt-Nielsen, electrical equipment company ABB and consumer goods company Procter & Gamble. Furthermore, Rotterdam has the Dutch headquarters of Allianz, Maersk, Petrobras, Samskip, Louis Dreyfus Group, and Aon. The City of Rotterdam makes use of the services of semi-government companies Roteb (to take care of sanitation, waste management and assorted services) and the Port of Rotterdam Authority (to maintain the Port of Rotterdam). Both these companies were once municipal bodies; now they are autonomous entities, owned by the city.

Being the largest port and one of the largest cities of the country, Rotterdam attracts many people seeking jobs, especially in the cheap labour segment. The city's unemployment rate is 12%, almost twice the national average. Rotterdam is the largest port in Europe, with the rivers Maas and Rhine providing excellent access to the hinterland upstream, reaching to Basel, Switzerland, and into France. In 2004 Shanghai took over as the world's busiest container port. In 2006, Rotterdam was the world's seventh largest container port in terms of twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) handled. The port's main activities are petrochemical industries and general cargo handling and transshipment. The harbour functions as an important transit point for bulk materials between the European continent and overseas. From Rotterdam, goods are transported by ship, river barge, train or road. In 2007, the Betuweroute, a new fast freight railway from Rotterdam to Germany, was completed. the port also allows cruiseships to dock.

Well-known streets in Rotterdam are the Lijnbaan (the first set of pedestrian streets of the country, opened in 1953), the Hoogstraat, the Coolsingel with the city hall, which was renovated between 2018 and 2021 giving cyclists and pedestrians more space, meaning that car traffic was reduced from 4 lanes (2 in each direction) to 2 lanes (1 in each direction). Another main street is the Weena, which runs from the Central Station to the Hofplein (square). A modern shopping venue is the Beurstraverse ("Stock Exchange Traverse"), better known by its informal name 'Koopgoot' ('Buying/Shopping Gutter', after its subterranean position), which crosses the Coolsingel below street level. The Kruiskade is a more upscale shopping street, with retailers like Michael Kors, 7 For All Mankind, Calvin Klein, Hugo Boss, Tommy Hilfiger and the Dutch men's clothier Oger. Another upscale shopping venue is a flagship store of department store De Bijenkorf. Located a little more to the east is the Markthal, with lots of small retailers inside. This hall is also one of Rotterdam's famous architectural landmarks. The main shopping venue in the south of Rotterdam is Zuidplein, which lies close to Rotterdam Ahoy, an accommodation centre for shows, exhibitions, sporting events, concerts and congresses. Another prominent shopping centre called Alexandrium lies in the east of Rotterdam. It includes a large kitchen and furniture centre.

Education

Rotterdam has one major university, the Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR), named after one of the city's famous former inhabitants, Desiderius Erasmus. The Woudestein campus houses (among others) the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University. In the Financial Times' 2005 rankings, it placed 29th globally and 7th in Europe. In the 2009 rankings of Masters of Management, the school reached first place with the CEMS Master in Management and tenth place with its RSM Master in Management. The university is also home to Europe's largest student association, STAR Study Association Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, and the world's largest student association, AIESEC, has its international office in the city.

The Hoboken campus of EUR houses the Dijkzigt (general) hospital, the Sophia Hospital (for children), the Daniel den Hoed clinic (cancer institute) and the medical department of the university. They are known collectively as the Erasmus Medical Center. This centre is ranked third in Europe by CSIC as a hospital and is also ranked within top 50 universities of the world in the field of medicine (clinical, pre-clinical & health, 2017).

The Willem de Kooning Academy is Rotterdam's main art school, which is part of the Hogeschool Rotterdam. It is regarded as one of the most prestigious art schools in the Netherlands and the number 1 in Advertising and Copywriting. Part of the Willem de Kooning Academy is the Piet Zwart Institute for postgraduate studies and research in Fine Art, Media Design and Retail Design. The Piet Zwart Institute boasts a selective roster of emerging international artists.

Three hogescholen (universities of applied sciences) exist in Rotterdam. These schools award their students a professional bachelor's degree and a postgraduate or master's degree. The three Hogescholen are Hogeschool Rotterdam, Hogeschool Inholland and Codarts University for the Arts (Codarts hogeschool voor de kunsten), a vocational university that teaches music, dance and circus.

Unique to the city is the Shipping & Transport College, which offers master's, bachelor's and vocational diplomas at all levels.

Popular music, film, festivals

Rotterdam has a long tradition of popular music, including the city's jazz scene before and after WWII. A major historical moment in the city's music history is the legendary Kralingen Pop Festival, which took place in Rotterdam in 1970 (featuring, among others, Pink Floyd, Jefferson Airplane, The Byrds, Canned Heat, It's a Beautiful Day, and Santana). The festival was also made into a film, Stamping Ground (dir. George Sluizer). Alternative (music) culture became prominently present in the city in these days. From the 1960s until the 2000s, Rotterdam had a thriving squatters' movement, which not only accommodated thousands of people but also created social centres and cultural venues. From this movement came clubs like Boogjes, Eksit, Nighttown, Vlerk and Waterfront. A major reference was Poortgebouw, which was squatted in 1980 and quickly legalised.

Rotterdam also became the home of Gabber, a type of hardcore electronic music popular in the mid-1990s, with hard beats and samples. Groups like Neophyte and Rotterdam Terror Corps (RTC) started in Rotterdam, playing at clubs like Parkzicht. In the years 2005–2011, the city struggled with keeping venues for pop music; many of them suffered severe financial problems. This resulted in the disappearance of the major music venues Nighttown and WATT and smaller stages such as Waterfront, Exit, and Heidegger. The city today has a few stages for pop music, like Rotown, Poortgebouw and Annabel. Additionally, the venue WORM focuses on experimental music, as well as various other cultural activities.

WORM also screens films and hosts a film lab, Filmwerkplaats. In fact, Rotterdam has an extensive film history, ranging from avant-garde classics, such as The Bridge (Ivens, 1928), to internationally acclaimed documentaries from the post-war era, such as Steady! (Van der Horst, 1952), and all kinds of fiction films. Of major importance within this context has also been the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), an annual event that lasts more than ten days (end of January, beginning of February), which has been organized since 1972. Besides the IFFR, several smaller film festivals take place in Rotterdam too, such as the Architecture Film Festival Rotterdam (AFFR).

Throughout the year, many different festivals take place in Rotterdam. There are the summer festivals celebrating the city's multicultural population and identity, such as the Caribbean-inspired "Summer Carnival", the Dance Parade, Rotterdam 666, and the Metropolis pop festival. There are also Poetry International (in June), the North Sea Jazz Festival (in July), the Valery Gergiev Festival (in September), and, also in September, the festival 'September in Rotterdam', the festival 'World of the Witte de With Quaret', and the World Port Days.

History

In 1898, the 45 m (148 ft) high-rise office building the White House (in Dutch Witte Huis) was completed, at that time the tallest office building in Europe.

In the first decades of the 20th century, some influential architecture in the modern style was built in Rotterdam. Notable are the Van Nelle fabriek (1929) a monument of modern factory design by Brinkman and Van der Vlugt, the Jugendstil clubhouse of the Royal Maas Yacht Club designed by Hooijkaas jr. en Brinkman (1909), and Feyenoord's football stadium De Kuip (1936), also by Brinkman and Van der Vlugt. The architect J. J. P. Oud was a famous Rotterdammer in those days. The Van Nelle Factory obtained the status of UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2014.

During the early stages of World War II, the centre of Rotterdam was bombed by the German Luftwaffe, destroying many of the older buildings in the centre of the city. After an initial crisis of reconstruction, the centre of Rotterdam has become the site of the ambitious new architecture.

Rotterdam is also famous for its Lijnbaan 1952 by architects Broek en Bakema, Peperklip by architect Carel Weeber, and the Kubuswoningen or cube houses designed by architect Piet Blom in 1984.

The newest landmark in Rotterdam is the Markthal, designed by architect firm MVRDV. In addition to that, there are many internationally well-known architects based in Rotterdam, like O.M.A (Rem Koolhaas), Neutelings & Riedijk and Erick van Egeraat, to name a few. Two architectural landmarks are located in the Lloydkwartier: the STC college building and the Schiecentrale 4b. The construction of the Depot of the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen was started in 2003 and was officially opened by King Willem-Alexander on 5 November 2021. It is the world's first fully accessible art depot.

Rotterdam also houses several of the tallest structures in the Netherlands.

The Erasmusbrug (1996) is a 790-meter (2,600 ft) cable-stayed bridge linking the north and south of Rotterdam. It is held up by a 138 m (453 ft) tall pylon with a characteristic bend, earning the bridge its nickname 'De Zwaan' ('the Swan').

Rotterdam has the tallest residential building in the Netherlands: the De Zalmhaven Tower (215 m (705.4 ft)).

Rotterdam is also home to the tallest office building in the Netherlands, the 'Maastoren' (164.75 m or 540.5 ft), which houses Deloitte. This office tower surpassed the 'Delftse Poort' (160 m or 520 ft), which houses the Nationale-Nederlanden insurance company, part of ING Group, as the tallest office tower in 2009.

The skyline of Rotterdam also houses the 185 m (607 ft) tall Euromast, which is a major tourist attraction. It was built in 1960, initially reaching a height of 101 m (331 ft); in 1970, the Euromast was extended by 85 m (279 ft).

Rotterdam has a reputation for being a platform for architectural development and education through the Berlage Institute, a postgraduate laboratory of architecture, and the NAi (Netherlands Architecture Institute), which is open to the public and has a variety of exhibitions on architecture and urban planning issues.

Over 30 new highrise projects are being developed. A Guardian journalist wrote in 2013 that "All this is the consequence of the city suffering a bombardment of two things: bombs and architects."

Parks

Within Rotterdam's urban structure, parks and greenery play an important role. A number of well-known parks in Rotterdam are:

Het Park (Het Park bij de Euromast) is a 70-acre park on the Maas, south of the Westzeedijk, at the Euromast. The eastern half of the park was constructed between 1852 and 1863 to a design by the firm Jan David Zocher. The western part was added in 1866 with some modifications. The first Floriade in 1960 was held in Het Park, with the Euromast observation tower being erected to mark the event. National Heritage site since 2011. Originally, the park continued across the Westzeedijk, where the Medical Faculty was built in the 1960s (now Erasmus MC). See also: Museumpark.

Museumpark, close to Het Park, was originally designed in 1927 by architect W.G. Witteveen, who also designed Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. Today, several museums have clustered around the park.

Diergaarde Blijdorp, which is situated on the northwest side of Rotterdam, complete with a walkthrough sea aquarium called the Oceanium.

Arboretum Trompenburg in Kralingen. The park dates back to 1820, but it was only after it was opened to the public in 1958 that the park, which was managed by the (Van Hoey) Smith family for generations, gained wider attention. The park, approximately 20 acres in size, contains approximately 4,000 different types of trees, shrubs and perennials, including the national plant collections of conifers, Quercus, Fagus, Rhododendron, Ligustrum, Rodgersia and Hosta, among others.

Park Schoonoord (3 acres) is located in the Scheepvaartkwartier and was designed in its current form in 1860 by Jan David Zocher.

The Kralingse Bos (500 acres) with the Kralingse Plas (250 acres) is located in the Kralingen district and has been based on a design by Marinus Jan Granpré Molière since 1928. In 1953 the Kralingse Bos officially opened.

The Vroesenpark in the district Rotterdam-Noord was laid out from 1929 to a plan by city architect W.G. Witteveen.

The Zuiderpark (780 acres) is located in the district of Charlois. The park was laid out as a utility park from 1952 and not as an ornamental park.

Park Rozenburg is a 7.41 acres (3.00 ha) park in the neighbourhood of Kralingen. The park is a protected municipal monument (Dutch: Gemeentelijk monument).

Since 28 May 1994, Rotterdam has had the phenomenon Opzoomeren. 15% of Rotterdam residents (about 100,000 residents) say they participate in this phenomenon. At the end of 2020, the city has a record number of 2,503 Opzoomer streets, which is mainly reflected in the construction of facade gardens.

The municipality of Rotterdam is encouraging the construction of green roofs. There is an attractive subsidy for roof owners, and the city has now provided a number of municipal buildings with a green roof. As of 1 January 2020, the water storage capacity requirement has been increased to 30 liters of water storage capacity per square metre. This reduces the burden on the sewer system during heavy rainfall and reduces the risk of flooding on the street.

The city's largest green roof is located on top of the Groothandelsgebouw next to Central Station.

The Dakakker is the largest roof farm in Europe on top of the Schieblok.

The Dakpark is an elongated, narrow park in the district Bospolder-Tussendijken in Rotterdam-West. It has been built at a height of about nine meters, is about 85 meters wide and extends for about a kilometer from Hudson Square to near Marconi Square.

The municipality of Rotterdam will provide the flat roof of the conference and concert building De Doelen with greenery and water storage. The design for the roof was made by Kraijvanger Architects.

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