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Kuipers
Of the twenty main defence areas between Hammerfest in Norway and Biarritz in France no less than four Festunge were located on
Dutch soil, near the main naval bases (Den Helder, IJmuiden, Hook of Holland and Vlissingen), connected with smaller clusters of
military structures, varying from Stützpunktgruppe to Widerstandsnester.
After the war, all defence works in the Dutch coastal zone fell into the hands of the local authorities which were eager to erase these
symbols of nazism and to make a fresh start. A pretext was quickly found to blow up many Atlantikwall bunkers, such as safety for
the tourists on the beaches and for the inhabitants behind the dunes, but there was not always enough money. Only a minority kept a
military function, while some other were rebuild in order to serve as an (emergency) dwelling. It is estimated that over 10,000
pillboxes, mostly constructed of reinforced concrete, had been erected in the Netherlands as a part of this international defence line,
of which about 1840 are inventoried at present. Although already some general studies were published about the history and typology
of the former Atlantikwall, an over-all survey of the actual state is missing. And we need such an overview for evaluating the current
applications for protection, as well as for scientific reasons.
Therefore, the inventory project is initiated and it started to locate all remaining elements, which were in some cases covered by sand
or difficult to enter, and anyhow difficult to trace because the original archival material is either destroyed or abroad (some useful
documents are kept in Germany) and many changes have taken place in the coastal zones since 1945 (sand supplies, reinforments of
the dunes, modernisation of harbours, towns extensions, etcetera). So, the first ‘paper research’ was done by comparing maps of the
mid-fourties (located in the Dutch military archive and made after the war for estimating the costs of clearance) and more recent ones
(partly in the offices of the regional drinkingwater societies). The next stage was the fieldwork in the dunes, using maps, pokres and
compasses (there have been also succesful tests with GPS) and to fill in standardized forms, based on our MIP forms and a model
used in Denmark for a similar project. This huge task is done by volunteering local experts who are instructed by professional
preservationists.
The survey was carried out on a declining scale according to the original German hierarchy, beginning with the - no longer complete
- Verteidigungsbereiche (or Festungen, as they were called later on) and via the Stützpunktgruppe ending with the individual
ständige Werke. This stage is now almost finished and it has led to an enormous and detailed list of all sorts of so-called Regelbauten
and Sonderkonstruktionen.
The second stage is to make a (pre)selection for future protection, for which special criteria have been formulated, based on our MSP
method and specified with special attention to the military and geographical context as well as to other parts of the Atlantikwall
elsewhere (e.g. to evaluate the uniqueness of some building types, both within national and international context). Especially the high
degree of standardization raises fundamental questions how to estimate the remaining pillboxes, for instance: do we want to keep one
example of each regular type, or do we only concentrate on the most coherent ensembles?
In both stages we could benefit from occasional international contacts with preservationists and specialised amateurs, although a
wider exchange of knowledge and common approach of documentation would be even more helpful. After all, the remnants of the
Atlantikwall belong now to the collective heritage of Europe.
Fig. 9: Prototype of a German bunker of the so-called Atlantik-
wall, situated in the former Festung of Ijmuiden, watching both
the North sea coast and the access to the Amsterdam harbour,
the Noordzeekanaal, dating from 1943 (Photo: Marieke Kuipers,
1999)
Fig. 10: Prototype of a German barrack to accommodate the air
force troops at the air base of Deelen during World War II, built
in 1943 with thick concrete walls in a 'farm house style' to
camouflate the original military function; nowadays in use as
an asylum (after being used by the Dutch air force for decades
in the postwar period) (Photo: Marieke Kuipers, May 1999)
6. QUICK SCAN MILTARY AIRBASES
In contrast to the Atlantikwall bunkers, most remaining German structures at the military airbases were re-used after the war, after
they had been been transferred to the Royal Dutch Airforces by the allied troops. Because of this continuous military function, the
airbases were not easily accessible for preservationists. Just like the civic aircompanies, the airforces are more interested in future
developments and security of their properties rather than in their ‘historic’ buildings. Moreover, the pre-war airports of Amsterdam
(Schiphol) and Rotterdam (Waalhaven) had been destoyed during the war, giving the impression that there was not so much historic
aviation architecture left, apart from, perhaps, the terminals near The Hague (Ypenburg) and Eindhoven (Welschap). Both airfields
are now part of large housing schemes, while several military airbases will loose their function and some buildings already have been
converted into refugee centres under the hood of the Ministry of Justice.
Until recently, hardly any research had been made of the military aviation architecture and it was due to the applications by the Dutch
Federation of Aviation Archaeology (NFLA) that the NDC decided to carry out a ‘Quick Scan’ of all military airbases with regard to
