Draft:H401

Stichting Herengracht 401 (H401) is a private cultural foundation located in the Herengracht building of the late artist Gisèle d’Ailly van Waterschoot van der Gracht (1912 - 2013) in Amsterdam. It has roots in World War II, during which Gisèle's flat at Herengracht 401 served as a hiding place for Jewish youth.

H401's programmes and projects have explored themes such as Vulnerability to Group Fanaticism, Freedom, Friendship, Collective Memory, the Female Perspective, Diversity (Perplex), Masculinity(ies) and Archival Power. H401 strives for a continuous deepening of issues relating to second-class citizenship, homogenic narratives of the past, contested heritage as well as legacy of colonialism and totalitarian regimes.

History

The war period – Castrum Peregrini as safe house

Despite their declared neutrality, the Netherlands was invaded on May 10, 1940 by Nazi Germany. Around that time, Gisèle rented one of the flats in the corner building at Herengracht 401. The Herengracht had always been dear to her as it was the canal where her grandparents had lived. Additionally, the Amsterdam art scene offered more opportunities for artistic assignments.

From 1942, the flat hosted German poet Wolfgang Frommel and two young Dutch boys of Jewish origins: Buri Wongtschowski and Claus Victor Bock, respectively 23 and 16 years old at that time. Frommel knew about them through his connection to the Quaker School in Ommen, Overijssel, where Buri was a teacher (painting and drawing) and Claus a pupil. Due to the racial laws and increasing restrictions, they were forced to go into hiding. After several intermediary stops, Buri came first to Herengracht 401, followed a few months later by Claus. Gisèle was aided by the neighbours above her, Guido Teunissen and Miep Benz, who offered to rent a bed to Claus. The other floors of the building were rented out to different tenants who did not, and could not, become aware of the presence of the two "illegals" living in Gisèle’s apartment.

Among the hiders and their keeper’s network, the flat in Herengracht 401 became known as ‘Castrum Peregrini’ (English: Castle of the Pilgrim), taking its name from the early 13th-century castle in Israel. The castle was founded and defended by the Order of the Templars during the Crusades. Notwithstanding the multiple attacks, the castle was never taken and it continued offering refuge to pilgrims. Similarly to the original Castrum, the Dutch one hosted diverse people in need among which Simon van Keulen.

Buri and Claus stayed at the flat for the duration of World War II. Throughout the war, Gisèle economically provided for the house, which proved to be difficult as she was not allowed to accept official assignments, publicly expose, or sell her work. As she decided not to sign up for the Nazi Chamber of Culture (Nederlandsche Kultuurkamer), her working possibilities were drastically reduced. Buri and Claus filled their days by sketching each other, translating poems, and writing original poems. The four inhabitants of Gisèle’s flat developed a strong relationship which they maintained following the war. Including a network of (often) artistic friends they found themselves surrounded by, among these people: e.g. Max Beckmann.

Among Frommel and the people in hiding, as well as with other selected friends, a new type of bond started developing under the banner of pedagogical eros. As Annet Mooij describes it: “this 'pedagogical eros' was a popular concept in German reform pedagogy of the early twentieth century. It referred to ancient Greek culture, in which boyish love or pederasty – the erotic relationship between an adult man and a growing boy – was a normal phenomenon and was considered an important element in the education of an (aristocratic) boy. […] Depending on the inclinations of the educator, the erotic element could be limited to a chaste passion or a longing at a distance, but could also take the form of an actual sexual encounter or relationship, legitimised by Greek principles.”Frommel became acquainted with it via the work of the German poet Stefan George whom he looked up to as a literary model. Such pedagogy manifested itself via reading sessions and intimate gatherings to which Gisèle was not welcomed.

Post World War II – Castrum Peregrini, as a German Publishing House

Liberation day came on May 5, 1945, and Gisèle, Frommel, Buri, and Claus parted different ways. In 1952, Frommel returned to Amsterdam, where he founded the German publishing house Castrum Peregrini, based at the Herengracht 401, with a circle of close friends. The publishing had a strong focus on the Geistesgeschichte, in other words, they devoted their research to very specific, often little known, branch of history and cultural manifestations.

Although Gisèle had financially supported the activities of the publishing house as well as its own career, it was only in 1957 that she had sufficient funds to buy the entire Herengracht 401 building. The building hosted the office of the publishing house, private rooms of some of its employees, a common dining room, Frommel’s apartment and the top floors as living quarters of Gisèle, which were shared with Arnold Jan d’Ailly. He was the former mayor of Amsterdam and the two of them married in 1959.

In the years following the marriage, Gisèle stayed from the spring to the late summer in Paros, Greece, where together with Arnold she had rehabilitated an isolated monastery in ruins into their residency. Arnold had passed away in 1967. In 1982, after a year based in London, Gisèle settled herself back in Amsterdam, although she kept travelling extensively during her whole further life. In 1988, she had an exhibition at the Galerie Utermann in Dortmund.

The following decades were marked by the deaths of the core group of the Castrum inhabitants. Frommel passed away in 1986 and Buri in 1999. In the meantime, Manuel Goldschmidt had taken over the publishing house until Michael Defuster became the new director in 1998.

Late 90’s – early 2000s, Castrum Peregrini: Intellectual Playground

Despite the losses, these years in Gisèle’s persona and work receive increasingly more recognition. Starting with the documentary “Het steentje van Gisèle” (1997, ‘Uur van de Wolf’ by van Cees van Ede and Maud Keus) gave her the chance to share with the wider public her life and career.

In 1998, she received the Righteous Among Nations, a recognition issued by the Yad Vashem – The World Holocaust Remembrance Centre (Israel) as a non-Jewish person that protected Jews during the Nazi persecution.

In January 2008, a major change took place within the foundation its publishing activities were discontinued and the organisation became a public cultural centre taking the name Castrum Peregrini - Intellectual Playground. The new programme focused on the intersection between artistic research with the core values: vrijheid, vriendschap en cultuur (freedom, friendship and culture). In the same year, the exhibition "Gisèle en haar onderduikers" (Gisèle and her people in hiding) at NIOD came to life, initiated by Dr. Erik Somers and Michael Defuster. A number of lectures took place in the exhibition at NIOD and the homonymous publication came out.

A new set of board members was appointed and from 2012 the new foundation was run by Frans Damman, Michael Defuster and Lars Ebert. Thematic year programmes were organised and a series of young talent exhibitions took place in the house like a few years of a row of ‘Selected’ by the new generation of artists just graduated from the Gerrit Rietveld Academy.

H401

Sources

In 2013, Joke Haverkorn van Rijsewijk came forward with a personal portrayal of Frommel and its environment in her book “Entfernte Erinnerungen an W”. In the framework of Haverkorn’s publication, H401 organised the symposium Friendship - A History of Trust in December 2013. The event was organised in collaboration with the Duitsland Instituut Amsterdam and the University of Amsterdam within the thematic year programme de Vriend (The Friend)[1].

The programme was the following: Ute Frevert, at the time director of the renowned Max Planck Institute for Education Research Berlin, will talk about her research for her recently published book "Eine Geschichte des Vertrauens" (Friendship - A History of Trust). Ute Oelmann, at that time director of the Stefan George Archiv Stuttgart, introduced Georges’ concept of friendship that inspired Wolfgang Frommel to maintain a circle of friends, later known as Castrum Peregrini. The first two conversations with Ute Frevert, Josef Früchtl (author) and Ute Oelmann were moderated by Joachim Umlauf, director of the Goethe Institut Bucharest. The symposium concluded with a discussion with Joke Haverkorn van Rijswijk about Wolfgang Frommel and his friendships, in connection with her publication, moderated by Nicole Colin, Professor at the University of Amsterdam.

It was in 2017 that the word abuse (misbruik) was used by one of the people close to Frommel's circle: Frank Ligtvoet. Following this allegation towards Frommel and some of the close friends of the Castrum Peregrini, independent research was conducted by the team of the foundation. They invited Frans Bauduin as chair to set up his research committee. The research was conducted on the history of Castrum Peregrini in the years spanning from 1942 to 1986. The investigation and the commission concluded that it can be assumed that Frommel was guilty of abusing young men and women.

Although a strong bond between the two was established during the war, Gisèle was by no means Frommels’s patron nor a confidant.  It is unclear the extent to which Gisèle was aware of the abuse taking place at Herengracht 401 as she was excluded from the circle’s activities and was often abroad. The commission and the foundation board acknowledged that Gisèle must have been aware of certain behaviours in the circle.

The investigation took place after both Gisèle and Frommel died, as well as after Castrum Peregrini had established itself as a cultural foundation rather than a publishing house. As the legacy of the publishing activities was not continued by the current board, the commission made several recommendations, including to change the name of the foundation. In 2019, the name was officially changed from Castrum Peregrini-Intellectual Playground to H401, short for Herengracht 401.

H401 projects

Contested Desires: Constructive Dialogues (2024 – 2026)

Contested Desires: Constructive Dialogues (CDCD) is a pioneering transnational project consisting of 19 global partners. It aims to unravel the influence of our shared colonial past on cultural identities today. CDCD stands out for its collaborative approach with communities and cultural places. During the three-year project, 17 artist residencies opportunities for artists will be organized to facilitate the production of new artworks around the legacy of European colonialism and its traces in today’s cultural scene. It is co-funded by the European Union.

Questioning Traumatic Heritage: Spaces of Memory in Europe, Argentina, Colombia (SPEME) (2019 – 2024)

Co-funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant.

SPEME took as its specific object of investigation a various array of spaces of memory, such as museums, former detention camps and sites of commemoration, to investigate how various traumatic pasts can be preserved and transmitted through space. The project relied on a continuous exchange between universities and the cultural sector, allowing this way the conversation on traumatic past and complex heritage sites to be discussed by academics, researchers, cultural mediators as well as diverse communities from Argentina, Colombia, Italy and The Netherlands.

The core element of the project was its secondment: a month-long exchange the partners did in the countries involved in the consortium. During the weeks the participants followed activities organised by the hosting partner (e.g. workshops or seminars), conducted field research and worked on several publications available here in the Heritage, Memory and Conflict Journal (University of Amsterdam).

Amplify: Make the Future of Europe Yours (2021 – 2022)

Co-funded by the European Parliament.

The project aimed at collecting ideas, issues and feedback about how the cultural sector can be more inclusively represented in Europe. Under the supervision of H401, Creative Court and Het Geluid Maastricht, bachelor students from the International Arts Programme at the Zuyd University of Applied Sciences (Maastricht) and Photography Degree at The Royal Academy of Art (KABK) in The Hague collaborated with underrepresented communities to bring forward their voices to the wider audience. The young artists collaboratively worked on a set of artistic recommendations that were submitted to the Platform of the Conference on the Future of Europe on 9 October. These recommendations concerned a diverse range of topics: climate crisis, environmentalism, GIG economy or protection of sex workers.

The project culminated on Europe Day, May 9th 2022, The final event Amplify in Action gathered all the project's Hubs from 12 countries to strategize and execute a live, guerilla-style social media campaign directed to policymakers, cultural leaders and EU institutions.

Heritage Contact Zone (2018-2020)

Co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.

The project drew on the complexity of European history: its accomplishment, and cultural flourishing accompanied by chapters of colonial and totalitarian violence as well as social injustice and marginalisation of “other” communities. In this scenario, cultural mediators and artists were pivotal in addressing contested heritage and narratives of the past to transform zones of tension into zones of contact.

Outcomes and highlights of the project are bundled in the Heritage Contact Zone Toolkit designed to help practitioners to use a heritage site as a space of dialogue and encounter towards more inclusive, multi-vocal and creative narratives that constitute our collective memory and cultural identification.

The European Academy of Participation (2016 – 2018)

Co-funded by Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership Project.

The European Academy of Participation (EAP) brought together 10 partners from all over Europe, including higher education institutions and arts and culture organisations. The project aimed to make a contribution to a more inclusive Europe, in which people live together in mutual respect of their differences. Within EAP, participatory practice in art and culture represented a central tool to involve communities in a positive process of constructing a shared cultural space.

Through essays, conversations and journal entries, the final publication of the European Academy of Participation – Benchmarks, reflections and challenging practice on the interface between academia and the creative sector offers an extensive overview of the project's ambitions and outcomes.

Silent Heroes (2013 – 2015)

Co-funded by the LifeLongLearning Programme of the European Commission.

The project brought together organisations in the field of Holocaust memory and adult learning about the World War II. These players shared an interest in the history of hiding and the role of oral history in a learning environment that fosters active participation of learners in Museum settings. The Silent Heroes aimed to build a platform for exchange on the subject of hiding in museum-, memory- and learning environments.

On October 13th, 2015, H401 held the Symposium – Silent heroes, Invisible Networks. Together with the active participation of the public, speakers Marjan Schwegman (former director NIOD), Nienke Venema (director Stichting Democratie en Media) and Avraham Burg (author, former speaker of the Knesset) discussed the role of helpers and rescuers during World War II.

TimeCase. Memory in Action – Participatory Practices and Low Residency in Art Education (2012 - 2014)

Co-funded by the LifeLongLearning Programme of the European Commission.

The network of organisations, groups and individuals involved in TimeCase were interested in participatory arts and 20th-century memory practices. The project saw participation as a tool to involve communities in a positive, inclusive process of memory construction: non-populist, moderate, pro-European and culturally inclusive.

By conducting a practice-based, comparative review of innovative educational/creative approaches relating to 20th-century history, TimeCase aimed to set new standards for open learning environments and participatory approaches in the cultural heritage sector and develop new participatory approaches through peer coaching. Time Case was the precursor of The European Academy of Participation.

Tandem Project (2011 - 2012)

The Tandem project aims at building new and long-term collaborative relations between selected organizations from European Union countries and cultural key players from neighbouring countries. The first edition of Tandem in 2011 involved Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova. H401 was paired with the Centre for Humanities within the University of Liviv (Ukraine).

The project was accompanied by the exhibition My Future Heritage which documents artistic intervention in cultural heritage or memory sites that are off the beaten track, neglected or simply not accessible. These sites share a strong potential for future public use that can incentivise the reception of our present through historical lenses, creating new spaces for awareness and dialogues.

Jewish Education Traditions in Europe (JETE) (2009 - 2011)

Co-funded by the LifeLongLearning Programme of the European Commission.

Rooted in the field of adult education JETE reflected on the themes of migration, inclusion, freedom and tolerance through the lenses of cross-disciplinary cultural tools. H401 conducted a series of lectures on Spinoza aimed at exploring the philosopher's thoughts on tolerance and their possible adaptation to our society.

Memberships

Throughout the years H401 has joined the following networks:

• Culture Action Europe (CAE)
• Community Arts Network (CAN)
• ICOM - ICMEMOHRI (International Committee of Memorial and Human Rights Museums)
• ICOM – DEMHIST (Demeures Historiques – Historical Houses)
• International Coalition of Sites of Conscience
• Kunsten '92
• Perform Europe
• WO2NET

External links

• Official website
• Full report issued by the Commission Baudin (in Dutch) as well as its summary and the ten recommendations