Wassenaar (; population: in ) is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the g ...

and

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than city, cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares ...

located in the

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outs ...

South Holland South Holland ( nl, Zuid-Holland ) is a province of the Netherlands with a population of over 3.7 million as of October 2021 and a population density of about , making it the country's most populous province and one of the world's most densely ...

, on the western

coast The coast, also known as the coastline or seashore, is defined as the area where land meets the ocean, or as a line that forms the boundary between the land and the coastline. The Earth has around of coastline. Coasts are important zones in n ...

of the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Neth ...

. An affluent suburb of

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital ...

, Wassenaar lies north of that city on the N44/A44 highway near the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian ...

coast. It is part of the Haaglanden region and the Rotterdam–The Hague metropolitan area. The municipality covers an area of , of which is covered by water. Wassenaar is home to some of the Netherlands' richest residential neighborhoods as well as the country's most expensive street, the ''Groot Haesebroekseweg''.

History

There are rumours that the 12th-century Romanesque church in Wassenaar lies on the spot where the

Northumbria la, Regnum Northanhymbrorum , conventional_long_name = Kingdom of Northumbria , common_name = Northumbria , status = State , status_text = Unified Anglian kingdom (before 876)North: Anglian kingdom (af ...

n missionary

Willibrord Willibrord (; 658 – 7 November AD 739) was an Anglo-Saxon missionary and saint, known as the "Apostle to the Frisians" in the modern Netherlands. He became the first bishop of Utrecht and died at Echternach, Luxembourg. Early life His father, ...

once landed in the Netherlands; the high dunes to the west were not formed until later. Wassenaar long remained an unremarkable little town, known only as the home of the House of Wassenaer. It only began to gain notoriety in the 19th century when

Louis Bonaparte Louis Napoléon Bonaparte (born Luigi Buonaparte; 2 September 1778 – 25 July 1846) was a younger brother of Napoleon I, Emperor of the French. He was a monarch in his own right from 1806 to 1810, ruling over the Kingdom of Holland (a French cl ...

ordered the construction of the ''Heerweg'' ("Army Road") between The Hague and

Leiden Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration w ...

, which forms the current Rijksstraatweg. In approximately 1840, Prince Frederik had the ''De Paauw'' (Peacock) palace built, where he lived for many years; it now serves as the

city hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...

of Wassenaar. The construction of the

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a prep ...

connected

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...

, through Wassenaar towards its final destination the coastal area of

Scheveningen Scheveningen is one of the eight districts of The Hague, Netherlands, as well as a subdistrict (''wijk'') of that city. Scheveningen is a modern seaside resort with a long, sandy beach, an esplanade, a pier, and a lighthouse. The beach is p ...

in 1907, the course of which now forms the ''Landscheidingsweg''. Wassenaar became attractive as a residence for wealthy people from

. Buildings such as the monumental Huize Ivicke were constructed. From September 1944 to March 1945 Wassenaar was one of launching sites used by the German ''Luftwaffe'', commanded by SS General

Hans Kammler Hans Kammler (26 August 1901 – 1945 ssumed was an SS-Obergruppenführer responsible for Nazi civil engineering projects and its top secret weapons programmes. He oversaw the construction of various Nazi concentration camps before being put ...

for the

V-2 rocket The V-2 (german: Vergeltungswaffe 2, lit=Retaliation Weapon 2), with the technical name ''Aggregat 4'' (A-4), was the world’s first long-range guided ballistic missile. The missile, powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, was develop ...

s directed mainly towards London. On one of the main routes to the ''Wassenaarseslag'', the main beach for ''Wassenaarders'', a World War II

bunker A bunker is a defensive military fortification designed to protect people and valued materials from falling bombs, artillery, or other attacks. Bunkers are almost always underground, in contrast to blockhouses which are mostly above ground. T ...

can be found. For safety reasons and the instability of the structure, it was sealed off to prevent entrance. The American World War II and

Korean War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Korean War , partof = the Cold War and the Korean conflict , image = Korean War Montage 2.png , image_size = 300px , caption = Clockwise from top:{ ...

general Haywood Hansell, who helped plan the Allied bombing offensive against both Germany and Japan, lived in Wassenaar in retirement from 1957 to 1966. In 1982 the

Wassenaar Agreement The Wassenaar Agreement was an agreement reached in 1982 between employers' organisations and labour unions in the Netherlands to restrain wage growth in return for the adoption of policies to combat unemployment and inflation, such as reductions ...

between employers' organisations and trade unions in the Netherlands was signed here. This groundbreaking agreement helped in restraining wage growth in return for the adoption of policies to combat unemployment and inflation. The

Wassenaar Arrangement The Wassenaar Arrangement on Export Controls for Conventional Arms and Dual-Use Goods and Technologies is a multilateral export control regime (MECR) with 42 participating states including many former Comecon (Warsaw Pact) countries established ...

, a

post Cold War era Post or POST commonly refers to: *Mail, the postal system, especially in Commonwealth of Nations countries **An Post, the Irish national postal service **Canada Post, Canadian postal service **Deutsche Post, German postal service ** Iraqi Post, Ir ...

arms control Arms control is a term for international restrictions upon the development, production, stockpiling, proliferation and usage of small arms, conventional weapons, and weapons of mass destruction. Arms control is typically exercised through the ...

convention, was signed here by forty member nations in May 1996.

Modern history

Since the days of Prince Frederik Wassenaar has often served as an

official residence An official residence is the residence of a head of state, head of government, governor, religious leader, leaders of international organizations, or other senior figure. It may be the same place where they conduct their work-related functions. ...

: King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, his wife,

Queen Máxima of the Netherlands Máxima (born Máxima Zorreguieta Cerruti; 17 May 1971) is Queen of the Netherlands as the wife of King Willem-Alexander. Argentine by birth, she worked in marketing when she met Willem-Alexander, eldest son and heir apparent of Queen Beatrix ...

, and their daughters lived in the villa ''Eikenhorst'' at the estate ''De Horsten'' in Wassenaar from 2003 until 2019; Princess Alexia was baptized at the Romanesque church in Wassenaar. The princesses attended the Bloemcampschool in Wassenaar, founded in 1931. In addition, the U.S. Embassy The Hague as well as several ambassadorial residences are located here, including those of

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

, and

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...

. In general, there is a large

expatriate An expatriate (often shortened to expat) is a person who resides outside their native country. In common usage, the term often refers to educated professionals, skilled workers, or artists taking positions outside their home country, either ...

community of

diplomat A diplomat (from grc, δίπλωμα; romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state or an intergovernmental institution such as the United Nations or the European Union to conduct diplomacy with one or more other states or internat ...

s and business people in Wassenaar, largely due to its proximity to both the international organizations and embassies in The Hague as well as to several international schools located in the Hague metro area, including the American School of The Hague (ASH) located within Wassenaar. From 1970 until its relocation to

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

in 2016, the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (NIAS) which provides research time, space and support for foreign and Dutch scholars, was located in Wassenaar and the Netherlands Institute of International Relations Clingendael, is situated in Huys Clingendael. As a community, Wassenaar benefits from several parks and a network of bicycle paths. Trees, mainly

beech Beech (''Fagus'') is a genus of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to temperate Europe, Asia, and North America. Recent classifications recognize 10 to 13 species in two distinct subgenera, ''Engleriana'' and ''Fagus''. The ''Engle ...

oak An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ...

, and

horse chestnut The genus ''Aesculus'' ( or ), with species called buckeye and horse chestnut, comprises 13–19 species of flowering plants in the family Sapindaceae. They are trees and shrubs native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere, with six species ...

, are widespread, giving the town a green characteristic. The town centre supports a number of high-end shops, delicatessens, and bakeries as well as a cafe, bar, and restaurant. There are

Football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, Kick (football), kicking a Football (ball), ball to score a Goal (sport), goal. Unqualified, Football (word), the word ''football'' normally means the form of football tha ...

Field Hockey Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shooting ...

Cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by s ...

, Rugby, and

Tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball c ...

clubs located in Wassenaar for locals to participate in or to enthusiastically cheer on. Some remnants of the

Atlantic wall The Atlantic Wall (german: link=no, Atlantikwall) was an extensive system of coastal defences and fortifications built by Nazi Germany between 1942 and 1944 along the coast of continental Europe and Scandinavia as a defence against an antic ...

are located on Wassenaar's beach, the ''Wassenaarseslag''; nearly a thousand metres of underground walled tunnels are present, connecting five bunkers. The network now serves as a

bat Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera.''cheir'', "hand" and πτερόν''pteron'', "wing". With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most bi ...

sanctuary and is not open to visits anymore. The theme park Duinrell and the race track Duindigt, the only remaining grass race track in the Netherlands, are here as well. Despite being a relatively small town, Wassenaar is well known in the Netherlands as a result of its conspicuous wealth. Areas of the town are amongst the most affluent in the Netherlands, and residents of the town have a reputation for being ''bekakt'' or posh. Wassenaar is home to some of the most expensive neighbourhoods in the nation. The ''Konijnen laan'' has an average house price of around 2.5 million Euros, making it the most expensive street in the Netherlands. The Dutch artists Ross and Iba released a song entitled 'Wassenaar,' which poked fun at the wealth of the town. Wassenaar has always enjoyed good relations with the neighbouring town of

Voorschoten Voorschoten () is a village and municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. It is a smaller town in the Randstad, enclosed by the cities of Leiden, Wassenaar and The Hague. The municipality covers an area of of wh ...

, with which it has shared a history from time immemorial. The House of Wassenaer, for example, historically resided in the Kasteel Duivenvoorde in Voorschoten. Recently, plans to merge into one municipality with Voorschoten have been introduced. Museum Voorlinden was opened by King Willem-Alexander in 2016.

Local government

The municipal council of Wassenaar consists of 21 seats, which are divided as follows (from the most recent election results in

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the Unit ...

): * VVD, 6 seats * Hart voor Wassenaar, 3 seats * Lokaal Wassenaar!, 3 seats * CDA, 3 seats * Democratische Liberalen Wassenaar (DLW), 2 seats * D66, 2 seats *

GroenLinks GroenLinks (, ) is a green political party in the Netherlands. It was formed on 1 March 1989 from the merger of four left-wing parties: the Communist Party of the Netherlands, the Pacifist Socialist Party, the Political Party of Radicals and ...

, 1 seat * PvdA, 1 seat

Notable people from Wassenaar

Public thinking and public service

Alidius Warmoldus Lambertus Tjarda van Starkenborgh Stachouwer (1935)

* Jonkheer Alidius Tjarda van Starkenborgh Stachouwer (1888 – 1978 in Wassenaar) nobleman and statesman, the last colonial Governor-General of the

Netherlands East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies ( nl, Nederlands(ch)-Indië; ), was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, whi ...

* Henk Hofstra (1904 - 1999 in Wassenaar) politician * Gerard Helders (1905–2013) politician died in Wassenaar aged 107 * (1909-1980) World War II MI9 agent, parachuted into Nazi occupied territory. * Johan Witteveen (1921 - 2019 in Wassenaar) retired politician *

Sidney van den Bergh Sidney Van den Bergh, OC, FRS (born 20 May 1929 in Wassenaar) is a retired Dutch-Canadian astronomer. He showed an interest in science from an early age, learning to read with books on astronomy. In addition to being interested in astronomy. ...

, (born 1929 in Wassenaar)

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source o ...

retired astronomer *

Pieter Kooijmans Pieter Hendrik "Peter" Kooijmans (; 6 July 1933 – 13 February 2013) was a Dutch politician, jurist, and diplomat. He was of the defunct Anti-Revolutionary Party (ARP), which later merged into the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) party. From 1 ...

, (1933-2013), Dutch jurist, politician and diplomat, sat at the

International Court of Justice The International Court of Justice (ICJ; french: Cour internationale de justice, links=no; ), sometimes known as the World Court, is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN). It settles disputes between states in accordanc ...

Teun A. van Dijk Teun Adrianus van Dijk (born May 7, 1943, in Naaldwijk, German-occcupied Netherlands) is a scholar in the fields of text linguistics, discourse analysis and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). With Walter Kintsch he contributed to the developme ...

, (born 1943) discourse analyst, lived in Wassenaar between 1945 and 1962 * Corinne Hofman (born Wassenar, 1959) professor of Caribbean Archaeology at

Leiden University Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; nl, Universiteit Leiden) is a public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. The university was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange, as a reward to the city of ...

* Leendert de Lange (born 1972) politician, alderman and deputy mayor in Wassenaar 2013/14 and mayor since 2019

Royal Family

Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands Willem-Alexander (; Willem-Alexander Claus George Ferdinand; born ) is King of the Netherlands, having acceded to the throne following his mother's abdication in 2013. Willem-Alexander was born in Utrecht as the oldest child of Princess Bea ...

(born 1967)

King of the Netherlands King of The Netherlands ( Dutch: ''Koning der Nederlanden'') is the title of the Dutch head of state. The king serves as the head of state of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which includes the constituent nations of the Netherlands, Curaçao, ...

(born 1971) spouse of King Willem-Alexander * Catharina-Amalia, Princess of Orange (born 2003)

heir apparent An heir apparent, often shortened to heir, is a person who is first in an order of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting by the birth of another person; a person who is first in the order of succession but can be displaced by the b ...

to the throne of the

Kingdom of the Netherlands , national_anthem = ) , image_map = Kingdom of the Netherlands (orthographic projection).svg , map_width = 250px , image_map2 = File:KonDerNed-10-10-10.png , map_caption2 = Map of the four constituent countries shown to scale , capital = ...

Princess Alexia of the Netherlands Princess Alexia of the Netherlands, Princess of Orange-Nassau (full name: Alexia Juliana Marcela Laurentien; born on 26 June 2005) is the second daughter of Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands and Queen Máxima of the Netherlands. Princess Alex ...

(born 2005) second daughter of King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima *

Princess Ariane of the Netherlands Princess Ariane of the Netherlands, Princess of Orange-Nassau (Ariane Wilhelmina Máxima Inés; born 10 April 2007) is the third and youngest daughter of King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima. Princess Ariane is a member of the Dutch Royal Ho ...

(born 2007) third daughter of King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima

The Arts

* Felix Tikotin (1893–1986) architect, art collector, art dealer; founded the Tikotin Museum of Japanese Art; lived in Wassenaar. * Henri Friedlaender (1904–1996) Israeli typographer and book designer, lived in the attic of his house in Wassenar in WWII * Boudewijn Büch (1948–2002) writer, poet and television presenter; grew up in Wassenar * Theo van Gogh (1957–2004) film director and producer; TV director and producer; screenwriter, actor, critic and author * Thom Hoffman (born 1957 in Wassenaar), actor and photographer * Lorena Kloosterboer (born 1962), artist and author, lived in Wassenaar from 1972-1979 and again from 1987-1993 * Anthony Ingruber (born 1990), Canadian actor, voice actor and impressionist, currently lives in Wassenaar

Science & Business

Sidney Van den Bergh Sidney Van den Bergh, OC, FRS (born 20 May 1929 in Wassenaar) is a retired Dutch-Canadian astronomer. He showed an interest in science from an early age, learning to read with books on astronomy. In addition to being interested in astronomy. ...

FRS (born 1929 in Wassenaar) a retired Canadian astronomer * Morris Tabaksblat (1937–2011) ex CEO of Unilever, lived and died here * Rattan Chadha (born 1949) joint founder of the fashion company Mexx * Hans M. Heybroek (1927–2022) botanist, breeder of

elm Elms are deciduous and semi-deciduous trees comprising the flowering plant genus ''Ulmus'' in the plant family Ulmaceae. They are distributed over most of the Northern Hemisphere, inhabiting the temperate and tropical-montane regions of ...

s resistant to

Dutch elm disease Dutch elm disease (DED) is caused by a member of the sac fungi (Ascomycota) affecting elm trees, and is spread by elm bark beetles. Although believed to be originally native to Asia, the disease was accidentally introduced into America, Europe, ...

Sport

* Nico van der Voet (born 1944 in Wassenaar), water polo player * Konrad Bartelski (born 1954), skier, lived in Wassenaar for a number of years * Junior Strous (born 1986) racing driver, racing team owner and entrepreneur from Wassenaar * Annebel van der Knijff (born 1996 in Wassenaar) ICF Dutch-Spanish canoe slalom paddler * Laurens van Hoepen (born 2005), racing driver * Mark Slats Athlete, lived in Wassenaar. The fastest solo row across the Atlantic in 30 days, 7 hours and 49 minutes in 2017. Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge
Retrieved 07 June 2022

Gallery

File:Hoflaan 10 - panoramio.jpg, Hoflaan, Wassenaar File:Langstraat Wassenaar.jpg, Langstraat Wassenaar File:GC Groenendael.JPG, GC Groenendael File:Deijlerweg 153.jpg, Huis Ter Weer, Deijlerweg, Wassenaar File:Wassenaar kunstwerk nar.jpg, Wassenaar kunstwerk nar File:Nederlands Hervormde Kerk Wassenaar - 2.jpg, Nederlands Hervormde Kerk Wassenaar File:Bibliotheek - Wassenaar (5453934059).jpg, Bibliotheek, Wassenaar File:In the light of the forest (27697973021).jpg, In the light of the forest File:Autumn Beach (29881666014).jpg, Autumn Beach, Wassenaar

References

External links

* {{Authority control Municipalities of South Holland Populated places in South Holland