Johannes Lodewijk Nicolaas "Jan" Schaefer (16 March 1940 – 30 January 1994) was a Dutch politician and community organiser who served as State Secretary for Housing and Spatial Planning from 1973 to 1977 under

Joop den Uyl Johannes Marten den Uijl (9 August 1919 – 24 December 1987), better known as Joop den Uyl (), was a Dutch politician and economist who served as Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 1973 to 1977. He was a member of the Labour Party (PvdA ...

cabinet Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Filin ...

. He was a member of the

Communist Party of the Netherlands The Communist Party of the Netherlands (, , CPN) was a communist party in the Netherlands. The party was founded in 1909 as the Social Democratic Party (Netherlands), Social Democratic Party (SDP) and merged with the Pacifist Socialist Party, the ...

(CPN) until 1965, before he joined the Labour Party (PvdA) in 1969. Schaefer was first elected to the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...

in the 1971 general election, where held a seat with interruptions until 1990, dealing with matters around

urban renewal Urban renewal (sometimes called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address real or perceived urban decay. Urban renewal involves the clearing ...

urban planning Urban planning (also called city planning in some contexts) is the process of developing and designing land use and the built environment, including air, water, and the infrastructure passing into and out of urban areas, such as transportatio ...

spatial planning Spatial planning mediates between the respective claims on space of the state, market, and community. In so doing, three different mechanisms of involving stakeholders, integrating sectoral policies and promoting development projects mark the th ...

public housing Public housing, also known as social housing, refers to Subsidized housing, subsidized or affordable housing provided in buildings that are usually owned and managed by local government, central government, nonprofit organizations or a ...

and

community development The United Nations defines community development as "a process where community members come together to take collective action and generate solutions to common problems." It is a broad concept, applied to the practices of civic leaders, activist ...

. He also served as an

alderman An alderman is a member of a Municipal government, municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law with similar officials existing in the Netherlands (wethouder) and Belgium (schepen). The term may be titular, denotin ...

in the

municipal executive In the Netherlands, the municipal executive (, oftentimes abbreviated to ; ) is the executive board of a municipality. It plays a central role in municipal politics in the Netherlands, similar to the communal college in Belgium. It consists of t ...

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

from 1978 to 1986, in charge of housing. His utterances on these issues "In gelul kan je niet wonen" ("You can't live in bullshit") and "Is dit beleid of is hierover nagedacht?" ("Is this policy or has this been thought through?") became catchphrases.

Legacy

Bridge 2000 or Jan Schaeferbrug in Amsterdam's

Eastern Docklands The Eastern Docklands () is a neighborhood of Amsterdam, Netherlands, located between the IJ (Amsterdam), IJ and the Nieuwe Vaart in the Boroughs of Amsterdam, borough of Amsterdam-Oost. The harbor area was constructed in the late nineteenth centur ...

, built from 1999 to 2001, was named after him in 2000. Jan Schaeferpad, a street in

Amsterdam-Zuidoost Amsterdam-Zuidoost (; "Amsterdam-Southeast") is a borough (''stadsdeel'') of Amsterdam, Netherlands. It consists of four residential neighborhoods— Bijlmermeer, Venserpolder, Gaasperdam and Driemond—as well as the Amstel III/ Bullew ...

, also bears his name since 2000.

References

External links

;Official *
J.L.N. (Jan) Schaefer
Parlement & Politiek 1940 births 1994 deaths 20th-century Dutch politicians Aldermen of Amsterdam Bakers Communist Party of the Netherlands politicians Community activists Diabetes-related deaths Dutch cooperative organizers Dutch housing rights activists Dutch chefs Dutch trade unionists Housing reformers Labour Party (Netherlands) MPs Members of the House of Representatives (Netherlands) Municipal councillors of Amsterdam Pastry chefs Politicians from Amsterdam State secretaries for housing and spatial planning of the Netherlands Labour Party (Netherlands) cabinet members {{Netherlands-PvdA-politician-stub