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The Mussert's Wall () is all that remains of a rally ground with buildings and monuments planned by 
In the early 2000s, the municipality of Ede wanted to have the wall declared a monument but backtracked, after protests by war veterans and others (including the , an organization founded by the Dutch Jewish community), some of whom feared that the place would become a gathering point for the extreme right.
The Mussert's Wall () is all that remains of a rally ground with buildings and monuments planned by Anton Mussert
Anton Adriaan Mussert (; 11 May 1894 – 7 May 1946) was a Dutch politician who co-founded the National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands (NSB) in 1931 and served as its leader until the party was banned in 1945. As such, he was the most pro ...
and his National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands
The National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands (, ; NSB) was a Dutch fascist and later Nazi political organisation that eventually became a political party. As a parliamentary party participating in legislative elections, the NSB had some suc ...
(NSB) to house party meetings and hold national events to celebrate national-socialist thought in the Netherlands. The wall was built in 1938, on a plot of land the NSB had acquired near Lunteren
Lunteren is a town in Gelderland, the Netherlands. It has a railway station on the line between Amersfoort and Ede.
It is well known for three conference centres in the vicinity, including ''Het Bosgoed'', which mostly hosts academic conferences ...
in Gelderland, in the center of the country, and was inspired by the Nazi party rally grounds in Nuremberg
Nuremberg (, ; ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the Franconia#Towns and cities, largest city in Franconia, the List of cities in Bavaria by population, second-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Bav ...
.
Between 1936 and 1940, the NSB organized annual ''Hagespraken'' at the location, open-air propaganda meetings based on a supposed Germanic ideal and modeled after similar meetings in Germany. The place was visited by tens of thousands of NSB members, though the atmosphere was more that of a boy scout jamboree. One of the speakers at the (last) meeting on 22 June 1940 was Adriaan van Hees
Adriaan Nicolaas Johan van Hees (3 May 1910 – 2 December 1976) was a Dutch actor and member of the National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands (NSB). Van Hees was trained in Amsterdam and Germany, and spent a few years in theater and film. He ...
, who called for vengeance for the death of eight NSB members who had been executed during the German invasion of May 1940. After 1940, mass gatherings of a political kind were forbidden by the German occupying forces; after the war, the wall fell into disrepair. the wall, overgrown in places, is little more than a boundary for a local campground; the masonry is crumbling and the associated buildings are ruined.
In the early 2000s, the municipality of Ede wanted to have the wall declared a monument but backtracked, after protests by war veterans and others (including the , an organization founded by the Dutch Jewish community), some of whom feared that the place would become a gathering point for the extreme right.
References
Further reading
*External links
* {{Coord, 52, 5, 45, N, 5, 38, 43, E, type:landmark_scale:5000_region:NL, display=title Netherlands in World War II Ruins in the Netherlands Buildings and structures in Ede, Netherlands