Nijkerk
Encyclopedia
Nijkerk is a municipalityMunicipality
A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...
and a city in the middle of the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, in the province of Gelderland
Gelderland
Gelderland is the largest province of the Netherlands, located in the central eastern part of the country. The capital city is Arnhem. The two other major cities, Nijmegen and Apeldoorn have more inhabitants. Other major regional centers in Gelderland are Ede, Doetinchem, Zutphen, Tiel, Wijchen,...
.
Population centres
AchterhoekAchterhoek (Nijkerk)
Achterhoek is a hamlet in the Dutch province of Gelderland. It is a part of the municipality of Nijkerk, and lies about 6 km north of Amersfoort....
, Appel, De Veenhuis
De Veenhuis
De Veenhuis is a hamlet in the Dutch province of Gelderland. It is a part of the municipality of Nijkerk, and lies about 6 km north of Amersfoort....
, Doornsteeg
Doornsteeg
Doornsteeg is a hamlet in the Dutch province of Gelderland. It is a part of the municipality of Nijkerk, and lies about 8 km northeast of Amersfoort....
, Driedorp
Driedorp
Driedorp is a hamlet in the Dutch province of Gelderland. It is a part of the municipality of Nijkerk, and lies about 10 km east of Amersfoort....
, Hoevelaken
Hoevelaken
Hoevelaken is a town in the Dutch province of Gelderland. It is a part of the municipality of Nijkerk, and lies about 5 km east of Amersfoort.Hoevelaken was a separate municipality until 2000, when it was merged with Nijkerk....
, Holk
Holk
Holk is a hamlet in the Dutch province of Gelderland. It is a part of the municipality of Nijkerk, and lies about 7 km northeast of Amersfoort....
, Holkerveen
Holkerveen
Holkerveen is a village in the Dutch province of Gelderland. It is a part of the municipality of Nijkerk, and lies about 6 km northeast of Amersfoort....
, Kruishaar
Kruishaar
Kruishaar is a hamlet in the Dutch province of Gelderland. It is a part of the municipality of Nijkerk, and lies about 11 km east of Amersfoort....
, Nekkeveld
Nekkeveld
Nekkeveld is a hamlet in the Dutch province of Gelderland. It is a part of the municipality of Nijkerk, and lies about 8 km north of Amersfoort....
, Nijkerkerveen
Nijkerkerveen
Nijkerkerveen is a town in the Dutch province of Gelderland. It is a part of the municipality of Nijkerk, and lies about 6 km east of Amersfoort.In 2001, the town of Nijkerkerveen had 1528 inhabitants...
, Prinsenkamp
Prinsenkamp
Prinsenkamp is a hamlet in the Dutch province of Gelderland. It is a part of the municipality of Nijkerk, and lies about 16 km east of Amersfoort....
, Slichtenhorst
Slichtenhorst
Slichtenhorst is a hamlet in the Dutch province of Gelderland. It is a part of the municipality of Nijkerk, and lies about 8 km east of Amersfoort....
, 't Woud
't Woud
t Woud is a village in the Dutch province of Gelderland. It is a part of the municipality of Nijkerk, and lies about 12 km east of Amersfoort....
and Wullenhove.
Some people state that Groot Corlaer is a population centre on his own, but officially it's part of the city of Nijkerk
The city of Nijkerk
The name Nijkerk stems from Nieuwe Kerk (Dutch for New Church). This new church was built when the old chapel was destroyed by fire in 1221. Nijkerk was strategically located between the Duchy of Guelders (Dutch: Hertogdom Gelre) and the Bishopric of Utrecht. Because of this strategic location Nijkerk regularly was the scene of war, and in 1412 the village was completely destroyed. It was restored and Nijkerk received city rightsCity rights in the Netherlands
City rights are a medieval phenomenon in the history of the Low Countries. A liegelord, usually a count, duke or similar member of high nobility, granted a settlement he owned certain town privileges that settlements without city rights did not have....
in 1413. In 1421 the church that gave Nijkerk its name burnt down and was replaced; this happened several times, until a new church was built in the 18th century which still stands today. The organ in this church was built in 1756.
In the 18th century Nijkerk was a flourishing merchant city. Several inhabitants traveled to the New World
New World
The New World is one of the names used for the Western Hemisphere, specifically America and sometimes Oceania . The term originated in the late 15th century, when America had been recently discovered by European explorers, expanding the geographical horizon of the people of the European middle...
, such as Arent van Curler
Arent van Curler
Arent van Curler, later van Corlaer, was the cousin of Kiliaen van Rensselaer and undertook the management of Rensselaer's patroonship Rensselaerswyck in the Dutch colony of New Netherland in 1637....
and Kiliaen van Rensselaer and founded new cities.
Since World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
Nijkerk is growing fast. It lies on the border of the IJsselmeer
IJsselmeer
IJsselmeer is a shallow artificial lake of 1100 km² in the central Netherlands bordering the provinces of Flevoland, North Holland and Friesland, with an average depth of 5 to 6 m. The IJsselmeer is the largest lake in Western Europe....
which allows for transportation of goods via ships, and the intersection of two major motorways, the A1
A1 motorway (Netherlands)
The A1 motorway is a motorway in the Netherlands. The road connects the city of Amsterdam, near the interchange Watergraafsmeer, with the German border, near Oldenzaal and Bad Bentheim , and the German Autobahn BAB 30...
and A28
A28 motorway (Netherlands)
The A28 motorway is a motorway in the Netherlands. It is approximately 188 kilometers in length.The A28 traverses the Dutch provinces of Utrecht, Gelderland, Overijssel, Drenthe and Groningen...
. This allowed local industries to grow, and also caused a lot of people who work in the nearby Randstad
Randstad
Image:Randstad_with_scale.png|400px|thumb|right|Clickable schematic map of the Randstadcircle 528 380 26 Schipholrect 426 356 498 436 Haarlemmermeerrect 399 166 479 245 Velsencircle 250 716 32 Delftcircle 220 642 60 The Hague...
to move to the more quiet Nijkerk. Also the easy access to the Veluwe
Veluwe
The Veluwe is a forest-rich ridge of hills in the province of Gelderland in the Netherlands. The Veluwe features many different landscapes including woodland, heath, some small lakes and Europe's largest sand drifts....
is a contributing factor to this growth.
Politics
In 2000, the municipalities of Nijkerk and HoevelakenHoevelaken
Hoevelaken is a town in the Dutch province of Gelderland. It is a part of the municipality of Nijkerk, and lies about 5 km east of Amersfoort.Hoevelaken was a separate municipality until 2000, when it was merged with Nijkerk....
merged to form the new municiplity of Nijkerk. Since then the city council
City council
A city council or town council is the legislative body that governs a city, town, municipality or local government area.-Australia & NZ:Because of the differences in legislation between the States, the exact definition of a City Council varies...
has 25 seats. Currently (April 2010) the seats are divided as follows:
| Party | Number of seats |
|---|---|
| CDA Christian Democratic Appeal The Christian Democratic Appeal is a centre-right Dutch Christian democratic political party. It suffered severe losses in the 2010 elections and fell from the first to the fourth place... |
8 |
| Christen-Unie ChristianUnion The ChristianUnion , abbreviated to CU, is a Dutch Christian democratic political party. A centrist party, the CU's policies combine social conservatism and soft euroscepticism with more centre-left positions on economic, immigration, and environmental issues.Founded in 2000 as a merger of the... and SGP Reformed Political Party The Reformed Political Party is an orthodox Protestant Dutch political party. The term Reformed is not a reference to political reform, but is a synonym for Calvinist. The SGP is the oldest political party in the Netherlands in its current form, and for its entire existence has been in opposition... |
5 |
| VVD People's Party for Freedom and Democracy The People's Party for Freedom and Democracy is a conservative-liberal political party located in the Netherlands. The VVD supports private enterprise in the Netherlands and is often perceived as an economic liberal party in contrast to the social-liberal Democrats 66 alongside which it sits in... |
3 |
| Progressief 21 | 4 |
| Lokaal Belang | 4 |
| PPP | 1 |
Progressief 21 is a local party combining the local chapters of D66
Democrats 66
Democrats 66 is a progressive and social-liberal political party in the Netherlands. D66 was formed in 1966 by a group of politically unaligned, young intellectuals, led by journalist Hans van Mierlo. The party's main objective was to democratise the political system; it proposed to create an...
, GroenLinks
GreenLeft
GreenLeft is a green political party operating in the Netherlands.GreenLeft was formed on 1 March 1989 as a merger of four left-wing political parties: the Communist Party of the Netherlands, Pacifist Socialist Party, the Political Party of Radicals and the Evangelical People's Party...
and PvdA. The last two parties are local parties that have no national connection.
On August 24th, 2011, the municipality announced that Nijkerk had passed the mark of 40,000 inhabitants. This should mean that after the next election the city council would be extended by 2 seats, but because of government spending reductions this is not yet certain.
Climate
Famous people from Nijkerk
- Bernardus Johannes AlfrinkBernardus Johannes AlfrinkBernardus Johannes Alfrink was a Dutch Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Utrecht from 1955 to 1975, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1960.-Biography:...
(1900-1987), Cardinal - Arent Van Curler (1620-1667), founder of Schenectady, New YorkSchenectady, New YorkSchenectady is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 66,135...
- Christiaan EijkmanChristiaan EijkmanChristiaan Eijkman was a Dutch physician and professor of physiology whose demonstration that beriberi is caused by poor diet led to the discovery of vitamins...
(1858-1930), Nobel Prize winner - James KwastJames KwastJames Kwast was a Dutch-German pianist and renowned teacher of many other notable pianists. He was also a minor composer and editor.-Biography:Jacob James Kwast was born in Nijkerk, Netherlands, in 1852...
(1852-1927), pianist and teacher - Henri NouwenHenri NouwenHenri Jozef Machiel Nouwen , was a Dutch-born Catholic priest and writer who authored 40 books about spirituality.- Writing :...
(1932-1996), priest and writer - Kiliaen van Rensselaer (before 1596 - after 1642), merchant and Hudson Valley patroonPatroonIn the United States, a patroon was a landholder with manorial rights to large tracts of land in the 17th century Dutch colony of New Netherland in North America...
.