Strooigoed and Kruidnoten mix for scattering

In the folklore and legends of the Netherlands and Belgium, Zwarte Piet ( pronunciation (help·info)) (meaning Black Pete) is a companion of Saint Nicholas (Dutch: Sinterklaas) whose yearly feast in the Netherlands is usually celebrated on the evening of 5 December (Sinterklaas-avond, that is, St. Nicholas Eve) and 6 December in Belgium, when they distribute sweets and presents to all good children.

The characters of Zwarte Pieten appear only in the weeks before Saint Nicholas's feast, first when the saint is welcomed with a parade as he arrives in the country (generally by boat, having traveled from Madrid, Spain). The tasks of the Zwarte Pieten are mostly to amuse children, and to scatter pepernoten, Kruidnoten and "strooigoed" (special sinterklaas-candies) for those who come to meet the saint as he visits stores, schools, and other places.

The original Zwarte Piet is sometimes associated with Knecht Ruprecht, but in the Low Countries the tradition has not merged with Christmas.

History[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

• 1845: Jan Schenkman writes Saint Nicholas and his Servant; Piet is described in this book as a page, and is depicted as a dark man wearing clothes associated with a moor. Steamboat travel becomes part of the mythos from this point. In the 1850 version of Schenkman's book, they are depicted looking much as they do today. In later editions Piet was shown in the page costume, the book stayed (with some changes) in print until 1950 and can be seen as the foundation of the current celebration, even though it did use a lot of older ideas and customs.^[1]

• 1891: in the book Het Feest van Sinterklaas the servant is named Pieter, until 1920 there were several books giving him other names, and in live appearances the name and looks still varied considerably.
• In the early 20th century the Civilized Standard Celebration for children, with Zwarte Piet as the standard personal servant of the saint, spread throughout the country. In the 1930s urban adults become more involved too and the arrival of Saint Nicholas and his Zwarte Pieten are staged, which more or less explains the shift from the 6th to the 5th of December, as the adults would celebrate on the eve of the saint's day.
• During the 20th century, the number of Sinterklaas' servants multiplied. This paradigm shift opened possibilities to create (for TV and such) lots of different characters being a "Zwarte Piet" at the same time. For example, there's a "Hoofd Piet" (Head Piet) who carries the book of Sinterklaas, "Rijm Piet" (Rhyme Piet), et cetera. Especially during the televised yearly event, when Sinterklaas arrives by boat he is often assisted by dozens of Piets.

The Dutch now celebrate Sinterklaas (5 December) with an exchange of gifts. These presents are given anonymously, but are often accompanied by poems (Sinterklaasgedicht), signed by "Zwarte Piet" or "Sint", which are read aloud during Sinterklaas evening for the enjoyment of the ones assembled. The poems often are teasing in nature.

Origin and evolution[link]

The first origin of Sinterklaas and his helpers can probably found in the Wild Hunt of Wodan Riding the white horse Sleipnir he flew through the air as the leader of the Wild Hunt. He was always accompanied by two black ravens, Huginn and Muninn. ^[2] Those helpers would listen, just like Zwarte Piet, at the chimney - which was just a hole in the roof at that time - to tell Wodan about the good and bad behaviours of the mortals.^[3] During the Christianization, Pope Gregory I argued that conversions were easier if people were allowed to retain the outward forms of their traditions, while claiming that the traditions were in honour of the Christian God. Saint Nicolas tradition is one of them, converting Wodan to a Christian counterpart.^[4]

According to myths dating to the beginning of the 19th century, Saint Nicholas (Sinterklaas) operated by himself or in the companionship of a devil. Having triumphed over evil, it was said that on Saint Nicholas Eve, the devil was shackled and made his slave. A devil as a helper of the Saint can also still be found in Austrian Saint Nicholas tradition in the character of Krampus.

Some sources indicate that in Germanic Europe, Zwarte Piet originally was such a mastered devil forced to assist his captor, but the character emerged in the 19th century within the Netherlands as a companion of Saint Nicholas resembling a Moor.^[5] Saint Nicholas is said to come from Turkey. The relation of Zwarte Piet with Haji Firuz is incredibly close, Haji Firuz is a traditional herald of Nowruz, the Persian New Year celebration, exactly black in the face and comes with Amoo Nowruz a white bearded old man who brings gifts for the children counter part of Western Santa.

The introduction of this new Zwarte Piet was paired with a change in the attitude of the Sinterklaas character that was often shown as being quite rough against bad children himself and thought unbefitting of a Bishop by teachers and priests. Soon after the introduction of Zwarte Piet as Sinterklaas' helper, both characters adapted to a softer character.^[6]

Still, the lyrics of older traditional Sinterklaas songs warn that while Sinterklaas and his Zwarte Pieten will leave well-behaved children presents, they will punish those who have been very naughty. For example they will take bad children and carry these children off in a burlap sack to their homeland of Spain, where, according to legend, Sinterklaas and his Zwarte Pieten dwell out of season. These songs and stories also warned that a child who has been only slightly naughty will not get a present, but a "roe", which is a bundle of birch twigs, (as a warning they could have gotten a birching instead) or will simply receive a lump of coal instead of gifts.

Until the second half of the 20th century, Saint Nicholas' helper was not too bright, in line with the old colonial traditions. Once immigration started from the former colonised countries Zwarte Piet became a much more respected assistant of Saint Nicholas, who is often a bit inattentive, but playfull.^[7]

According to the more modern Saint Nicholas legend, a Zwarte Piet is a servant who accompanies Saint Nicholas on his holiday travels. In some versions, Saint Nicholas is said to have liberated a young slave named Peter, who decided to serve Nicholas. Zwarte Piet is today commonly depicted as a black person in the colorful pantaloons, feathered cap and ruffles of a Renaissance European page, a tradition that started based on a single illustration in a book published in 1850.

Zwarte Pieten are often portrayed as mischievous but rarely mean-spirited characters. The character is believed to have been derived from pagan traditions of evil spirits. Also told for decades is a story that the Zwarte Pieten are black because of chimney soot and/or in mockery of the darker Spanish occupiers of the Low Countries in centuries past.

Current affairs[link]

Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet.

During recent years the role of Zwarte Pieten has become part of a recurring debate in the Netherlands. Controversial practices include holiday revellers blackening their faces, wearing afro wigs, gold jewellery and bright red lipstick,^[8] and walking the streets throwing candy to passers-by.

Foreign tourists, particularly Americans and Britons, often experience culture shock upon encountering the character (to dress in blackface is considered offensive in the United States, the United Kingdom and other countries). Since the last decade of the 20th century there have been several attempts to introduce a new kind of Zwarte Piet to the Dutch population, where the Zwarte Pieten replaced their traditional black make-up with all sorts of colours.^[9] In 2006 the NPS (en: Dutch Programme Foundation) as an experiment replaced the black Pieten by rainbow-coloured Pieten, but in 2007 reverted to the traditional all-black Pieten.^[10]

The tradition continues to be popular in the Netherlands, though some activists have been moved to protest against it. Four people wearing t-shirts saying "Zwarte Piet is racist" were arrested in the second weekend of November 2011.^[11]

The largest Sinterklaas celebration in Western Canada, slated for 3 December 2011 in New Westminster, British Columbia, was cancelled for the first time since its inception in 1985 after clashes of opinion surrounding the traditional character Zwarte Piet or "Black Peter". Rather than leaving out Zwarte Piet, the organizers decided to cancel the festivities as a whole, because, as spokesperson Tako Slump of the organization said: ^[12]

"We got a lot of replies back from our customers in the Dutch community," he said. "It became pretty clear to us that we love Sinterklaas and we can't have it without Black Peter. Those two go together,"

In 2011, legislators in the former Dutch colony of Suriname have stated that the practice of the government celebrating with Zwarte Piet was considered a slap in the face of the “Black part of Suriname’s community”.^[13] Moves have started in the Republic to cease government's promotion of the character in future.

Notes[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Zwarte Piet

• David Sedaris, Six To Eight Black Men
• Caroline Nelissen, Dutch debate Sinterklaas' Zwarte Piet

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2007)

Piet Zwart (Zaandijk, 28 May 1885 – Wassenaar, 24 September 1977) was a Dutch photographer, typographer, and industrial designer.

Biography[link]

Early life[link]

Piet Zwart was a Dutch designer born on May 28, 1885 in Zaandijk, North Holland. He had trained as an architect, and began graphic design projects at age thirty-six. His training as architect included designing furniture and interiors. He worked in Jan Wils' architectural office from 1891-1972. His architectural design moved towards a more functional design after he worked with De Stijl in 1919. In the early 1920s Zwart received his first typographic commissions from Laga, a flooring manufacture. Soon enough, he rejected De Stijl's rules of design being a traditional symmetrical layout and strict horizontals and verticals. Zwart began to make rough layouts by ordering words, rules, and symbols from a typesetter. Zwart had no formal training in typography or printing so he was uninhibited by rules and methods of traditional professional practices. Zwart realised that the 20th century's need for typography became an important and influential cultural force so he felt obliged to change it.^[1]

Education[link]

Zwart began his education at the School of Applied Arts in Amsterdam 1902. He spent most of his career as an architect and photographer, as well as a designer. He was successful for several years. While in school, the English Arts and Crafts movement was very popular in the 1900s in the Netherlands.^[2]

Late Life[link]

In 1930, Piet Zwart was asked to do the design for "The Book of PTT."^[3] The book was to teach schoolchildren how to proficiently use the Dutch postal service. Zwart looked at this as a way to "tickle their curiosity and encourage self reliance." So, the book was full of bright colors and it was meant to be exciting. Also, he created two main characters for the book: 'The Post' and 'J Self'. They were paper dolls that he photographed and would later edit with chalk, ink, and color pencil. Additionally, he used many types of fonts of varying sizes and thicknesses. He was aided in the illustrations for the book by Dick Elffers. The book was finally published in 1938.^[4]

Zwart's ideas were very similar to the methods and goals of the Bauhaus School in Dessau. In 1929, he was asked to organise some lessons. He was fired from the Rotterdam Academy of Fine Arts in 1933 because he wanted to redesign the arts education.^[5]

His design career came to a halt when he was arrested by German soldiers in 1942. He was held hostage along with 1800 other artists. He was eventually released after the war, but the experience affected him drastically. He spent the rest of his life primarily working in industrial design.^[5]

Piet Zwart died at the age of 92 in 1977. The Piet Zwart Institute of the Willem de Kooning Academy Rotterdam - the same art school of which he was a professor in the 1920s - is named after him. Piet Zwart was ahead of his time and is an inspiration to present-day designers.^[6]

Design Style[link]

Piet Zwart, advertising card for the Laga Company, 1922

letterhead for Jan Wils, 1921

"Zwart was able to manipulate the oblique perspective in such a way that space was not only activated but made to seem irrational in order to heighten the viewer's experience of what would otherwise have been an ordinary rectangular room."^[7]

As a designer, and pioneer of modern typography, Zwart was well known because of his work for both the Nederlandse Kabelfabriek Delft (the Dutch Cable Factory in Delft) and the Dutch Postal Telegraph and Telephone. He did not adhere to traditional typography rules, but used the basic principles of constructivism and "De Stijl" in his commercial work. His work can be recognized by its primary colors, geometrical shapes, repeated word patterns and an early use of photomontage.^[8]

His commercial print work has influences from Constructivism, Dada and De Stijl, while still adding a playfulness to the mix. In the 1920s, he began to work for Nederlandsche Kabelfabriek (Cable manufacturers) in Delft. While working for the Nederlandsche, he experimented with upper and lower case, lines, circles and screens, and free letter composition. He produced 275 designs within a decade, and then after he moved on to interior, industrial and furniture design. Zwart classified him as a typotect— part typographer, part architect.^[9] Zwart's distinct style consisted of strong diagonals, primary colours, use of scale, varying typefaces, and careful asymmetry, rejecting the conventional symmetry around a fixed central axis. These elements were considered functional to him.^[5]

Career Life[link]

Piet Zwart is mostly known for his graphic design work. He started his career as an architect and draftsman and worked for Jan Wils and Berlage in 1919. Two years after working for Jans Wils, he worked with Dutch Architect Berlage for several years.^[2]

Flooring Company[link]

In 1920, he got an assignment from the flooring company Vickers House. He made several advertisements for this client. “Zagen, boren, vijlen” (saws, drills and files) Zwart solved a practical print problem by assembling letters, blanks, and symbols from print houses.^[10]

NFK Catalog[link]

In 1923 Berlage introduced him to one of his relatives. the manager of the Nerderlandsche Kabelfabriek (NKF) at Delft. He had experimented with typography in the early 1920s, but, while working at the NFK, he realised how unaware he was of the terms and methods of printing. He didn't know the difference between lower and uppercase letters. An 18-year old assistant at the NFK helped him learn the principles of printing. He created a total of 275 designs in 10 years for the NKF Company, almost all typographical works. He experimented with small and large letters, circles and rectangles, visual puns, repetition and alliteration. He resigned in 1933 to become an interior, industrial and furniture designer.^[5]

Photography[link]

Zwart began using photographic images in his compositions in 1926. He first worked with commercial photographers. Thus creating a balance between two-dimensional type and the three-dimensional image. The photographs that he integrated into his work have high contrast, negative images, and are overprinted with colored inks and cropped into geometric shapes. In 1928, he bought his own camera and taught himself the photographic techniques. Zwarts admiration for repetition, structure, lines and planes, and balance show throughout his photographs. Zwart experimented with photography while working for the NFK catalog. He photographed the close-ups of the electric cables.^[5]

Ring Neuer Werbegestalter[link]

Zwart was a member of the Ring neuer Werbegestalter which is an avant-garde group of advertisement designers.^[11]

Zwart's Industrial Design[link]

In the Netherlands immediately before World War II, activity in the design field grew tremendously calling for new solutions to functional problems. In 1938 Zwart's prefabricated kitchen consisting of independent units was brought out on the Dutch market, revolutionising kitchen interiors which also illustrated the creativity of mass-production of useful objects.^[12]

In 1930, Zwart was employed by the Bruynzeel Company. First he designed their annual calendars and other commercial items. He helped with other areas of the company, too. He was the first to design a kitchen for mass production.^[5] Zwart is best known for his design of the Bruynzeel modular kitchen in 1937, which is still available today. The design reflects graphic organization and it is considered mass-production. The design was highly-progressive for its time.^[13][14] Zwart's Bruynzeel Modular Kitchen was exhibited in Germany-Netherlands: Interactions 1920-1940 at the Haags Gemeentemuseum. This was an example of a 'rational kitchen.'^[15]

Piet Zwart Institute[link]

The Piet Zwart Institute is part of Willem de Kooning Academy Rotterdam University (1885–1977). In the 1920s, he taught at the Rotterdam Academy. The University offers bachelor and master programs in the arts.^[6]

Awards[link]

In 2000, Zwart was awarded the "Designer of the Century" award by the Association of Dutch Designers.^[13]

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Meggs, Philip B., Purvis, Alston W.History of Graphic Design. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley, 2006
• Industrial Design in the Netherlands, Pieter Brattinga, Design Quarterly , No. 59, Industrial Design in the Netherlands (1964), pp. 1–25
• YouTube Video describes Piet Simply [1]
• Sillevis, John, The Hague. Germany-Netherlands: Interactions 1920-1940, The Burlington Magazine , Vol. 124, No. 951 (Jun., 1982), pp. 385–386+388

Published by: The Burlington Magazine Publications, Ltd.

• The Omega Workshops by Judith Collins; The De Stijl Environment by Nancy Troy, Review by: Gillian Naylor, Design Issues , Vol. 2, No. 2 (Autumn, 1985), pp. 85–88, Published by: The MIT Press
• Piet Zwart (1885–1977). Form Engineer, Gemeente Museum, Den Haag.
• Yvonne Brentjes, Piet Zwart vormingenieur, Waanders Uitgevers Zwolle (2008)
• Piet Zwart, Piet Zwart, Focus Pub (1997)
• Fridolin Muller, Piet Zwart, Hastings House Publishers: New York, 1966
• Iconofgraphics [2]
• Design History [3]
• Piet Zwart Institute Willem de Kooning Academy Rotterdam University [4]
• Tudor, Sebastian, Visual Involved, November 24, 2010.[5]
• Design Is History [6]
• The Design Observer Group, June 24, 2009 [7]
• The book of PTT [8]
• Modernism 101 [9]

Paul de Leeuw
Born	Paul Henri de Leeuw (1962-03-26) March 26, 1962 (age 50) Rotterdam, Netherlands
Residence	Blaricum, Netherlands
Nationality	Dutch
Occupation	Actor, comedian, singer, television presenter
Employer	VARA
Spouse	Stephan Nugter
Children	Kas and Tobey (both adopted)
Website
www.pauldeleeuw.nl

Paul Henri de Leeuw (born March 26, 1962 in Rotterdam) is a Dutch television comedian, singer and actor.

De Leeuw gained national fame in the late eighties and early nineties with television shows for broadcasting company VARA. Though satire was only a part of these shows and much of its humour was essentially harmless, he came into publicity with satire about Dutch show business personalities who were often ridiculed. Besides, many obscure musical acts were featured in his shows, many of which managed to gain national fame after they had been in De Leeuw's show (e.g. Twarres and René Klijn, a former boyband member who contracted AIDS).^{[citation needed]} VARA has since continued his shows apart from a few interruptions, often with considerable success.

In the early nineties, Paul de Leeuw also had some shows celebrating the new year. In the 1993-1994 show he satirized the new commercial television station RTL 5 by announcing another new station, "RTL 6" (RTL six, beter dan niks (lit. better than nothing)). This led to a lawsuit by the RTL company, who demanded that De Leeuw withdraw his joke.

He and his husband, Stephan Nugter, have adopted two children: son Kas (adopted in October 2001) and son Tobey (adopted in December 2002).

Paul de Leeuw has had many hit singles in The Netherlands.^{[citation needed]} He is most famous for: Vlieg met me mee (#2), Ik wil niet dat je liegt / Waarheen, waarvoor (#1), and 'k Heb je lief (#3). Since the beginning of his television and singing career he released albums and singles, always becoming a big success.

On Koninginnedag 2007 he was made a Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion.

25th Anniversary[link]

Paul de Leeuw until mid-2009 hosted the weekly chat and comedy show Mooi! Weer De Leeuw. On November 29, 2008 he celebrated his 25th television anniversary by staging a 12-hour marathon. Not forgetting the reason Mooi! Weer De Leeuw happened, he invited his one-time collaborator Jack Spijkerman (whose Kopspijkers-show previously filled the Mooi! Weer De Leeuw time slot, before a row prompted VARA to cancel it with immediate effect) to reprise one item from Kopspijkers; other guests included comedians Herman van Veen and Brigitte Kaandorp, and singer/musical actor Danny de Munk.

Eurovision Song Contest 2006 incident[link]

De Leeuw is, despite being famous for a long time in the Netherlands, best-known internationally for presenting the results of the Dutch televote in the Eurovision Song Contest 2006. De Leeuw was supposed to present the televote by simply thanking the presenters, performers and fans, before giving the result, but instead the openly gay De Leeuw gave his mobile number to the male presenter Sakis Rouvas live on-air, and made other comments which somewhat lengthened the Dutch results.^[1]

De Leeuw also remarked that Rouvas and his female co-presenter Maria Menounos reminded him of Will & Grace. As the results were live and required for the contest to continue, De Leeuw could not be cut off until he finished giving the voting results.

De Leeuw's actions resulted in negative comments from the commentators, with the BBC's Terry Wogan calling the act "pathetic" and asking "Who selected this eejit?" during the United Kingdom coverage of the contest. Other commentators, like the Portuguese Eládio Clímaco, didn't translate properly the gay remarks and said "he was saying that they really look like Greeks". De Leeuw presented the votes again for the Netherlands at the 2007 contest, and that time did not cause quite as much of a stir as he did the year before.

Animal rights dispute and controversy[link]

During a 2008 episode of Mooi! Weer De Leeuw, a vegan streaker wanting to draw attention to animal suffering managed to enter the sound stage. His body was covered in slogans such as "Stop animal suffering" and "Meat is murder". De Leeuw stopped security from escorting him from the stage in order to talk with him. De Leeuw proceeded to pull the man onto his lap and started poking at his underwear, insisting on "seeing his meat". As the man stood up, De Leeuw pulled down and eventually ripped off his underwear, saying, "then you must properly streak; off with those briefs."

The streaker later filed a police report, although the molestation charges have since been dropped. Some parents were shocked by the incident as the show was targeted at families as well.^[2][3]

Israëlean broadcast commotion[link]

De Leeuw identifies as a strong Eurovision Song Contest follower with his own perspectives and beliefs. He presented the Dutch Eurovision occasionally as a host and commentator in 1993, 1994, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2006 en 2007. In 1998 and 1999 together with Linda de Mol. In 1995 a lot of commotion came out of this because he had started a tirade and outburst against the Israëlean broadcasting 'Amen'. ^[4]

Works[link]

In 2005, De Leeuw wrote the introduction to the Dutch edition of The Eurovision Song Contest - The Official History by John Kennedy O'Connor.

Discography[link]

• Voor u majesteit (1991)
• Van u wil ik zingen (1992)
• Plugged (1993)
• ParaCDmol (1994)
• Filmpje (1995)
• In heel Europa was er niemand zoals zij (1995)
• Encore (1996)
• Lief (1997)
• Stille liedjes (1999)
• Kerstkransje (2001)
• Zingen terwijl u wacht (2001)
• Metropaul (2004)
• Duizel mij (2005)
• Mooi! Weer Een Cd (2006)
• Het wordt winter (2008)
• Honderd uit één (2009)
• Paul (2012)

Filmography[link]

List of films in which Paul de Leeuw performed as an actor:^[5]

• Jan Rap en z'n maat (1989)
• Filmpje! (1995)
• Heerlijk duurt het langst (1998)
• De Pijnbank (1998)
• Max Lupa (1999)
• Yes Nurse! No Nurse! (2002)
• K3 en het magische medaillon (2004)
• Alles is liefde (2007)
• Spion van Oranje (2009)
• Alle tijd (2011)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Paul de Leeuw
• Paul de Leeuw at the Internet Movie Database

Robert ten Brink (Amsterdam, 20 October 1955) is a Dutch presenter and actor.

He won the Golden TeleVizier-Ring in 1993 for All you need is love reality-TV.

In 1997, he was chosen as Holland's most popular personality. He has been married since 1981 to Roos Cialona, with whom he has five children.

Career[link]

In 1979 he began as a Radio-DJ.

In 1981 he began his TV-career with the TV-Quiz Cijfers en Letters (Numbers and Letters). He also began hosting TV-Shows like Superfan and Wereldwijs, but he especially became famous with Jeugdjournaal from the NOS. In 1989 he began hosting the original version of Lingo.

In 1992 he went to Veronica, where he hosted the very successful All You Need is Love, which usually had more than 4 million viewers, which at the time was almost a third of the entire population.

In 1998 he went to SBS 6, where he continued to host All You Need is Love. In 1999 he began hosting the very popular TV-Quiz Lotto Weekend Miljonairs. He was also the host of Big Diet, where heavy people try to lose weight.

When to Lotto, the main sponsor of Weekend Miljonairs, decided to get the program to RTL 4, he almost lost his program. Because SBS 6 had also stopped with All You Need is Love and didn't have another program for him to host, he signed a 3-year contract with RTL, where he continued to host Lotto Weekend Miljonairs.

In 2008 the Lotto stopped sponsoring Weekend Miljonairs which resulted in the show stopping. Because of this, Ten Brink will start hosting the Dutch version of The Moment of Truth in the fall of 2008. He also began hosting the entertainment program "Laat Ze Maar Lachen" on RTL4, in April 2009. In November 2009, he also began hosting the game show "Succes Verzekerd", which was originally hosted by Carlo Boszhard.

According to the magazine Quote, he is the 2nd highest paid Dutch TV-Host. According to the magazine, he makes about €850.000 a year.

List of programmes[link]

He is/was the presenter of these programmes:

KRO (1979–1982)

• De Noenshow, radioprogramme
• Cijfers en Letters

NOS (1983–1989)

• Jeugdjournaal

VARA (1986–1992)

• De Steen en Been Show, radioprogramme
• Superfan
• Wereldwijs
• Lingo (Dutch version)

Veronica (1992–1998)

• All You Need is Love
• Sportfreaks
• De Travestie Show
• Make My Day

SBS6 (1998–2006)

• All You Need is Love
• Lotto Weekend Miljonairs
• Achmea Kennisquiz
• Loveboat Amorina
• Big Diet
• Super Robert
• Sterrenbeurs
• Hoe gaat het met?

RTL (2006 - ...)

• Lotto Weekend Miljonairs
• Klasgenoten
• De nationale Carrierecheck
• Koffietijd!
• All You Need is Love
• NL Vertrekt
• Het moment van de waarheid
• Laat Ze Maar Lachen
• Het Zesde Zintuig
• Succes Verzekerd
• Holland's Got Talent
• De Bachelor

External links[link]

• Robert ten Brink at Beeld en Geluid (Dutch)
•  Robert ten Brink at the Internet Movie Database

This article about a television actor or actress is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Bernhard Egidius Konrad ten Brink (January 12, 1841 in Amsterdam – January 29, 1892 in Strasbourg) was a German philologist.

Born in the Netherlands, he attended school at Düsseldorf and Essen, studied for half a year at the University of Münster, and then moved to the University of Bonn, where his teachers included Friedrich Diez and Nikolaus Delius. After finishing his doctoral dissertation, "Coniectanea in historiam rei metricae Francogallicae," he began to lecture at the University of Münster on the philology of the English and Romance languages, and defended his post-doctoral thesis (Habilitation) on the Roman de Rou. In 1870 he became professor of modern languages at the University of Marburg, and after the reconstitution of Strassburg University as Imperial University (Reichsuniversität) was appointed the very first Professor of English on the European continent. In 1874 he began to edit, in collaboration with Wilhelm Scherer, E. Martin and Erich Schmidt, Quellen und Forschungen zur Sprache und Kulturgeschichte der germanischen Völker, a book series meant to assist the German government in the Germanizing of Strasbourg and Alsace-Lorraine. While he continued to lecture on French and English literature, he smartly focused his research on the father of English poetry, Geoffrey Chaucer. In 1877 he published Chaucer: Studien zur Geschichte seiner Entwickelung und zur Chronologie seiner Schriften, a study which analyzed Chaucer's literary models and verse forms to determine the later widely accepted division of the poet's works into three periods: a first period during which he was mostly influenced by French models as well as by Ovid; a second period during which his main inspiration came from Italian models (Dante, Boccaccio, Petrarch); and a third period of mature literary production. In 1884, he published Chaucers Sprache und Verskunst, the first full-fledged investigation of Chaucer's grammar and metrics and an achievement that guaranteed him a place of honor as recently as 1987, in the General Bibliography of the Riverside Chaucer, the most widely used edition of Chaucer in the world. He also published critical editions of the General Prologue of the Canterbury Tales and the Compleynte unto Pity. Ten Brink's work stimulated a revival of Chaucer study in the United Kingdom as well as in Germany, and to him was indirectly due the foundation of the English Chaucer Society. In addition, he made important contributions to the study of Shakespeare and Beowulf and authored one of the first scholarly histories of English literature. His international scholarly reputation as well as his efforts at Germanizing the University of Strasbourg contributed to his appointment as Rektor (President) of his institution in 1890.

Together with Julius Zupitza, Eugen Kölbing, and Ewald Flügel, ten Brink helped found modern English Studies.

References[link]

• "Bernhard ten Brink," Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, vol. 37, pp. 785–88.
• Haas, Renate, and Albert Hamm, The University of Strasbourg and the Foundation of Continental English Studies: A Contribution to a European History of English Studies. Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2009.
• Kluge, Friedrich, "Bernhard ten Brink," Shakespeare Jahrbuch 27 (1892), 306-310.
• Schröer, Arnold, "Aus der Frühzeit der englischen Philologie. I. Persönliche Erinnerungen und Eindrücke," Germanisch Romanische Monatsschrift 15 (1925), 32-51.
• Utz, Richard, Chaucer and the Discourse of German Philology. A History of Reception and an Annotated Bibliography of Studies, 1793-1948. Turnhout: Brepols, 2002; esp. pp. 73–126 "The Founding Fathers: Julius Zupitza and Bernhard ten Brink."
• Utz, Richard, "Bernhard ten Brink and English Studies in Lotharingia," in Cahier Calin: Makers of the Middle Ages. Essays in Honour of William Calin, ed. Richard Utz and Elizabeth Emery. Kalamazoo, MI: Studies in Medievalism, 2011. Pp. 45-47.
• Wülker, Richard, "Bernhard ten Brink," Anglia Beiblatt 1 (1891), n.p.