Daniël George van Beuningen (4 March 1877,

Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city and a List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, pro ...

, – 29 May 1955,

Arlesheim Arlesheim is a town and a municipality in the district of Arlesheim in the canton of Basel-Country in Switzerland. Its cathedral chapter seat, bishop's residence and cathedral (1681 / 1761) are listed as a heritage site of national significance ...

) was a Dutch businessman who became iconic in the city of

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 ...

. DG (as he was generally known) was born in

. He was the son of Hendrik Adriaan van Beuningen, and an English woman, Anna Lavenia Brain of

Kelmscott Kelmscott is a village and civil parish on the River Thames in West Oxfordshire, about east of Lechlade in neighbouring Gloucestershire. Since 2001 it has absorbed Little Faringdon, which had been a separate civil parish. The 2011 Census reco ...

. However, he made his reputation in Rotterdam where he focused on the economic transformation of the port of that city, which became one of the largest ports in the world in those days. He was a well known celebrity, not only in the city itself but also across the Netherlands and further afield. His father was co-founder of the Steenkolen Handels Vereniging, which became important during the

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

supplying both the English and German armies with

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dea ...

. Daniël was involved as a prominent member of the

Dutch Coal Trade Union The Dutch Coal Trade Union was a business cartel which operated in the Netherlands from 1893. Daniël George van Beuningen was one of the leading figures in the organisation. It represented the Rhenish-Westphalian Coal Syndicate in the Netherland ...

, an organisation which represented the

Rhenish-Westphalian Coal Syndicate The Rhenish-Westphalian Coal Syndicate ( ger.: Rheinisch-Westfälisches Kohlen-Syndikat -RWKS) was a cartel established in 1893 in Essen bringing together the major coal producers in the Ruhr. The syndicate was set up as coal producers moved towa ...

in the Netherlands. He started shipping German coal to Rotterdam to compete with coal imported from

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. This involved the choice of barges rather than railway wagons to ship coal and led to major advances in the mechanical handling of coal. Van Beuningen went on to lead a large number of companies in the

port of Rotterdam The Port of Rotterdam is the largest seaport in Europe, and the world's largest seaport outside of East Asia, located in and near the city of Rotterdam, in the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. From 1962 until 2004, it was the List o ...

, and after the war he owned most of these companies and became active in Rotterdam society. In 1937 he was one of the co-financial partners of the newly built

Stadion Feijenoord Stadion Feijenoord (), more commonly known by its nickname De Kuip (, the Tub), is a stadium in Rotterdam, Netherlands. It was completed in 1937. The name is derived from the Feijenoord district in Rotterdam, and from the club with the same na ...

, buying the ground where the stadium was built and was one of the founders for the Harbour Hospital in the city. During the

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

in 1941 he resigned. In 1954, several months before his death in

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

the Van Beuningen family was forced to withdraw completely out of the SHV Holdings, as there was no placeable family member to become director. RotterdamDGvanBeuningen

Van Beuningen was a collector of art from the 15th and 16th century out of the northern and southern parts of the Netherlands. During his life he gave several of his collections away to the

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen Municipal Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen () is an art museum in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. The name of the museum is derived from the two most important collectors of Frans Jacob Otto Boijmans and Daniël George van Beuningen. It is located at ...

. During his life he married three times. His first marriage was to Mies Schout Velthuys, but because of his hard work they hardly saw each other. She died in 1926 aged 43. A short second marriage to Odette Paule Fernande Ragoulleau ended in divorce. In 1938 he married for a third time to Bep Charlouis. His great nephew Baron Willem van Dedem (1929-2015) was also a noted art collector.

References

External links

Biography
at ''Biographical Dictionary Netherlands'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Beuningen, Daniel George van 1877 births 1955 deaths Businesspeople from Rotterdam Dutch art collectors Feyenoord