Henriette Goverdine Anna "Jet" Roland Holst-van der Schalk (24 December 1869 – 21 November 1952) was a Dutch

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or w ...

and

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, ...

. She was nominated for the

Nobel Prize in Literature ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , caption = , awarded_for = Outstanding contributions in literature , presenter = Swedish Academy , holder = Annie Ernaux (2022) , location = Stockholm, Sweden , year = 1901 , ...

. The poet Adriaan Roland Holst (1888–1976), nicknamed "the Dutch Prince of Poets", was the nephew of her husband.

Early life

Born in

Noordwijk Noordwijk () is a town and municipality in the west of the Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. The municipality covers an area of of which is water and had a population of in . On 1 January 2019, the former municipality of Noordwij ...

on 24 December 1869, Roland Holst was brought up in the affluent,

liberal Christian Liberal Christianity, also known as Liberal Theology and historically as Christian Modernism (see Catholic modernism and Fundamentalist–Modernist controversy), is a movement that interprets Christian teaching by taking into consideration ...

family of the notary Theodore Willem van der Schalk and Anna Ida van der Schalk-van der Hoeven. Roland Holst attended four years of boarding school in Velp and studied French in Liege. Roland Holst soon came to develop a talent as a poet. She married the artist Richard Roland Holst in 1896 and befriended the poet

Herman Gorter Herman Gorter (26 November 1864, Wormerveer – 15 September 1927, Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, Brussels) was a Dutch poet and socialist. He was a leading member of the Tachtigers, a highly influential group of Dutch writers who worked together in ...

, who prompted her to read ''

Das Kapital ''Das Kapital'', also known as ''Capital: A Critique of Political Economy'' or sometimes simply ''Capital'' (german: Das Kapital. Kritik der politischen Ökonomie, link=no, ; 1867–1883), is a foundational theoretical text in materialist phi ...

'' by

Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...

. Around this time she became politically active and began her career as a writer on political, historical and

philosophical Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

fields.

Poetry

Around 1890, Henriette met

Albert Verwey Albert Verwey (May 15, 1865 – March 8, 1937) was a Dutch poet belonging to the " Movement of Eighty". As a translator, staffer, and literary historian he played an important role in the literary life of The Netherlands in the late 19th and ...

, who with Willem Kloos was among the leaders of the Tachtigers and the founders of

De Nieuwe Gids ''De Nieuwe Gids'' (meaning ''The New Guide'' in English) was a Dutch illustrated literary periodical which was published from 1885 to 1943. It played an important role in promoting the literary movement of the 1880s. Its contents covered a wide ...

. In 1892 she met the painter

Jan Toorop Johannes Theodorus 'Jan' TooropJan Toorop
At the age of 27 Roland Holst joined the

SDAP SDAP may refer to: * Social Democratic Workers' Party (Netherlands), a Dutch political party founded in 1894 that later merged into the Labour Party (Netherlands) * Social Democratic Workers' Party of Germany, a German political party founded in 18 ...

. She was then working night after night in smoky halls calling for workers' struggle to improve their miserable fate. She became part of the party leadership and, in 1900, was delegated to the

Second International The Second International (1889–1916) was an organisation of Labour movement, socialist and labour parties, formed on 14 July 1889 at two simultaneous Paris meetings in which delegations from twenty countries participated. The Second Internatio ...

. At the conferences of the International, she came into contact with prominent Marxists such as

Karl Liebknecht Karl Paul August Friedrich Liebknecht (; 13 August 1871 – 15 January 1919) was a German socialist and anti-militarist. A member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) beginning in 1900, he was one of its deputies in the Reichstag fro ...

Rosa Luxemburg Rosa Luxemburg (; ; pl, Róża Luksemburg or ; 5 March 1871 – 15 January 1919) was a Polish and naturalised-German revolutionary socialism, revolutionary socialist, Marxism, Marxist philosopher and anti-war movement, anti-war activist. Succ ...

, and

Leon Trotsky Lev Davidovich Bronstein. ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky; uk, link= no, Лев Давидович Троцький; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trotskij'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky''. (), was a Russian ...

. In 1911, Roland Holst had joined as an orthodox Marxist in the SDAP. Unlike most other orthodox Marxists, she did not immediately move over to the Social-Democratic Party (SDP, later known as the

Communist Party of the Netherlands The Communist Party of the Netherlands ( nl, Communistische Partij Nederland, , CPN) was a Dutch communist party. The party was founded in 1909 as the Social-Democratic Party (SDP) and merged with the Pacifist Socialist Party, the Political Part ...

PN. Against the advice of Rosa Luxemburg in some years she remained non-partisan. She founded in 1915, along with a number of SDAP and SDP members, the Revolutionair Socialistische Vereeniging. While in the CPN, she sided with

Anton Pannekoek Antonie “Anton” Pannekoek (; 2 January 1873 – 28 April 1960) was a Dutch astronomer, philosopher, Marxist theorist, and socialist revolutionary. He was one of the main theorists of council communism (Dutch: ''radencommunisme''). Biograp ...

, and the left communist fraction of the party. "Rode Jet" (meaning "Red Jet", a nickname of Roland Holst) also played a role during the revolutionary turmoil of November 1918. On 13 November she went with David Wijnkoop at the head of a procession on the Orange-Nassau barracks in Amsterdam, to celebrate the brotherhood with the hussars. Intervention by the security forces resulted in two dead, the only victims of the "revolution that did not happen".

1928–1952: Christian socialist

Henriette had deep slumps. She suffered from depression, bouts of

anorexia Anorexia nervosa, often referred to simply as anorexia, is an eating disorder characterized by low weight, food restriction, body image disturbance, fear of gaining weight, and an overpowering desire to be thin. ''Anorexia'' is a term of Gre ...

anemia Anemia or anaemia (British English) is a blood disorder in which the blood has a reduced ability to carry oxygen due to a lower than normal number of red blood cells, or a reduction in the amount of hemoglobin. When anemia comes on slowly, t ...

and heart disease but when she was well she struggled with an unrelenting zeal to improve the position of workers, youth, and women. Her first poems were passionately for

socialism Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes th ...

. She wrote among other things, the Dutch text for the anthem "

The Internationale "The Internationale" (french: "L'Internationale", italic=no, ) is an international anthem used by various communist and socialist groups; currently, it serves as the official anthem of the Communist Party of China. It has been a standard of t ...

". Later, her work took a more religious character. Among her writings were plays, biographies (of Rousseau, Gandhi and Tolstoy), journalism, and radio plays. During the

Second World War 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 opposi ...

she was active in the Dutch resistance, as editor of the resistance magazine ''De Vonk'', then ''De Vlam''. Though of a well to do background, she was certainly not a "salon socialist". At the end of her life she wrote the autobiography ''Het vuur brandde voort''. She died in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

on 21 November 1952 at the age of 82. A bust was placed in her memory in her birthplace of Noordwijk in 1969.

Works

Poetry collections

* het ''Jeugdwerk (1884–1892)'' (was published in 1969 by Garmt Stuiveling). * ''Sonnetten en Verzen in Terzinen geschreven''; original edition (graphical treatment by Richard Roland Holst) and Scheltema Holkema's Bookshop, Amsterdam, 1896. Reprinted in simpler form of being. WL and J. Brusse, Rotterdam in 1913 and 1922 and out. BZZTôH, The Hague 1983.

Political work

* '' Kapitaal en Arbeid in Nederland'', Amsterdam 1902. * ''De groote spoorwegstaking, de vakbeweging en de SDAP'', Den Haag 1903. : the Dutch railroad strikes of 1903, and the role of unions and of the SDAP therein. * ''Algemeene werkstaking en sociaaldemocratie'', Rotterdam 1906. : this work appeared in German in 1905, with a preface by

Karl Kautsky Karl Johann Kautsky (; ; 16 October 1854 – 17 October 1938) was a Czech-Austrian philosopher, journalist, and Marxist theorist. Kautsky was one of the most authoritative promulgators of orthodox Marxism after the death of Friedrich Engels ...

. * ''De opstandelingen, Een lyrisch treurspel in drie bedrijven'', Amsterdam 1910. : a lyrical work on the

1905 Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution of 1905,. also known as the First Russian Revolution,. occurred on 22 January 1905, and was a wave of mass political and social unrest that spread through vast areas of the Russian Empire. The mass unrest was directed again ...

. * ''De philosophie van Dietzgen en hare beteekenis voor het proletariaat'', Rotterdam 1910. : First published in German, translated by Sam de Wolff. * ''Revisionistische en Marxistische tactiek in de kiesrecht-beweging'', Rotterdam 1910. :

polemic Polemic () is contentious rhetoric intended to support a specific position by forthright claims and to undermine the opposing position. The practice of such argumentation is called ''polemics'', which are seen in arguments on controversial topic ...

against revisionist socialism of Troelstra with regard to voting rights. * ''De strijdmiddelen der sociale revolutie'', Amsterdam 1918. * ''De revolutionaire massa-aktie. Een studie'', Rotterdam 1918. * ''De daden der Bolschewiki'', Amsterdam 1919. : written in defense of the

Bolshevik The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...

s. * ''Verslag van het Derde Internationale Communistische Congres'', 1921. : the third congress of the

Comintern The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to "struggle by ...

. *
Uit Sowjet-Rusland
', 1921. : description of her trip to the Third International * ''Communisme en moraal'', Arnhem 1925. * ''Herman Gorter'', Amsterdam 1933. : biography of Tachtiger Herman Gorter. * ''Rosa Luxemburg. Haar leven en werk'', Rotterdam 1935. : biography of

Notes

References

External links

The Communist Left and the resolutions of the second congress of the Communist International - Henriette Roland-Holst
a left communist text by Roland Holst
Schalk, Henriette Goverdine Anna van der (1869–1952)

Biografisch Woordenboek van Nederland The ''Biografisch Woordenboek van Nederland'' (BWN) is a Dutch biographical dictionary, in which short biographies of well-known and less well-known but still notable Dutch people are listed. The BWN is the successor to the ''Nieuw Nederlandsch ...

Biographies, works and texts
in the

Digitale Bibliotheek voor de Nederlandse Letteren The Digital Library for Dutch Literature (Dutch: Digitale Bibliotheek voor de Nederlandse Letteren or DBNL) is a website (showing the abbreviation as dbnl) about Dutch language and Dutch literature. It contains thousands of literary texts, second ...

Schalk, Henriette Goverdine Anna van der
''Biografisch Woordenboek van het Socialisme en de Arbeidersbeweging in Nederland''
Archief Henriëtte Roland Holst-van der Schalk
at the

International Institute of Social History The International Institute of Social History (IISH/IISG) is one of the largest archives of labor and social history in the world. Located in Amsterdam, its one million volumes and 2,300 archival collections include the papers of major figu ...

''Tussen droom en werkelijkheid. De betekenis van het 'Russische communisme' voor het 'Utopia' van Henriette Roland Holst''

doctoral A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' l ...

thesis of 1996 of Emma Binnendijk

Poems by Henriette Roland Holst Online

''De zachte krachten zullen zeker winnen'' (met een uitvoerige bespreking door Pim Heuvel)
, Klassiekegedichten.net
''Ook ik ben omstreeks ’t midden mijner dagen'' (besproken door Elly Woltjes)
, Klassiekegedichten.net

, Spiritualiteit.net
''Gedenk mij in uw gebeden!'' (ook te beluisteren in een gezongen versie) en ''Over het ontwaken mijner ziel''
Poëtisch Liedgenootschap {{DEFAULTSORT:Roland Holst, Henriette 1869 births 1952 deaths 19th-century Dutch poets 19th-century Dutch women writers 20th-century Dutch poets 20th-century Dutch women writers Christian communists Communist Party of the Netherlands politicians Communist poets Communist women writers Council communists Dutch Christian pacifists Dutch Christian socialists Dutch communists 19th-century Dutch dramatists and playwrights Dutch journalists Dutch resistance members Dutch women poets Female Christian socialists People from Noordwijk People with mood disorders Social Democratic Workers' Party (Netherlands) politicians Dutch women dramatists and playwrights Female resistance members of World War II 20th-century Dutch dramatists and playwrights