In this article, the development of Dutch airports during the antebellum period from military airfields to mixed-airfields and finally to a municipal airports is examined from an institutionalist-historical approach. Specific attention is given to the evolution of Amsterdam Airport Schiphol within a regional socioeconomic context and within a national context of local competition, particularly between the big cities in Randstad Holland. This article argues that the rise and development of Schiphol and its impact on the surrounding urban area (city and the region) can be characterized as a coevolutionary process involving different actors within various domains— economic, political, and institutional—and at different spatial levels. Airport development, therefore, has to be conceived as the result of a collective arrangement that has determined the spatial and economic development of the airport itself and the surrounding area.
"Demonstratie voor het behoud van Schiphol,"Het Vaderland , July 3, 1938, morning edition.
2.
Ibid.
3.
M. Dierikx and B. Bouwens, Building Castles of the Air: Schiphol Amsterdam and the development of Airport Infrastructure in Europe, 1916-1996 (The Hague, 1997).
4.
D. Brodherson, What Can’t Go Up Can’t Come Down. The History of American Airport Policy, Planning, and Design (Ann Arbor, 1993); D. Douglas, "Airports as Systems and Systems of Airports: Airports and Urban Develop in America before World War II," in From Airships to Airbus: The History of Civil and Commercial Aviation, vol. 1: Infrastructure and Environment, ed. William M. Leary ed. (Washington DC, 1995); John Myerscough, "Airport Provision in the Inter-War Years," Journal of Contemporary History 20 (1985): 41-70; Dierikx and Bouwens, Building Castles. Other relevant studies include: J. Zukowsky, ed., Building for Air Travel: Architecture and Design for Commercial Aviation (Munich and New York, 1996); R. van der Linden, Progressives and the Post Office: Air Mail and the Creation of the US Air Transportation, 1926-1934 (Ann Arbor, 1997); Frances Fiorino, "Recapturing the Dream: A Design History of New York’s JFK Airport," Aviation Week & Space Technology 164 (2006): 64; Frans van Humbeek, Brussels Airport: The History of Haren, Melsbroek, and Zaventem (Nieuwkerken-Waas, 2002).
5.
For a short survey of these studies, see Janet R.Daly Bednarek, America’s Airports: Airfield Development, 1918-1947 (College Station , 2001), 4-5 and John R. Breihan, "Review Essay: Airport History,"Journal of Urban History34 (2008): 850-54.
6.
Bednarek, America’s Airports.
7.
See also Breihan’s concluding remark: Breihan, "Review Essay," 853.
8.
See, for example, E. S. Miller, "Institutional Economics: Philosophy, Methodology, and Theory," The Social Science Journal 15 (1978): 13-25; R. C. O. Matthews, "The Economics of Institutions and the Sources of Growth," The Economic Journal 96 (1986): 903-18; M. C. Rutherford, Institutions in Economics: The Old and the New Institutionalism (Cambridge, 1994); O. E. Williamson, "The New Institutional Economics: Taking Stock, Looking Ahead," Journal of Economic Literature 38 (2000): 595-913; R. R. Nelson and B. N. Sampat, "Making Sense of Institutions as a Factor Shaping Economic Performance," Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 44 (2001): 31-54; T. Eggertsson, Economic Behaviour and Institutions (Cambridge, 1990); R. N. Langlois, "Rationality, Institutions, and Explanation," in Economics as a Process: Essays in the New Institutional Economics, ed. R. N. Langlois (Cambridge 1986).
9.
Cf. H. de Mare and A. Vos, eds., Urban Rituals in Italy and the Netherlands: Historical Contrasts in the Use of Public Space, Architecture and the Urban Environment (Assen, 1993), 5-25; E. H. Gombrich, "The Visual Image: It’s Place in Communication," in E. H. Gombrich, The Image and the Eye: Further Studies in the Psychology of Pictorial Representation (Oxford, 1982), 138-40.
10.
At first the Ministry of War had opted for a artillery site to the north of the North Sea Canal and an artillery fire terrain at the Zeeburgerpolder in the eastern part of Amsterdam.
11.
M. Dierikx, Blauw in de lucht. Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij, 1919-1999 ( The Hague, 1999).
12.
Among others the Dutch Trade company, the Rotterdam and Twente Bank, The House of Finance of Lippmann, Rosenthal and Co from Amsterdam, The Batavia Oil Company, and a couple of shipping companies.
13.
E.L.T.A. Eerste Luchtverkeer Tentoonstelling Amsterdam: augustus-1919 (Amsterdam, 1919).
14.
The military authorities fixed the landing fee for commercial aircraft at 1 cent per power horse per landing. The military staff in turn provided for airfield services such as assistance during landing and departure, filling fuel and water tanks, and weather information.
15.
R. Leeuw; Albert Plesman; Luchtvaartpionier en visionair (The Hague , 1989).
16.
H.A. Somberg , "Plesman, Albert (1889-1953)" in Biografisch Woordenboek van Nederland2 ( The Hague, 1985).
17.
G.M. Greup, Gedenkboek samengesteld ter gelegenheid van het 125-jarig bestaan [van de] Kamer van Koophandel en Fabrieken voor Amsterdam II, Het tijdvak 1922-1936 (Amsterdam, 1936), 165-66, 172-74.
18.
Amsterdam City Archive (hereafter ACA), Gemeenteblad 1926-II. City council minutes.
19.
ACA, Dienst Luchthaven Schiphol Archive (hereafter: 1323), nr. 69/12. Negotiations with the Ministry of War. Unfortunately, the Schiphol Archive, located at the Amsterdam City Archive, lacks a proper inventory. The notes refer to Dossier Numbers, which can be retrieved on the documents themselves.
20.
H. Kaal, "Ondernemende burgemeesters. De betrokkenheid van de burgemeesters van Amsterdam, Rotterdam en Den Haag bij de locale economie, 1900-1940," Stadsgeschiedenis3 (2008): 40-61.
21.
ACA, 1323, Dossier No. 17/135-S45; Dossier No.19/1011 S35 and 1471.S35.
22.
Ernst Heldring, Herinneringen en dagboek van Ernst Heldring (1871-1954) I-III. Joh. de Vries ed. (Groningen, 1970).
23.
Ch.A. Cocheret, Kamer van Koophandel en Fabrieken voor’s-Gravenhage: 1 october 1853 - 1 october 1953. Herinneringen aan 100 jaar (The Hague, 1953), 203, 209, 222, 247, 280; G.M. Greup, Kamer van Koophandel en Fabrieken voor Amsterdam. Gedenkboek samengesteld ter gelegenheid van het 125 jarig bestaan II, Het tijdvak 1922-1936 (Amsterdam, 1936), 165-66, 172-74; J. Verseput, Kamer van Koophandel en Fabrieken voor Rotterdam, 1928-1953 (Rotterdam 1955), 170-88, 217, 234, 283-92; Johannes de Vries, 1811-1961 met Amsterdam als brandpunt. Honderdvijftig jaar Kamer van Koophandel en Fabrieken (z.p. 1961).
24.
H. Kaal, "Running the Big City. The Dutch Pre-War Mayoralty under Construction," European Review of History 16 (2009): 437-52; Amsterdam City Archive, Public Affairs Archive (5181), inv. nr. 4125. no. 1761. Mayor De Vlugt to Van Tuyll van Serooskerken, May 23, 1922; Paul Arnoldussen, Amsterdam 1928. Het Verhaal van de IXe Olympiade (Amsterdam, 1994), 14.
25.
Kaal, "Ondernemende burgemeesters," 40-61.
26.
Most of these active people were aware of the lagged position of the Netherlands in the field of aeronautics and civil aviation, compared to other European countries. The aviation magazine Het Vliegveld, which was close to the KNVvL, for example published in 1918 a series of articles and studies on the development of the aviation technology, civil aviation and the rise of commercial airports in Europe. In the issue of June 1918, Het Vliegveld published a detailed study on the Danish plans to position Kopenhagen as the most important gateway in emerging European air traffic network. According to this magazine, the Netherlands was potentially much more favored (geographically and economically) to serves as gateway in air traffic between the north and south of Europe.
27.
From 1945, Prof. Zwiers was the chairmen of the national commission on airfields which designated Schiphol as the solely international airport of the Netherlands and advised the state to create Schiphol airport company as new organizational form of the airport (1957).
28.
ACA, 1323, Commission for the Expansion of Schiphol Municipal Airport (various discussion reports), 1010 S1935, 1471S1935, and 531.
29.
Paul Barrett , "Cities and Their Airports: Policy Formation, 1926-1952,"Journal of Urban History14 (1987): 112-37, there 114.
30.
Bouwens and Dierikx, Building Castles, 51; ACA, 1323, 1010 and 1011 (1935).
31.
ACA, 1323, No.932a-b-S49 (Draft version of an article written by the Managing Director Jan Dellaert intended to be published in the World Construction magazine under the title: "Schiphol: World Airport").
32.
Bouwens and Dierikx, Building Castles; Alastair Gordon, Naked Airport: A Cultural History of the World’s Most Revolutionary Structure (Chicago, 2008), 65-87.
33.
See Dierikx and Bouwens, Building Castles, 32-46.
34.
Ibid; 44-45.
35.
See John Myerscough , "Airport Provision in the Inter-War Years,"Journal of Contemporary History20 (1985): 41-70.
36.
Piet de Rooy, "In het voetspoor van de radicalen 1889-1902," in Remieg Aerts and Piet de Rooy, eds., Geschiedenis van Amsterdam III, Hoofdstad in aanbouw 1813-1900 (Amsterdam, 2006), 519-73; Joh. de Vries, "De handelsstad. Verandering van de economische centrumfunctie," in Amsterdam in de tweede Gouden Eeuw, ed. Martha Bakker (Bussum, 2000), 186-208.
37.
Paul van de Laar, Stad van formaat. Geschiedenis van Rotterdam in de negentiende en twintigste eeuw (Zwolle, 2000); Piet de Rooy, "Het middelpunt van het vaderland 1901-1914," in Geschiedenis van Amsterdam IV, Tweestrijd om de hoofdstad 1900-2000, ed. Piet de Rooy (Amsterdam, 2007), 17-73.
38.
Verseput, Kamer van Koophandel, 170-88, 217, 234, 283-92.
39.
In 1924 Dutch businessmen chartered a Fokker F-VII to make a direct nonstop flight from Amsterdam to Batavia. They eventually reached Batavia, albeit after a forced stop in Bulgaria.
40.
Bednarek, America’s Airports, 7.
41.
Bouwens and Dierikx, Building Castles, 52-54; De Groene Amsterdammer March 6, 1932; ibid. October 8, 1927; ibid. August 6, 1932. For an excellent overview of the prewar period concerning the enthusiasm about the effects of aviation technology on the public imagination, see David T. Courtright, Sky as Frontier: Adventure, Aviation and Empire (College Station, 2005).
42.
Jan Willem de Wijn, Woorden en daden in de geschiedenis van de Rotterdamse luchtvaart (Rotterdam, 2006), 38, 46.s
43.
Ibid., 74-75.
44.
Verseput, Kamer van Koophandel, 173.
45.
Cocheret, Kamer van Koophandel, 209.
46.
Rotterdam Municipal Archive (GAR), General Affairs Archive (NSA/AZ; 444.01), inv.nr. 4210, no. 415; Bouwens and Dierikx, Building Castles, 92; Verseput, Kamer van Koophandel, 177.
47.
Verseput, Kamer van Koophandel, 170-88.
48.
Bouwens and Dierikx, Building Castles, 57.
49.
ACA, Archive 5169, inv.nr. 216, no. 2/35. Documents concerning the inauguration of Schiphol in 1938.
50.
ACA, Dossier No 17/ 739; 777 S39; 717 S46; 27, 7; 73DH1938; 713DH1946; see also Bednarek, America’s Airports.
51.
ACA, Annual Report of the Municipality of Amsterdam, 1938; Bouwens and Dierikx, Building Castles, 93-96.
52.
Verseput, Kamer van Koophandel, 181-88.
53.
ACA, 1323, 832a-z-DH1940/51; No. 252.S.1940; National Archives (The Hague; hereafter NA), Archieven van de Noodcommissie Luchtvaartterrienen, 1945-1946 (hereafter: 2.16.39), Dossier No. 25-32.
De Vries, "De handelsstad," 200-08; Doeko Bosscher, "De oude en de nieuwe stad," in De Rooy ed., Geschiedenis van AmsterdamIV (Amsterdam, 2007): 348-74.
56.
P. Bleumink, W. Manshanden, and J. Veldhuis et al., Economische effecten Schiphol (BCI, TNO & SEO, Amsterdam, 2006) see http://www.verkeerenwaterstaat.nl/Images/br.7955.%20bijlage%203_tcm195-160749.pdf .
57.
Kaal, "Ondernemende burgemeesters," 40-61.
58.
ACA; 1323, No. 31-543, 51II; No. 102S, 51III; N0. 316S. 1942, No.51 and No 51II.; No. 823-DH1940, No. 51II and No. 252. S.1940.
59.
Vincent van Rossem, Het algemeen uitbreidingsplan van Amsterdam . Geschiedenis en ontwerp (Rotterdam, 1993).
