People

HISTORY

World War I brought another recession in the economy of the city, from which it did not recover until 1926. Later on the “1929 recession” struck the city; poverty and unemployment invaded the city. At the end of the 30's the port began to recover but the rate of unemployment was high and the standard of life of the working class was very low.

World War II began. On the 10th of May of 1940 Germany invaded Holland. Four days later the Luftwaffe bombers began their destruction of Rotterdam. On the 14th of May, in a nonstop 10 minutes attack, the centre of the city, Kralingen and its environments were completely destroyed: 2400 houses, 1200 small businesses, 500 cafes and 70 schools were totally or partially destroyed.

On the same day of the bombing, the negotiations for the surrender began. Holland signed the documents and the following day the Germans occupied Holland. This occupation lasted for 5 years. The city was covered with smoke during three days and some fires lasted more than two months. Later on, the city suffered more bombings, this time from the allied forces. The heart of the city was gone.

In 1941 Witteveen designed a plan for the reconstruction of the city but this plan was criticized. In 1946 Van Traa adapted the plan from Witteveen creating the Basic Plan that was accepted by the City council. With this new plan the centre of Rotterdam was connected by great avenues. This plan was more functional, with areas for stores and banks, areas for diversion and zones for houses. New harbours for the petroleum refineries were created; Botlek (1953) and Europort (1957. In 1973 the port of Maasvlakte was added.

The empty space in the city centre gave a true opportunity for the architects to build a new city from scratch; and that's exactly what they did. During the 50's and the 60's numerous buildings were constructed to fill the empty spaces between the houses that survived the attack. This created a peculiar mixture of old and new buildings. The reconstruction after the war gave Rotterdam its personal architectural character and at the beginning of the 60's Rotterdam became the largest port of the world. Due to the great economic growth between 1965 and 1973, there was a great demand for cheap manual labor. This brought a wave of emigrants from the Mediterranean. In 1975 arrived a big number of emigrants from Surinam, an old Dutch colony.

Today around 40% of the population of Rotterdam is of foreign origin.Its density of population is one of the greatest of the country, 4000 inhabitants per square kilometer.

Its port, the largest in the world with an annual movement of more than 300 million metric tons, is a solid base in the industry of the city and its environs. The contemporary history of Rotterdam is a complex one. This modern city is not the same for everybody, for some is a cold and empty place of the postwar period, and for others, it is a prime example of a multi-cultural, vertical, post-modern city.