If you want to dive into Dutch history, come to World Heritage Site Schokland. The oldest habitation remains in today's Noordoostpolder are of Stone Age people who fished and hunted along the banks of the Vecht and IJssel rivers, found on the since-drained island of Schokland. In a slightly more recent history, this former island was a brave but vulnerable piece of land in the raging Zuiderzee. Some 12,000 years ago it was already home to hunter-gatherers; in the Middle Ages it was mainly farmers who kept cattle and grew grain. From the 12th century onwards, the Schokkers lived on the self-made mounds Zuidpunt, Zuidert, Middelbuurt and Emmeloord. Only on these mounds were they safe from the Zuiderzee, which swallowed up more and more of the island.
Agriculture changed over the centuries to fishing, shipping and trade. In the 13th century, the lee eastern side of Schokland provided shelter during storms for the cogs of the Hanseatic fleet and in the 17th century for VOC ships. The city of Amsterdam purchased the northern part of Schokland in 1660. It was then called Emmeloord and belonged to the region of Holland. Ens was the southern part of the island and belonged to Overijssel. It was not until 1806 that the two parts were merged under the name Schokland. In 1859, the Zuiderzee finally won over the 635 Schokkers still living on the island. The government forced them to leave their hearth and home to build a new life on the mainland.
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For centuries, the waters of the Zuiderzee shaped the lives of the people in and around what is now the Noordoostpolder. As early as the 19th century, technically and financially viable plans were in place to contain the power of the sea and subsequently reclaim parts of it as polder land. The flood disaster of 1916 caused widespread devastation and accelerated those plans. On 14 June 1918, the Zuiderzee Act (Act for the Closure and Reclamation of the Zuiderzee) came into force. In 1932, the Afsluitdijk, between North Holland and Friesland, was completed, transforming the turbulent Zuiderzee into the much calmer IJsselmeer. After that, the reclamation of the Noordoostpolder, the first part of Flevoland, could begin.
On 3 October 1939, the mayors Keijzer of Urk and Krijger of Lemsterland (Friesland) shook hands on the breach in the dyke that had been closed just a few minutes earlier. With that, Urk was no longer an island. Three years later, the final breach in the 54-kilometre-long dyke surrounding the Noordoostpolder was closed, south of what is now Nagele. On 9 September 1942, the Noordoostpolder was officially drained, thanks to the three pumping stations which had pumped out 1,500 million m³ of water for this purpose. Now the reclamation and development of the new land could begin.
Anyone who wanted to settle in the fertile Noordoostpolder after reclamation had to meet strict requirements. Nobody just got a farm, house or even a job. Only people who could make 'the new land' a success were allowed to settle here. Never before had the Dutch government interfered so much with the population of an area. Candidates were tested on age, marital status, finances and education. Selection officials then went armed with assessment forms to visit the people who wanted to build a new life in the Noordoostpolder. They took a look in the linen closet of the lady of the house, tested the farmer's agricultural skills and evaluated whether people were actively engaged in the community. Only farmers who had lost their farms in Zeeland after the North Sea floods were allowed to settle in the Noordoostpolder der without a selection procedure.
When the Zuiderzee was still raging here, ships regularly foundered in the raging waters. After reclamation, remnants of such ships 'floated to the surface' in several places. Viewed this way, the Noordoostpolder is a ship graveyard on dry land. The locations where shipwrecks have been found are marked with marker poles.
Following air battles between the Allies and the Germans, aircraft did crash at times during World War II in the Noordoostpolder , which was reclaimed in 1942 (on the new land or in part of the IJsselmeer that is now land). Blue and white crash posts with a bright red plane on them mark where this happened.
During the Second World War, men from all over the Netherlands came to help reclaim the recently drained Noordoostpolder , partly to escape compulsory labour in Germany. As a result, the Noordoostpolder(NOP) became known in those years as the ‘Dutch Paradise for People in Hiding’. A replica of a hideout hut in the Kuinderbos serves as a reminder of that era.
Scattered throughout the Noordoostpolder , you may well come across a viewing panel whilst out walking, cycling or driving. These panels feature a drawing visualising an object or activity that is no longer visible in the landscape. Through these viewing panels, we are bringing the remarkable history of Noordoostpolder formation and its unique story into sharper focus.
In Flevoland, there were three air defence towers in the 1950s and 1960s. They were located in Urk, Emmeloord and Ens. These were used to scan the skies for low-flying aircraft from the Soviet Union. The towers were demolished back in the 1960s, but their foundations are still visible.
Want to know more about how part of the former Zuiderzee was turned into highly fertile farmland? Then visit a presentation of 'From Zuiderzee to fertile land' in Espel. Here, over a hundred photos and two short videos tell the story of the Noordoostpolder .
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