, a
dolmen (
hunebed) near
Schoonoord The name Drenthe is said to stem from Germanic
thrija hantja meaning "three lands". Drenthe has been populated by people since prehistory. Artifacts from the
Wolstonian Stage (150,000 years ago) are among the oldest found in the Netherlands. In fact, it was one of the most densely populated areas of the Netherlands until the Bronze Age. The most tangible evidence of this are the
dolmens (
hunebedden) built around 3500 BC. 53 of the 54 dolmens in the Netherlands can be found in Drenthe, concentrated in the northeast of the province. In 2006, the archaeological reserve of
Strubben–Kniphorstbos, located between
Anloo and
Schipborg, was created to preserve part of this heritage. Most of the Bronze Age objects found in the Netherlands have been found in Drenthe. One item shows that trading networks during this period extended a far distance. Large bronze
situlae (buckets) found in Drenthe were manufactured somewhere in eastern France or in
Switzerland. They were used for mixing wine with water (a Roman/Greek custom). The many finds in Drenthe of rare and valuable objects, such as tin-bead necklaces, suggest that Drenthe was a trading centre in the Netherlands in the Bronze Age. Drenthe was first mentioned in a document from 820, it was called
Pago Treanth (Drenthe district). In archives from
Het Utrechts Archief, from 1024 to 1025, the "county Drenthe" is mentioned, when Emperor
Henry II gave it to Bishop
Adalbold II of Utrecht. Subjugation of this region into the
Holy Roman Empire culminated in the
Drenther Crusade launched by the
Papacy around 1228-1232. After long being subject to the
Utrecht diocese, Bishop
Henry of Wittelsbach in 1528 ceded Drenthe to Emperor
Charles V of Habsburg, who incorporated it into the
Habsburg Netherlands. When the
Republic of the Seven United Provinces was declared in 1581, Drenthe became part of it as the
County of Drenthe, although it never gained full provincial status due to its poverty; the province was so poor it was exempt from paying federal taxes and as a consequence was denied representation in the States General. The successor
Batavian Republic granted it provincial status on 1 January 1796. Shortly before the outbreak of the
Second World War, the Dutch government built a camp near the town of
Hooghalen to intern German Jewish refugees. During the
Second World War, the German occupiers used the camp (which they named
KZ Westerbork) as a
Durchgangslager (transit camp). Many Dutch Jews,
Sinti,
Roma, resistance combatants and political adversaries were imprisoned before being transferred to
concentration and
extermination camps in Germany and occupied Poland.
Anne Frank was deported on the last train leaving the Westerbork transit camp on 3 September 1944. In the 1970s, there were four
hostage crises where
South Moluccan terrorists demanded an independent
Republic of South Maluku. They held hostages in hijacked trains in
1975 and
1977, in a
primary school in 1977, ==Geography==