Peat colony The history of the
raised bog area (Dutch: hoogveen) of what would later become the municipality of Hoogeveen has been documented since 1551. In that year, Reinold van Burmania and his wife purchased the so-called Meppense Venen, the southeastern half of the future municipality. Hoogeveen dates its history to 20 December 1625, when
Roelof van Echten bought a large tract of
peat land from farmers of the district with the plan to harvest its peat. One old map of the area called it
Locus Deserta Atque ob Multos Paludes Invia, a deserted and impenetrable place of many swamps. Hoogeveen was founded in 1636 by Pieter Joostens Warmont and Johan van der Meer, investors from
Leiden in the Hollandsche Compagnie (Hollandic Company) who, after fierce conflicts with Baron Roelof van Echten tot Echten, had decided that their workers should be able to settle permanently on the peat bogs. The excavated peat was transported by water to
Meppel and beyond via a canal (the 'Nieuwe Grift', later called the 'Hoogeveense Vaart'). Smaller canals, called wijken, were dug perpendicular to this canal at intervals of 160 meters. This distance was still easily covered by a laborer with a wheelbarrow full of peat. This created a grid of intersecting canals. New canals, the "opgaanden," also connected systems of neighborhoods further on in the peat bogs to the Hoogeveense Vaart canal. Shopkeepers, peat cutters, land agents, and craftsmen soon settled at the main intersection, called the Kruis. Hoogeveen remained a peat colony for centuries.
19th century In 1811, the municipality had 4,794 inhabitants, in 1840 there were 7,339, and in 1874, 10,763. Only at the end of the 19th century did peat become less important and people switched to agriculture, livestock farming, and industry. This was particularly noticeable after the opening of the
Meppel-
Groningen railway line on 1 May 1870. Well-known factories in that period produced products like dairy, cheese and frozen food. The
coat of arms of Hoogeveen, granted 10 November 1819, is white, with a pile of peat covered in straw in the center and
beehives on each side, representing the town's first two major industries.
Vincent van Gogh visited the area in the fall of 1883.
World War II Soon after the
German occupation in 1940, Hoogeveen became a center of resistance. Encouraged by Reverend Frits Slomp, persecuted people began finding their way to Hoogeveen and the surrounding area. The illegal newspapers
Trouw and
Vrij Nederland were also distributed from Hoogeveen. The notorious resistance group Nico (Jan Naber) and Victor (Albert Rozeman) came from Hoogeveen. On 29 July 1943, the NSB (
National Socialist Movement (Netherlands)) mayor of Oud Schoonebeek was assassinated by members of the resistance group De Krim. This incident had far-reaching consequences for the Hoogeveen resistance. The day after the assassination, a raid was conducted in Hoogeveen by the
Grüne Polizei. Between 25 and 30 detainees were transferred to the holiday camp "Noorderhuis," located north of Hoogeveen. Three of them were executed there. On 17 February 1944, the
post office in Hoogeveen was robbed. With the cooperation of the counter clerk Henk Raak, who was later executed, 13,000 ration cards were stolen. Until that period, the town contained a number of
canals, which had been dug in the area's early days when it was a prime source of peat and maritime transportation was a necessity for efficient transportation of cargo. By the 1960s the rise of the automobile and truck-based transportation meant the canals had lost much of their economic function, and the canals were filled in.
Philips and
Fokker, among others, established themselves in the town. To meet the enormous population growth, large new housing estates were built. However, in the 1980s the growth stopped. Instead of the previously expected 100,000 inhabitants around 1990, the number of inhabitants stabilized at around 45,000. Since 1997 the Hoogeveen Chess Tournament has been organized here. == Geography ==