Eindhoven

Eindhoven (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈɛi̯ntɦoːvə(n)] ) is a municipality and a city in the south of the Netherlands, originally at the confluence of the Dommel and Gender streams.The Gender was dammed short of the city centre in the 1950s and the Dommel still runs through the city. The city has a population of 223,220 in January 2015, making it the fifth-largest municipality of the Netherlands and the largest in the province of North Brabant.

Neighbouring cities and towns include Son en Breugel, Nuenen, Geldrop-Mierlo, Heeze-Leende, Waalre, Veldhoven, Eersel,Oirschot and Best. The agglomeration has a population of 337,487. The metropolitan area consists of 419,045 inhabitants. Thecity region has a population of 753,426. Also, Eindhoven is located in the Brabantse Stedenrij, a combined metropolitan areawith about 2 million inhabitants.

Name

The name Eindhoven derives from the contraction of the regional words eind (meaning "last" or "end") and hove (or hoeve, a section of some 14 hectares of land). Toponymically, eind occurs commonly as a prefix and postfix in local place- and streetnames. A "hove" comprised a parcel of land which a local lord might lease to private persons (such as farmers). Given that a string of such parcels existed around Woensel, the name Eindhoven may have originated with the meaning "last hoves on the land of Woensel".

History

13th–15th centuries

The written history of Eindhoven started in 1232, when Duke Hendrik I of Brabant granted city rights to Endehoven, then a small town right on the confluence of the Dommel and Gender streams. At the time of granting of its charter, Eindhoven had approximately 170 houses enclosed by a rampart. Just outside the city walls stood a small castle. The city was also granted the right to organize a weekly market and the farmers in nearby villages were obliged to come to Eindhoven to sell their produce. Another factor in its establishment was its location on the trade route from Holland to Liège.

Around 1388, the city's fortifications were strengthened further. And between 1413 and 1420, a new castle was built within the city walls. In 1486, Eindhoven was plundered and burned by troops from Guelders.

16th–18th centuries

The reconstruction of Eindhoven was finished in 1502, with a stronger rampart and a new castle. However, in 1543 it fell again, its defense works having been neglected due to poverty.

A big fire in 1554 destroyed 75% of the houses but by 1560 these had been rebuilt with the help of William I of Orange. During the Dutch Revolt, Eindhoven changed hands between the Dutch and the Spanish several times during which it was burned down by renegade Spanish soldiers, until finally in 1583 it was captured once more by Spanish troops and its city walls were demolished.

Eindhoven did not become part of the Netherlands until 1629. During the French occupation, Eindhoven suffered again with many of its houses destroyed by the invading forces. Eindhoven remained a minor city after that until the start of the industrial revolution.

19th century

The industrial revolution of the 19th century provided a major growth impulse. Canals, roads and railroads were constructed. Eindhoven was connected to the major Zuid-Willemsvaart canal through the Eindhovens Kanaal branch in 1843 and was connected by rail to Tilburg, 's-Hertogenbosch, Venlo and Belgium between 1866 and 1870. Industrial activities initially centred around tobacco and textile and boomed with the rise of lighting and electronics giant Philips, which was founded as a light bulb manufacturing company in Eindhoven in 1891.

Industrialization brought population growth to Eindhoven. At the establishment of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1815, Eindhoven had 2,310 inhabitants.

20th century

By 1920, the population was 47,946; by 1925 it was 63,870 and in 1935 that had ballooned to 103,030. The explosive growth of industry in the region and the subsequent housing needs of workers called for radical changes in administration, as the City of Eindhoven was still confined to its medieval moat city limits. In 1920, the five neighbouringmunicipalities of Woensel (to the north), Tongelre (northeast and east), Stratum (southeast), Gestel en Blaarthem (southwest) and Strijp (west), which already bore the brunt of the housing needs and related problems, were incorporated into the new Groot-Eindhoven ("Greater Eindhoven") municipality. The prefix "Groot-" was later dropped.

After the incorporation of 1920, the five former municipalities became districts of the Municipality of Eindhoven, with Eindhoven-Centrum (the City proper) forming the sixth. Since then, an additional seventh district has been formed by dividing the largest district, that of Woensel, into Woensel-Zuid and Woensel-Noord.

The early 20th century saw additions in technical industry with the advent of car and truck manufacturing company Van Doorne's Automobiel Fabriek (DAF) and the subsequent shift towards electronics and engineering, with the traditional tobacco and textile industries waning and finally disappearing in the 1970s.A first air raid in World War II was flown by the RAF on 6 December 1942 targeting the Philipsfactory downtown. 148 civilians died, even though the attack was carried out on a Sunday by low-flying Mosquito bombers.Large-scale air raids, including the preliminary bombing duringOperation Market Garden to aid the US 101st Airborne Division paratroopers in securing the bridges in and around the town on 18 September 1944, destroyed large parts of the city. The reconstruction that followed left very little historical remains and the post-war reconstruction period saw drastic renovation plans in highrise style, some of which were implemented. At the time, there was little regard for historical heritage; in the 1960s, a new city hall was built and its neo-gothic predecessor (1867) demolished to make way for a planned arterial road that never materialised.

The 1970s, 1980s and 1990s saw large-scale housing developments in the districts of Woensel-Zuid and Woensel-Noord, making Eindhoven the fifth-largest city in the Netherlands. At the start of the 21st century, a whole new housing development called Meerhoven was constructed at the site of the old airport of Welschap, west of Eindhoven. The airport itself, now called Eindhoven Airport, had moved earlier to a new location, paving the way for much needed new houses. Meerhoven is part of the Strijp district and partially lies on lands annexed from the municipality of Veldhoven.

21st century

In the 2000s decade, Eindhoven emerged as the capital of Dutch industrial design. The Design Academy Eindhoven has produced major Dutch designers, such as Maarten Baas, Marcel Wanders, Richard Hutten, and Hella Jongerius. The school also has a strong affiliation with droog design. In 2003, Time Magazine called the Academy, "The School of Cool." Due to the fame of the D.A.E, Eindhoven has been able to grow in the design industry with such events as the Dutch Design Week, that takes place every October. While most of Philips' industries have moved out, the Philips Design Bureau is still in Eindhoven.

Geography

The villages and city that make up modern Eindhoven were originally built on sandy elevations between the Dommel, Gender and Tongelreep streams. Beginning in the 19th century, the basins of the streams themselves have also been used as housing grounds, resulting in occasional floodings in the city centre. Partly to reduce flooding, the bed of the Gender stream, which flowed directly through the city centre, was dammed off and filled up after the War, and the course of the Dommel was regulated. New ecological and socio-historical insights have led to parts of the Dommel's course being restored to their original states, and plans to have the Gender flow through the centre once again (link to article in Dutch).

The large-scale housing developments of the 20th century saw residential areas being built on former agricultural lands and woods, former heaths that had been turned into cultivable lands in the 19th century.

The city is currently divided into seven districts:

1. Centrum
2. Woensel-Noord
3. Woensel-Zuid
4. Tongelre
5. Stratum
6. Gestel
7. Strijp

   Demographics

   Population

   As of 2013, the population of Eindhoven consisted of 218,433 persons (according to the Eindhoven city council, the city will reach the maximum population of 230,000 inhabitants around the year 2025). Of these, 29.5% or some 63,873 people are of foreign descent.People are classified as being of foreign descent when they were born outside of the Netherlands, or when at least one of their parents was born outside of the Netherlands.
   Large minority groups include:
   • Non-Western immigrants (first and second generation): 38,303 (17.5%)
   1. Turks (10,337) (4.7%)
   2. Moroccans (5,907) (2.6%)
   3. Surinamese (3,771) (1.7%)
   4. Antilleans/Arubans (2,704) (1.2%)
   5. Indian people (2,088) (0.7%)
   6. Chinese people (3,452)
   7. Others (14,420) (6.6%)
   • Western immigrants (first and second generation): 28,578 (11.1%)
   1. Indos (6,248) (2.9%)
   2. Germans (5,115) (2.4%)
   3. Belgians (2,651) (1.2%)
   4. British people (1,410) (0.6%)
   5. Spaniards (1,226) (0.5%)
   • Eastern European immigrants (first and second generation): 4,341 (2%)
   1. Polish people (2,956) (1.2%)
   2. Former Yugoslavia (1,386)
   3. Former Soviet Union (1,534)
   The municipal agglomeration of Eindhoven (an administrative construct which includes only some of the surrounding towns and villages) has 327,245 inhabitants as of 1 January 2010.
   The spoken language is a combination of Kempenlands (a Dutch dialect spoken in a large area east and south east of the city, including Arendonk and Lommel in Belgium) and North Meierijs (between the south of Den Bosch and into Eindhoven). Both dialects belong to the East Brabantian dialect group), which is very similar to colloquial Dutch).

   Districts

   Of all Eindhoven districts, the historical centre is by far the smallest in size and population, numbering only 5,419 in 2006. Woensel-Noord is the largest, having been the city's main area of expansion for several decades.
   Population figures for all districts, as of 1 January 2008, ranked by size:
   1. Woensel-Noord (65,429)
   2. Woensel-Zuid (35,789)
   3. Stratum (31,778)
   4. Gestel (26,590)
   5. Strijp (25,402)
   6. Tongelre (19,680)
   7. Centrum (5,757)

   Religion

   Eindhoven is located in the southeast of the province of North Brabant. This area is historically Roman Catholic and the population of Eindhoven was similarly mostly Catholic for a very long time. However, the internationalizing influence of the university, Philips and other companies have created a more mixed population over the last few decades.
   The Eindhoven agglomeration had the following religious makeup in 2003:
   • Roman Catholic: 65.4%
   • No religious denomination: 25.1%
   • Muslim: 4.2%
   • Dutch Reformed: 2.9%
   • other Reformed: 1.1%
   The spiritual needs of the Eindhoven population are tended by a large number of churches (united in the Eindhoven Raad van Kerken), two mosques and one synagogue.

   Languages

   • Standard Dutch
   • Eindhoven does not have its own, uniform dialect. Varieties of the Brabantian dialect used to be spoken in the former villages of Gestel, Woensel and Stratum, but are now almost extinct. The closest city to Eindhoven in which Brabantian is spoken is Helmond.

   Economy

   Eindhoven has grown from a little town in 1232 to one of the biggest cities in the Netherlands with around 212,000 inhabitants in 2009. Much of its growth is due to Philips, DAF Trucks and Brabantia.

   After the resurrection of the Netherlands in 1815 and the end of the Belgian Revolution, Eindhoven was a small village of some 1250 people in an economically backward and mostly agricultural area. Cheap land, cheap labor and the existence of pre-industrial homesourcing (huisnijverheid in Dutch) made Eindhoven an attractive area for the developing industries which were being stimulated by the government of King William I. During the 19th century, Eindhoven grew into an industrial town with factories for textile weaving, cigar manufacturing, match making and hat making. Most of these industries disappeared again after World War II, though.In 1891, brothers Gerard and Anton Philips founded the small light bulb factory that would grow into one of the largest electronics firms in the world. Philips' presence is probably the largest single contributing factor to the major growth of Eindhoven in the 20th century. It attracted and spun off many hi-tech companies, making Eindhoven a major technology and industrial hub. In 2005, a full third of the total amount of money spent on research in the Netherlands was spent in or around Eindhoven. A quarter of the jobs in the region are intechnology and ICT, with companies such as FEI Company (once Philips Electron Optics), NXP Semiconductors (formerly Philips Semiconductors), ASML, Toolex, Simac, CIBER, Neways Electronics, Atos Origin and the aforementioned Philips and DAF.

   Eindhoven has long been a centre of cooperation between research institutes and industry. This tradition started with Philips (the NatLabwas a physical expression of this) and has since expanded to large cooperative networks. The Eindhoven University of Technology hosts an incubator for technology startups and the NatLab has developed into the High Tech Campus Eindhoven. Also, TNO has opened a branch on the university campus. This tradition has also fostered inter-industry cooperation in the region; one example of this is the announcement in September 2010 of a new research lab for high-grade packaging materials, a cooperation of IPS Packaging and Thales Cryognetics.

   This cooperative tradition has also developed into a different direction than the traditional technology research done at the university. Starting in 2002, the university, the Catharina hospital, Philips Medical and the University of Maastricht joined forces and started joint research into biomedical science, technologyand engineering. Within Eindhoven, this research has been concentrated in a new university faculty (BioMedical Technology or BMT). This development has also made Eindhoven a biomedical technology hub within the country and its (European) region.Prime examples of industrial heritage in Eindhoven are the renovated Witte Dame ("White Lady") complex, a former Philips lamp factory; and the Admirant building (informally known as Bruine Heer or "Brown Gentleman" in reference to the Witte Dame across the street), the former Philips main offices. The Witte Dame currently houses the municipal library, the Design Academy and a selection of shops. The Admirant has been renovated into an office building for small companies. Across the street from the Witte Dame and next to the Admirant is Philips' first light bulb factory (nicknamed Roze Baby, or "Pink Baby", in reference to its pink colour and much smaller size when compared to the "White Lady" and "Brown Gentleman"). The small building now houses the "Centrum Kunstlicht in de Kunst" (centre artificial light in art) and the "Philips Incandescent Lamp Factory of 1891" museum.

   Knowledge economy initiatives

   Due to its high-tech environment, Eindhoven is part of several initiatives to develop, foster and increase a knowledge economy. Chief among these are:

   • Brainport Top Technology Region: A cooperative initiave of local government, industry and the Eindhoven University of Technologyto develop the local knowledge economy of the Eindhoven region.
   • Brainport Development: An extension of the Top Technology Region, Brainport Development serves commercial exploitation and advertising of the region.
   • SRE: The Samenwerkingsverband Regio Eindhoven is a cooperative agreement among the municipalities in the Eindhoven metropolitan area. Although SRE is far more than just an economic agreement, it includes economic cooperation.
   • The Eindhoven-Leuven-Aachen triangle:An extensive cooperation agreement between the universities and surrounding regions of Eindhoven, Leuven (Belgium) andAachen (Germany).
   • Within the Eindhoven region (particularly around Helmond), several parties are working together to set up an automotive testing facility of European scale, for testing and European certification of vehicles. This cooperation involves the Eindhoven University of Technology, TNO Automotive and the different automotive companies in and around Helmond.

   As a result of these efforts, the Intelligent Community Forum named the Eindhoven metro region one of the top-21 intelligent communities in 2008 and one of the top-7 intelligent communities in 2009 and 2010. Finally, in 2011, the ICF named Eindhoven the Intelligent Community of the Year.

   EIT Co-location

   Eindhoven is one of the co-location centres of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT). It hosts two Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs):Innoenergy (Sustainable Energy) and EIT ICT Labs (Information and Communication Technology). The co-locations are on the High Tech Campus Eindhoven.

   Education

   Eindhoven, being a city with a 200,000+ population, is served by a large number of schools both at primary and secondary education levels. In addition, Eindhoven is a higher-education hub within the southern Netherlands, with several institutes of higher education that serve students from the extended region of North Brabant, Zeeland, Limburg and parts of the surrounding provinces.

   Municipal executive

   Aldermen

   The executive council in Dutch municipalities is called the College of the Mayor and Aldermen (Dutch: College van Burgemeester en Wethouders or College van B&W for short). The mayor is appointed by the monarch, but the council of aldermen is composed as a result of the formation of a local coalition government. This coalition is formed in such a way as to be able to rely on a majority of the votes in the city council.

   In May 2014, a coalition was formed between PvdA, D66, SP and GroenLinks. Together they have 26 seats in the city council. The council of aldermen consists of the following people:

   • Mary-Ann Schreurs (D66): innovation and design, sustainability and culture
   • Lenie Scholten (GreenLeft): healthcare and WIJeindhoven
   • Staf Depla (PvdA): economy, work and income and vocational education
   • Bianca van Kaathoven (SP): Active city, diversity and permits
   • Marco van Dorst (D66): Spatial planning and treasury
   • Yasin Torunoglu (PvdA): Living, boroughs, space and citizen participation
   • Jannie Visscher (SP): Youth, education, traffic and transport

   Mayor

   The mayors of the Netherlands are not elected but appointed by the crown. Nevertheless, there has been a movement over the last few years to give the municipalities more say in who will be their mayor, which has resulted in consultative referenda being held in the larger cities to "suggest" a candidate for the post. This was also tried in Eindhoven and as a result the current mayor is Rob van Gijzel (PvdA).

   On 23 January 2008, a referendum to elect a mayor was held in Eindhoven. This referendum, the second of its kind in the Netherlands, was attended by 24.6% of the inhabitants. This was less than the required 30% needed to make a referendum binding. Nevertheless, the city council would choose the winner of the referendum as the preferred candidate. The main reason for the low attendance was that the candidates, Leen Verbeek and Rob van Gijzel, were from the same party. Rob van Gijzel won the referendum with 61.8% of the votes and was appointed the city's new mayor.

   The mayor is the chairman of the Council of B&W. He also has responsibility for a number of specific posts (like the aldermen). In the current council, mayor Van Gijzel holds responsibility for the following posts:

   • Communication

   If unavailable, the mayor is temporarily replaced by one of the aldermen.

   Culture and recreation

   Culturally and recreationally, Eindhoven was formed by two forces:

   • Being a university city, Eindhoven has a large student population. The students from the Eindhoven University of Technology and a number of undergraduate schools give Eindhoven a young population, whose recreational needs are catered to by several different festivals, clubs and such.
   • For a long time Eindhoven was the main location of Philips. The Philips company undertook a lot of effort in the "cultural formation" of its workforce and has given the city both cultural institutions (such as the former POC and the Muziekcentrum Frits Philips) and sporting institutions (notably PSV).

   Eindhoven is also known as the City of Light, due to the Company Philips originating there and because of the several projects involving lighting up buildings of the city. DuringCarnival, Eindhoven is rechristened Lampegat (Hamlet of Lamps, although for the ironic purposes of carnival the translation Hole in the ground with lamps is closer to the mark); this refers again to the important role of Philips in the Eindhoven community.

   Cultural institutions

   There are several cultural institutions in and around the city.

   Museums

   • The Centrum Kunstlicht in de Kunst (next door to the lightbulb museum) takes a more general look at lighting as an art form. The museum is scheduled to close on 5 December, due to loss of funding.
   • There are two museums dedicated to the major topics of the city's industrial heritage: the DAF Museum has a collection of DAF cars and the Philips Gloeilampenfabriekje anno 1891 (across the street from the Kempenland) documents the early lightbulb industry.
   • The former district court house now houses the Designhuis, a public podium and interaction area for modern design and innovation.
   • The Eindhoven Museum is an archaeological open-air museum which focuses on the region's Iron Age and Middle Ages. It merged in 2011 with Museum Kempenland which was a regional museum, which documents the history of the Kempenland region in objects, documents, paint and educational activities. Museum Kempenland's old location, the Steentjeskerk, is closed.
   • Finally, the Inkijkmuseum (the Look-In museum; housed in an old linen factory in the Dommelstraat) is a small but special museum: it offers ever-changing exhibits, which are to be viewed through the building's windows.
   • The Van Abbemuseum has a collection of modern and contemporary art, including works by Picasso, Kandinsky, Mondriaan and Chagall.

   Eindhoven was home to the Evoluon science museum, sponsored by Philips. The Evoluon building has evolved into a conference centre.