1903: The Beurs van Berlage

The Beurs van Berlage was built between 1898 - 1903 under the auspices of architect H.P. Berlage. It was constructed to replace the neoclassical Zocher Stock Exchange which was located at the site that is now De Bijenkorf.
The history of the creation of the Beurs van Berlage covers a period of around 15 years. It was a period of a number of tenders issued by the municipality of Amsterdam, in which Berlage competed from the start. His initial designs fitted in with the Neo Style that was the custom of the day: full of curlicues and sumptuous embellishments, comparable to, for instance, the Cuypers design for the Central Station and the Stadsschouwburg.
The final winning and realised design was a complete break with tradition. The reactions in the city and in the press were therefore ferocious. The overall feeling with regard to the plain, functional design was negative, to say the least.

Gesamtkunstwerk

However, today the building is regarded as a leading design for the 20th century, and Berlage as the father of Dutch modern architecture. The Beurs was a source of inspiration for the famous Amsterdam School and for architects like J.P. Oud, Rietveld, Dudok and even Mies van der Rohe.
The Beurs van Berlage is a true ‘gesamtkunstwerk’, in which architecture is combined with the art of painting, sculpture and poetry. Berlage collaborated with Albert Verwey, Jan Toorop, Richard Roland Holst, Lambertus Zijl, Antoon Derkinderen and Joseph Mendes da Costa.

Capitalism and socialism

All these artists had idealistic and progressive views about the structure of society. Their early socialism is also expressed in the design of the Beurs: tile tableaux about the exploitation of the working man and about women's liberation, and lines of poetry about the restrictions of the market, speculation and greed.
But above all: the architecture of Berlage. The plain, rugged exterior and the mass of bricks symbolise the labourers and the people, under the motto ‘unity in multiplicity’. According to Berlage a single brick (read: the individual) was insignificant, but the building (read: society, the people) was a force to be reckoned with.
As you can imagine, not everyone trading at the Exchange was happy with Berlage's idealistic design.
When Berlage was asked about the contradiction between the capitalist function and socialist symbolism of his building, he replied that he was anticipating a change in society, with an end to capitalism and an end to the Exchange. At that time his Exchange would become a Palace of the People, in which art, economics and society would come together.
We can say that today Berlage's vision has become reality; In 1985 the Insurance Exchange was the final financial institute to leave the building. Since then the building has become a true ‘Palazzo Publico’ where concerts, exhibitions, conferences, events, lectures and cultural events are now the order of the day.