De VU en Amsterdam, 1880-1945

Abstract

The Free University and Amsterdam Since 1880 Amsterdam, proud possessor of a city university, also harboured a Protestant one, called the Vrije Universiteit (VU; 'Free University'). This university was founded to accommodate the Dutch Neo-Calvinist minority. As such it had a national function. Nevertheless, especially during the Interbellum - its first period of expansion - the psychiatrical clinic, Paedological Institute and laboratories of the VU provided many inhabitants of Amsterdam, Protestants as well as others, with work and medical and mental care.