Gerrit Jan Lammers

Gerrit Jan Lammers was born on 23 October 1903 in Aalten, the son of miller Johannes Christiaan Lammers and Maria Scheurer. They lived at number 3 Molenstraat. On 25 July 1928, Gerrit Jan married Maria Evertje van Dreven (born in Wageningen, 28 December 1900) in Arnhem.

He had been working in journalism since 1921, and until 1940 he was a parliamentary editor for De Standaard, a newspaper affiliated with the Anti-Revolutionary Party (ARP).

Lammers was known as a rigid and principled Calvinist. Following the outbreak of the Second World War, he became a contributor in 1940 to Vrij Nederland, a publication declared illegal by the Germans. In June 1941, the German Sicherheitsdienst (SD) arrested him for his underground activities, after which he was imprisoned in Braunschweig, Germany, until late 1943.

After the war

After the war, he was a member of the Commissie voor de Perszuivering (Press Purge Commission), which focused on removing journalists and newspaper directors who had been pro-German during the war.

Lammers studied law both before and during the war. In 1945, he passed his Master’s examination (doctoraal examen) at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, and in 1952 he obtained his doctorate with a dissertation that later became famous, titled: “The Crown and the Cabinet Formation”.

Before joining the Rijksvoorlichtingsdienst (RVD – Netherlands Government Information Service) in 1952, Lammers was head of the information department at the Ministry of Social Affairs (1946–1947) and subsequently head of the general affairs department at that same ministry. In 1952, he was appointed director-general of the Rijksvoorlichtingsdienst, a position he held until 1968.

Gerrit Jan Lammers was a Knight in the Order of the Netherlands Lion and a Commander in the House Order of Orange. He also held numerous foreign decorations. Lammers authored a great number of publications in the field of constitutional law.

Dr Gerrit Jan Lammers passed away on 7 November 1976, at the age of 72. He was buried at the public cemetery on Rodelaan in Voorburg.

Son

In 1931, Gerrit Jan and Maria Evertje had a son: Johannes Christiaan Jan (Han) Lammers. When his father Gerrit Jan was imprisoned by the Germans in 1941, Han’s mother moved with him to her in-laws in Aalten. Here, the boy attended the MULO (advanced elementary school), where he took organ lessons from 1942 onwards. Playing the organ would later become his greatest hobby.

Towards the end of the occupation, Han, who was only fourteen years old, set off alone on his bicycle to The Hague, where both his parents were staying at the time. Like his father, Han Lammers would later forge an impressive career. Among other roles, he was a journalist, a local councillor and alderman in Amsterdam, the mayor of Almere, and the Queen’s Commissioner for the province of Flevoland. Han Lammers passed away in 2000.