Overview
The history of Café Leuven stretches back more than two centuries. At the beginning of the 19th century, Hendrikus Vultink (1781–1861), a brush maker by trade, also owned a tavern called ‘De Leeuw’.
During the Napoleonic period, the premises included several small rooms where officers of the French army were quartered. The Vultink family also supplied hot meals to part of the French garrison. Sauerkraut with pork was especially popular. According to later family tradition, the pork was not served in modest portions: a whole or half pig could be cooked with the sauerkraut, depending on what was available. The French soldiers were said to be enthusiastic womanisers, so the maids delivering the food had to be particularly careful.
Inn and lodging house
After French rule ended, the family welcomed a son, Hendrikus Georgius Vultink, born on 6 July 1821. In 1852 he married Josephina Antonette van Ginther of Winterswijk. The family tradition continued: Vultink combined running the tavern with brush making. Shortly before the marriage, ‘De Leeuw’ became a proper lodging house — effectively a modest hotel — with Mrs Vultink-Ginther largely in charge.
Their daughter Elisabeth Johanna Vultink married Johannes Bernardus Kamps in 1890. Kamps, a beer bottler and lodging-house keeper from Winterswijk, continued the beer-bottling business in Aalten and concentrated increasingly on the inn. By then it had become a popular local meeting place where people gathered to play cards and discuss the issues of the day.
Marie Kamps
On 17 April 1892, the couple’s daughter Maria Louisa Josephina was born. During the May fair of 1902, at just ten years old, she was already carrying a serving tray through the crowded café. Seven decades later she recalled that day:
She remembered the café as exceptionally busy and said that, being small and slim, she could move between the tables and chairs more easily than her mother. Customers apparently enjoyed being served by a young girl and teased her good-naturedly.
Drinks were simple. Most people ordered a small glass of clear spirits: women generally took sugar with it, men did not. Red cordial was also served. A glass of spirits cost six cents, or one German Groschen, because German money was as common in daily use as Dutch currency.
Marie soon became increasingly involved in the business, especially on Sunday mornings after church. Many people had a regular habit of stopping for coffee before harnessing the horse for the journey home. Some stayed at De Leeuw until the afternoon church service.
Bottled spirits were also sold for consumption at home. In her youth, Marie recalled, a bottle of gin cost 64 cents, a small measure eight cents and two measures sixteen cents.
She described the clientele of those days as mainly older married men who came for a drink or a bottle of beer, chatted and played cards. As the evening wore on, the stories grew more dramatic. When the ‘papklok’ rang at nine o’clock, it was time to go home because the next working day began early. Young people were rarely seen in cafés unless accompanied by their father.
Marie also remembered soldiers being quartered there during the First World War, for which the family received 80 cents per day, and refugees from the prisoner-of-war camp at Friedrichsfeld near Wesel. The Kamps family was instructed to feed them before they were transported onwards.
Marie was involved in virtually every aspect of the business. Besides serving in the café and helping in the household, she assisted with bottling, harnessed the horse to the beer wagon and delivered to customers in Aalten and surrounding villages such as Mariënvelde, Zieuwent and Lichtenvoorde. The Kamps beer wagon was also a familiar sight in Bocholt.
She remained closely involved with the café throughout her life, even after marrying Willem Leuven, a painter, in 1924. The café remained very much Marie’s domain.
After Willem Leuven died in 1966, their son L. Leuven and his wife gradually took over the running of the business.
On Saturday afternoon, 15 October 1932, the building burned down completely. The foundation stone of the present building on Landstraat was laid the following year.
Residents
1813
Aalten 65
Carel Jacob Engelbert Blücher (Elberfeld, 1783), printer and dyer
Casper Hoff (1783), servant
1 man
1 woman
1 daughter
1 male servant
1 maid
Population register 1823–1838
Theodoor Wilhelm Meijrink (Aalten, 31-12-1787), shopkeeper
Henrina Christina Joanna Schreven (Bocholt, 02-08-1796)
Population register 1838–1850
Theodoor Wilhelm Meijrink (Aalten, 31-12-1787), shopkeeper
Henrina Christina Joanna Schreven (Bocholt, 02-08-1796)
Next resident: Hendrikus Brethouwer (Aalten, 06-08-1823), shopkeeper
Population register 1850–1860
Hendrikus Brethouwer (Aalten, 06-08-1823), shopkeeper
Next residents:
Hendrikus Georgius Vultink (Aalten, 06-07-1821), brush maker
Josephina Louisa Antonetta Ginther (Winterswijk, 11-05-1820)
Population register 1860–1870
Hendrikus Georgius Vultink, brush maker
Josephina Louisa Antonetta Ginther
Population register 1870–1880
Hendrikus Georgius Vultink, brush maker
Josephina Louisa Antonetta Ginther
Population register 1880–1890
Hendrikus Georgius Vultink, brush maker
Josephina Louisa Antonetta Ginther
Population register 1890–1900
Hendrikus Georgius Vultink, lodging-house keeper
Population register 1900–1910
Hendrikus Georgius Vultink, innkeeper
Next residents, daughter and son-in-law:
Johannes Bernardus Kamps (Winterswijk, 20-07-1861), beer bottler
Elisabeth Johanna Vultink (Aalten, 24-11-1861)
Population register 1910–1920
Johannes Bernardus Kamps, beer bottler
Population register 1920–1930
Aalten A133
Johannes Bernardus Kamps
Next residents, daughter and son-in-law:
Willem Gerhardus Johan Leuven (Aalten, 09-04-1897)
Maria Louisa Josephina Kamps (Aalten, 17-04-1892)
1934 address directory
Aalten A133 > Landstraat 9
W.G.J. Leuven
1967 address directory
Landstraat 9
Mrs M.L.J. Leuven-Kamps
L.B.A. Leuven
G.A.H.B. Kamps
A.J.M. van Eerden
Owners
This overview is not complete.
| Year | Plot | Owner | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1832 | I-1275 | Theodoor Wilhelm Meijerink | 400 m² house & yard |
| 1846 | I-1275 | Joannes Bijnen, surveyor | 400 m² house & yard |
| 1865 | I-1275 | Hendrikus Georgius Vultink, brush maker | 400 m² house & yard |
| 1891 | I-1275 | Elisabeth Johanna Vultink and Johannes Bernardus Kamps, chair maker & coffee-house keeper | 400 m² house & yard |
| 1924 | I-4839 | Maria Louisa Josephina Kamps | 504 m² house, shed & yard |
| 1974 | I-8120 | Lourens Bernardus Antonius Leuven et al., café-restaurateur | 663 m² house, yard, café |