{"id":191571,"date":"1962-12-23T22:59:00","date_gmt":"1962-12-23T20:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oldaalten.nl\/?p=191571"},"modified":"2026-09-21T21:57:58","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T19:57:58","slug":"nozems-and-nuns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oldaalten.nl\/en\/aalten-achteruit\/nozems-and-nuns\/","title":{"rendered":"Nozems & Nuns"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Black Zorro Club<\/h2>\n

In the mid-1950s, a new phenomenon emerged in the Netherlands: the nozem<\/em>. The word roughly meant a rebellious youngster or rebel and was one of the earliest examples of what we would now call youth culture.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nozems were known for their quiffs, leather jackets, jeans and mopeds, and followed a rather different moral code from that of older generations.<\/p>\n

Nozem culture also reached Aalten\u2019s young people. In the early 1960s, members of the Black Zorro Club tore through the streets on souped-up Kreidlers and Z\u00fcndapps, often with a fox tail fluttering from the handlebars. In this way they challenged orderly authority, much to the annoyance of respectable Aalten citizens.<\/p>\n

The nozems could often be found in local caf\u00e9s, at the cafeteria of Knippenborg bakery on Plein Zuid or in their clubhouse on Peperstraat, in the former Breekveldt hat shop<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There were sometimes confrontations with rival groups of nozems from nearby towns such as Doetinchem, Winterswijk and Bocholt. The latter called themselves the Halbstarken<\/em>. They rode their mopeds to Aalten to cause trouble, producing Wild West-like scenes in the otherwise devout little town.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Nuns of St Elisabeth Convent<\/h2>\n
\"Nuns\"<\/figure>\n

From the late nineteenth century onwards, the nuns of St Elisabeth Convent<\/a> taught Catholic schoolchildren in Aalten. The sisters also ran a sewing and knitting school there.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Not everyone retained fond memories of the nuns. That was probably the only thing they had in common with the nozems.<\/p>\n

Vintage Moped Club<\/h3>\n

Since 2015, a vintage moped club has been active in Aalten and the surrounding area under the memorable name De Nozems en de Nonnen<\/a>. The group organises rides through the Achterhoek and uses the dialect motto \u201cGin brommers kieken, moar d\u2019r van genieten\u201d<\/em> \u2014 roughly, \u201cDon\u2019t just look at mopeds; enjoy them.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Source (among others):<\/h2>\n
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    \n
  • Aalten in Roerige Jaren<\/em>, part 1, Hans de Beukelaer, Leo van der Linde & Aad Schepers<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    In the 1950s and 1960s, Aalten too experienced the rise of the nozem youth culture, including the local Black Zorro Club.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11236,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[653,657],"tags":[],"inhoudstype":[1245],"thema":[1974],"periode":[2008],"emigratie_onderwerp":[],"class_list":["post-191571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aalten-achteruit","category-youth-culture","inhoudstype-story","thema-culture","periode-1945-to-1970"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldaalten.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldaalten.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldaalten.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldaalten.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldaalten.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191571"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/oldaalten.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191571\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":191612,"href":"https:\/\/oldaalten.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191571\/revisions\/191612"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldaalten.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldaalten.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldaalten.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldaalten.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191571"},{"taxonomy":"inhoudstype","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldaalten.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/inhoudstype?post=191571"},{"taxonomy":"thema","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldaalten.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/thema?post=191571"},{"taxonomy":"periode","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldaalten.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/periode?post=191571"},{"taxonomy":"emigratie_onderwerp","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldaalten.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/emigratie_onderwerp?post=191571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}