75 years of the United Nations
How does the gardener of the Peace Palace live?
DATE
03 September 2020
TEXT
Herman Jansen
IMAGE
Frank Jansen
Many people come and work in the Peace Palace every day, but there is only one person who also lives there, for over 30 years: the gardener.
Tow do you become a gardener at the Peace Palace? You really need a wheelbarrow for that, you might think. But that was not the case in 1987, when Dolf van Eendenburg (1955, Poeldijk) applied for the vacancy 'Gardener wanted for a country estate in The Hague'. The young Dolf had simply followed the right education and courses. "I worked at a large, old cemetery in Vlaardingen, but a real estate was always my ideal," the still fit protagonist tells us.
'Axes and lanes bring peace to the world'
That estate turned out to be the Peace Palace (1913) of the Carnegie Foundation, named after founder Andrew Carnegie. "At first, of course, it looked fabulous. You came to work in a palace, but it was all new to me and my wife Tineke, who was pregnant. There were guard duties and night shifts attached to it at the time. We lived with three families on the premises." The Van Eendenburg couple are still there. As the only ones. Scary, anything but. "After 9/11, the security and control was obviously tightened up."
Seat
The Peace Palace is the seat of the Permanent Court of Arbitration, the United Nations International Court of Justice, the Hague Academy of International Law, the Peace Palace Library and the Carnegie Foundation, owner and manager of the building. Sometimes hundreds of lawyers work there, but there is only one garden manager. Who was recently named 'garden coordinator' and works with four colleagues and volunteers. Half of the garden is still original.
Gardener Dolf van Eendenburg
English style arts and crafts
Van Eendenburg talks enthusiastically about the English designer. "Thomas Mawson based the garden on the English style arts and crafts: back to handwork and art, as a counterpoint to industrialisation. We still suffer from that, because we still have to do a lot of work by hand because we have a lot of steps and small-scale things in the garden. You can't put in a big mower or a leaf blower here."
'Gorbachev, I almost hit him with the tractor once'
The garden crew does tours with regularity. "Precisely because we have such a nice story. Because that garden wasn't designed just like that. Mawson gave it a lot of thought: lots of water, little shade. And: who are the users who come here? To put it in garden man's way: those countries have to agree to disagree first, and then they can start working here with arbitrators, judges, lawyers and interpreters. In that difficult atmosphere, those people will occasionally go outside for a breath of fresh air, Mawson thought.
 | Read also: Nine pupils from The Hague visited New York to learn about the UN. 'UN needs to pay more attention to plastics' |
In summer it's a paradise here, you can let everything sink in quietly. Everything in the Peace Palace is symmetrical. you see equality left and right, and then you feel: this is where I can tell my story. Imperceptibly, all these things are also woven into the garden. The axes and the avenues bring peace into the world."
Bono and Anouk
Which celebrities have already walked in the garden? "You can name it. The royal family, Bono, Anouk, the Pope, the Daila Lama, Arafat. And Gorbachev, I almost hit him with the tractor once."
Flora and fauna
Enough peace, what all grows and lives here? Van Eendenburg: "The main thing planted in the garden is the rosary. There is a large pond with water lilies and gold carp, On the other side you have the area that turns into forest, marked by the perennial border. There are lots of foxes, and a roe deer every year.
Peregrine falcons
We have the whole bird pack, from peregrine falcons and owls to the kingfisher. The Hague Brook runs through the garden and it also takes in polecats and such. Cats are also often thrown over the wall. And I have two pigs."
Finally, does the garden boss have a garden himself? "No, the house actually blends into the big garden and the garden shed is the Peace Palace."
text Herman Jansen / image Frank Jansen
Many people come and work in the Peace Palace every day, but there is only one person who also lives there, for over 30 years: the gardener.
Tow do you become a gardener at the Peace Palace? You really need a wheelbarrow for that, you might think. But that was not the case in 1987, when Dolf van Eendenburg (1955, Poeldijk) applied for the vacancy 'Gardener wanted for a country estate in The Hague'. The young Dolf had simply followed the right education and courses. "I worked at a large, old cemetery in Vlaardingen, but a real estate was always my ideal," the still fit protagonist tells us.
'Axes and lanes bring peace to the world'
That estate turned out to be the Peace Palace (1913) of the Carnegie Foundation, named after founder Andrew Carnegie. "At first, of course, it looked fabulous. You came to work in a palace, but it was all new to me and my wife Tineke, who was pregnant. There were guard duties and night shifts attached to it at the time. We lived with three families on the premises." The Van Eendenburg couple are still there. As the only ones. Scary, anything but. "After 9/11, the security and control was obviously tightened up."
Seat
The Peace Palace is the seat of the Permanent Court of Arbitration, the United Nations International Court of Justice, the Hague Academy of International Law, the Peace Palace Library and the Carnegie Foundation, owner and manager of the building. Sometimes hundreds of lawyers work there, but there is only one garden manager. Who was recently named 'garden coordinator' and works with four colleagues and volunteers. Half of the garden is still original.
Gardener Dolf van Eendenburg
English style arts and crafts
Van Eendenburg talks enthusiastically about the English designer. "Thomas Mawson based the garden on the English style arts and crafts: back to handwork and art, as a counterpoint to industrialisation. We still suffer from that, because we still have to do a lot of work by hand because we have a lot of steps and small-scale things in the garden. You can't put in a big mower or a leaf blower here."
'Gorbachev, I almost hit him with the tractor once'
The garden crew does tours with regularity. "Precisely because we have such a nice story. Because that garden wasn't designed just like that. Mawson gave it a lot of thought: lots of water, little shade. And: who are the users who come here? To put it in garden man's way: those countries have to agree to disagree first, and then they can start working here with arbitrators, judges, lawyers and interpreters. In that difficult atmosphere, those people will occasionally go outside for a breath of fresh air, Mawson thought.
| Read also: Nine pupils from The Hague visited New York to learn about the UN. 'UN needs to pay more attention to plastics' |
In summer it's a paradise here, you can let everything sink in quietly. Everything in the Peace Palace is symmetrical. you see equality left and right, and then you feel: this is where I can tell my story. Imperceptibly, all these things are also woven into the garden. The axes and the avenues bring peace into the world."
Bono and Anouk
Which celebrities have already walked in the garden? "You can name it. The royal family, Bono, Anouk, the Pope, the Daila Lama, Arafat. And Gorbachev, I almost hit him with the tractor once."
Flora and fauna
Enough peace, what all grows and lives here? Van Eendenburg: "The main thing planted in the garden is the rosary. There is a large pond with water lilies and gold carp, On the other side you have the area that turns into forest, marked by the perennial border. There are lots of foxes, and a roe deer every year.
Peregrine falcons
We have the whole bird pack, from peregrine falcons and owls to the kingfisher. The Hague Brook runs through the garden and it also takes in polecats and such. Cats are also often thrown over the wall. And I have two pigs."
Finally, does the garden boss have a garden himself? "No, the house actually blends into the big garden and the garden shed is the Peace Palace."
