De Locomotief was the first newspaper published inSemarang, in the era ofDutch East Indies. It was established in 1845 and led byPieter Brooshooft, an ethical political activist.
The daily was originally namedSemarangsch Nieuws en Advertentieblad. In 1863 it was renamedDe Locomotief, after the passage of the first train in Semarang.
The paper was closed during thesecond world war but in 1947 the dailyDe Locomotief was re-opened again.[1]
TheDutch language newspaper was cited outside of Indonesia in the 1950s as a source of information aboutIndonesian War of Independence issues.[2]
In 1956, the newspaper was closed and the building was taken over by theBumi Daya Bank after the renovation.
A significant part of the run of the newspaper was microfilmed.[3][4]
The material in the newspaper has been used to review events that occurred during the era of the Netherlands East Indies.[5]