Multatuli | |
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.jpg) Eduard Douwes Dekker, also known as Multatuli in 1864 | |
| Born | Eduard Douwes Dekker (1820-03-02)2 March 1820 |
| Died | 19 February 1887(1887-02-19) (aged 66) |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Spouse(s) | Everdine Hubertina van Wijnbergen Maria Hamminck Schepel |
| Children | 2 |
| Parents |
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Eduard Douwes Dekker (2 March 1820 – 19 February 1887), better known by his pen nameMultatuli (fromLatinmulta tulī, "I have suffered much"), was a Dutch writer best known for his satirical novelMax Havelaar (1860), which denounced the abuses ofcolonialism in theDutch East Indies (today'sIndonesia). He is considered one of the Netherlands' greatest authors.[1]
Eduard Douwes Dekker was born inAmsterdam,[2] the fourth of five children of aMennonite family: the other children were Catharina (1809–1849), Pieter Engel (1812–1861), Jan (1816–1864), and Willem (1823–1840).[3] Their mother, Sietske Eeltjes Klein (sometimes written "Klijn"), was born onAmeland.[3]
Multatuli's father, Engel Douwes Dekker, worked as asea captain from theZaan district ofNorth Holland.[4] Engel inherited the surnames of both his parents, Pieter Douwes and Engeltje Dekker, and Multatuli's family retained both names.[5][6] Multatuli's elder brother, Jan Douwes Dekker (1816–1864), was the grandfather ofErnest Douwes Dekker, a politician of Dutch-Javanese descent.
As an adolescent, Multatuli attended school in Amsterdam, at theLatin school located at theSingel. A precursor of the present dayBarlaeus Gymnasium.[3] His father originally intended for Eduard to become aminister, though the idea was later abandoned.[3][6] Eduard then worked for a time at a textile firm, as aclerk.[7]
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In 1838, he left on one of his father's ships forBatavia (present-dayJakarta) in theDutch East Indies, where over the next two decades he held a series of colonial government posts.[1][2][3] Initially employed in the general accounting department,[3] he was promoted in the following years to administrative officer, although he disliked financial work.[3]
In 1842, he was appointed comptroller of the troubled district ofNatal,Noord Sumatra,Dutch East Indies (now part ofIndonesia).[8]
In 1843 a 13-year-old girl, Si Oepi Ketch, a member of a Sumatran noble family, was offered to Douwes Dekker. Douwes Dekker later described her as "one of my first loves". A lock of hair, which Douwes Dekker kept with him all his life, is still kept at the Multatuli Museum. Back then it was very common to match young native women with single Dutch civil servants.[9][10]
Financial irregularities and a deficit in funds – at least some of which dated to before his time in office – led to a serious reprimand from the governor ofSumatra's west coastal region,GeneralAndreas Victor Michiels, and to a temporary suspension.[8] Aggrieved, he wrote a revenge playDe Oneerbare (The Dishonorable Man), later published asDe bruid daarboven (The Upstairs Bride). He would later include a version of this episode in his satirical novelMax Havelaar.
Although the general was later shown to have been in the wrong in the matter of the reprimand, Douwes Dekker himself acknowledged that he was not well suited to administrative work.[8] He annoyed his colleagues not solely by his errors and delays but by not adhering to the unwritten rules of the local civil service. Eventually, after refunding the deficit out of his own pocket, he was put on temporary leave and then transferred elsewhere.[8]
After holding several subordinate government positions inNanjing inQing dynastyChina andPurworedjo inJavaunder colonial rule (now part ofIndonesia), Douwes Dekker was appointed secretary to theResident ofMenado inNoord-Celebes (now also part ofIndonesia) in 1848. Here his career recovered, at least in part because the resident,Reinier Scherius, shared his strong sense of fair play towards the indigenous population. On his departure in 1851, Scherius recommended Douwes Dekker as his successor. The government decided otherwise; Multatuli had again amassed a deficit in the official funds and had also run up private debts, a situation that raised suspicions of financial irregularities but was never cleared up. Nonetheless, at the end of 1851 he was promoted up the administrative ladder, being sent toAmbon as Assistant Resident.
After a few months, he went on furlough to the Netherlands for health reasons. From 1852 to May 1855 he was in Holland, where he gambled extensively and accumulated more debt. Despite his later success as a writer, he would be pursued by creditors for most of his adult life.
In 1857 he was appointed Assistant Resident ofLebak, in theBantam-Kidoel area of Java (nowBanten province in Indonesia).[2] By this time, however, he had begun to openly protest against the abuses of the Dutch colonial system and was threatened with dismissal. Instead, he resigned his appointment and returned to the Netherlands.[2]
Determined to expose the scandals he had witnessed during his years in the Dutch East Indies, Douwes Dekker began to write newspaper articles and pamphlets. Little notice was taken of these early publications until, in 1860, he published his satirical anticolonialist novelMax Havelaar: The Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company under the pseudonym Multatuli.[11] Douwes Dekker's pen name is derived from the Latin phrasemulta tuli, meaning "I have suffered much" (or more literally: "I have borne much"). It refers both to himself and to the victims of the injustices he saw.
Douwes Dekker was accepted in 1854 at theFreemason loge "Concordia Vincit Animos".[12] The head of this loge was W.J.C. van Hasselt. Multatuli sent his manuscript of Max Havelaar to Van Hasselt, and Van Hasselt sent this manuscript to another Freemason,Jacob van Lennep.
The very first text ever published by Multatuli was "Geloofsbelydenis" (Profession of Faith). It appeared in the Freemason periodical "De Dageraad" (The Dawn) in 1859. In 1865 it was reprinted in "Bloemlezing door Multatuli" by R.C. Meijer, a fellow Freemason in Amsterdam.[13] Already in 1861 the book "Minnebrieven" (Love letters) was published at the same printer/bookseller. Many more books and editions of Dekker were published by R.C. Meijer.
Although Douwes Dekker's friend and fellow writerJacob van Lennep had seen to it that identifiable place names were changed before publication, the book still caused enormous controversy.[14] Apologists for colonialism accused Multatuli of exaggeration, and he was unsuccessfully pressured to withdraw the inflammatory book.[14] Critics claimed it lacked literary merit; nonetheless,Max Havelaar was read all over Europe.[11] The poet and criticCarel Vosmaer proved to be an ally, publishing a book (The Sower, 1874) praising Multatuli.[15]
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Multatuli continued to write prolifically. His misleadingly titled second book,Minnebrieven (Love Letters, 1861), is actually another mordant satire, this time in the form of a fictitious correspondence.[1] The following year, he began to publish a wide range of miscellaneous writings in a series of uniform volumes calledIdeën (Ideas), of which seven appeared between 1862 and 1877.[2] His semi-autobiographical novelWoutertje Pieterse (Little Walter Pieterse) was first printed in theIdeas series.[2]
Multatuli made several attempts to write for the stage. One of his plays,Vorstenschool (The School for Princes; published in 1872 in the fourth volume ofIdeën), expresses his nonconformist views on politics, society, and religion. For fear of offending the Dutch king, he let three years elapse before the play was first staged. The premiere and subsequent tour were a great success, forming one of the highlights of Multatuli's career as a writer.
Multatuli stopped writing rather suddenly in 1877. He had moved to Germany about ten years earlier, where he settled in the town ofIngelheim am Rhein nearMainz.[2][14]
Multatuli married Everdine Hubertina van Wijnbergen on 10 April 1846. They had two children, their son Edu (born 1854) and their daughter Nonni (born 1857). Multatuli's relationship with Edu remained difficult throughout his life.
Multatuli eventually separated from his wife, in large part due to his gambling addiction and related financial problems.[14] She died in 1874 and Multatuli not long afterwards married Maria Hamminck Schepel.[14]
Multatuli was one ofSigmund Freud's favorite writers; his name heads a list of 'ten good books' that Freud drew up in 1907.[16] Several other writers from different generations were appreciative of Multatuli, likeKarl Marx,Anatole France,Willem Elsschot,Hermann Hesse,Thomas Mann,Heinrich Mann as well asJohanna van Gogh, and many first-wave feminists (suffragists).
In June 2002, the DutchMaatschappij der Nederlandse Letterkunde (Society of Dutch Literature) proclaimed Multatuli the most important Dutch writer of all time.[17]
The annualMultatuli Prize, a Dutch literary prize, is named in his honor. The literary awardWoutertje Pieterse Prijs is named after the characterWoutertje Pieterse in Multatuli'sDe geschiedenis van Woutertje Pieterse.
TheMultatuli Museum is located in Amsterdam at Korsjespoortsteeg 20, where Eduard Douwes Dekker was born. AnotherMultatuli Museum was opened on 11 February 2018 inRangkasbitung,Lebak Regency in the province ofBanten, Indonesia.[18] Multatuli wascremated inGotha. His ashes were later brought to the cemetery and crematorium Westerveld inDriehuis.[19] His wife Tine is buried in the Protestant section ofthe San Michele cemetery.[20]
AnIndonesian Navy command ship was namedKRI Multatuli in honor of Eduard Douwes Dekker.
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This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Dekker, Edward Douwes".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 7 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 938.
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