★★★★★ 5.0
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Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Five students. That's all who showed up when Abraham Kuyper opened the Netherlands' first Protestant university right here in 1880. But get this - by the 1960s, over 200,000 people were literally going door-to-door with little green collection boxes to keep this place running! Ten thousand fundraisers, mostly women, walking the streets collecting coins because the government wouldn't fund a "free" university. You're standing in Amsterdam's Zuidas Knowledge District now, but this modern campus tells an incredible David-and-Goliath story. Kuyper wasn't just some professor - he became Prime Minister of the Netherlands while still running this university! The locals call this area "Amsterdam's Manhattan" now, but back then it was just empty fields south of the city. That sleek building complex behind you houses nearly 25,000 students today, all mixed together without traditional faculty divisions - Kuyper's original vision of breaking down barriers still lives on. From five nervous students in borrowed church rooms to one of Europe's top research universities... not bad for a guy who insisted on being "free" from everyone else's rules.
Did You Know?
- The Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU) was founded in 1880 by Abraham Kuyper, a leading Calvinist minister, journalist, and future Dutch prime minister, as the first Protestant university in the Netherlands—uniquely independent from both the government and the Dutch Reformed Church, reflecting Kuyper’s vision of ‘sovereignty in one’s own circle’ and the integration of faith and science.
- The university’s original symbol, ‘The Virgin in the Garden,’ features a maiden pointing to God, symbolizing the Protestant Reformation, while its modern mascot, the mythical griffin, was introduced in 1990—offering families and children a fun way to connect with VU’s blend of history and imagination.
- During World War II, VU’s management courageously closed the university in 1943 to resist Nazi demands for student labor in Germany; several university buildings then secretly became centers for the Dutch resistance, and a memorial plaque in the main building honors those who lost their lives—a powerful, lesser-known chapter in VU’s history.