Little bridge of Bartje

The bridge over the Reest, is also known as the bridge of Bartje. Here are recordings made of the television series Bartje while he walks over this bridge with a goat.

Bartje Bartels is the main character of two regional novels by Anne Vries and has become the figurehead of Drenthe. He is also very well known outside the province. Almost every Dutchman knows what Bartje does not want to eat. Kidney beans..

The Dutch teacher Anne de Vries (1904-1964) grew up in the village of Kloosterveen, near Assen. Writing was an early part of his mind. As a student he wrote pieces for the Asser Courant. Later, the school teacher moved to Zeist, but he always remembered Drenthe with love. Out of nostalgia for his native land, he wrote his famous youth novel Bartje in the winter of 1934-1935. The work was published by the then well-known Nijkerk publishing house Callenbach and became a huge success. Best known is the scene in which young Bartje tells his parents in no uncertain terms that he should not know anything about kidney beans: "I don't pray for brown beans!"

Young Bartje grew up in a poor farmworker family. He thinks kidney beans are the most disgusting food there is. It makes him nauseous when he thinks about how to take the first tough bite. And he's stubborn. He really doesn't like it, so he doesn't eat. His father reacts furiously when Bartje has stated that he does not even want to pray for the kidney beans. De Vries' book is, of course, about more than brown vouchers. The regional novel mainly describes the childhood of a young dreamy farmer's son, born into a poor family that tries to stay afloat during the crisis years. The witty Bartje, always to be poked for a beautiful bad boy's area, always tries to deal creatively with the lack of money. Due to a region of Bartje and his brother, father even loses his job one day, making the family even poorer.

Although De Vries was inspired by his childhood memories when writing, his famous work should not be considered an autobiography. The book has been translated into German, Swedish, Finnish, Danish, Norwegian, Czech and Hungarian. Later, de Vries wrote a sequel to the work: Bartje seeks happiness.

In 1972 Bartje was made into a film for a seven-part television series, directed by Willy van Hemert. Just like the book, this series was a resounding success and eventually ensured that Bartje became the symbol of Drenthe. The role of the young Bartje was played in the series by nine-year-old Jan Krol. Jaap Schadenberg took on the role of the somewhat older Bartje. All roles were played by native Drenten and the dialogues were conducted in the regional language with subtitles in General Dutch. The series was broadcast in seven episodes by the NCRV, beginning on December 26, 1972. In the summer of 1985, the series was repeated. In 2004, the NCRV also repeated the TV series, but had reduced the original 55-minute episodes to a (easier for the broadcaster) length of 45 minutes.

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