Defence line of Amsterdam – Van Meurs after Plantenga, 1882

“Stelling van Amsterdam” lithograph made by M. van Meurs after a design by M.H.J. Plantenga, printed in 1882 by A.J. Bogaerts on commission for the Royal Military Academy in Breda. Coloured by a later hand. Size: 60 × 71 cm.

The Stelling of Amsterdam [defence line of Amsterdam] was a circular defensive line located approximately 15 to 20 kilometres from the centre of Amsterdam. The line had a total length of about 135 kilometres and would eventually comprise 45 forts and batteries. Construction began around 1880 and was not completed until about 1920.

The Stelling was primarily a water-based defensive system. In the event of hostilities, large areas surrounding Amsterdam could be deliberately flooded by means of inundations. This layer of water was intentionally kept shallow: too deep for advancing infantry and artillery, yet too shallow for navigation. In this way, the enemy was brought to a halt. Amsterdam thus functioned as a national reduit: the last defensible core area of the Netherlands, where the army, government, and vital infrastructure could maintain themselves.

The forts were strategically positioned at so-called “accessen“: points where roads, railways, dikes, or canals crossed the waterline. Locations where the inundation water was deep enough for boats were also considered vulnerable and had to be covered by fire. Together, forts, inundation fields, sluices, and embankments formed a single integrated defensive system.

In the event of an enemy advance, the field army would withdraw within the ring of forts and hold out there, together with the civilian population, until foreign assistance would liberate the Netherlands. Within the Stelling, sufficient food, drinking water, fuel, and military supplies had to be available to withstand a siege of at least six months.

For this reason, parts of the Haarlemmermeer and the Beemster were included within the line as an agricultural hinterland. Coal depots and food warehouses were established, including large grain storage facilities such as the Korthals Altes grain silo. Near the Fort at the Nieuwe Meer, sufficient fresh groundwater was found; between 1901 and 1905 the Military Drinking Water Supply was established there for pumping and purification.

The Hemveld area along the North Sea Canal provided space for artillery, while two gunpowder factories were also located within the Stelling: near Ouderkerk aan de Amstel and in Muiden.

Although the Stelling of Amsterdam was never actually used in combat, it was fully mobilised and operational during the First World War. In 1914, the Stelling and the “Nieuwe Hollandse Waterlinie” together formed a deterrent factor that contributed to Germany’s decision not to invade the Netherlands.

Price: Euro 650,-