Nicolaas Wilhelmus Posthumus

Nicolaas Wilhelmus Posthumus ( born February 26, 1880 in Amsterdam, † April 18, 1960 in Bussum ) was a Dutch economic historian and archivist.

Life

Born as the son of Nicolaas Wilhelmus Posthumus and Huibertje IJzerman, he first studied law. With the founding of the university, he was from 1913 to 1921 professor of economic history at the Netherlands Institute of Commerce in Rotterdam. From 1914 he was also secretary of the association "Dutch Economic- Historical Archive " in The Hague. In 1922 he was a lecturer at the Faculty Letteren en Wijsbegeerte the University of Amsterdam. In 1932 he founded the " Economic- Historical Library ".

In 1935, Posthumus founded in Amsterdam Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis the ( IISH ), funded by the Social Democratic workers insurance " De Centrale ". He wanted to save politically endangered archival and library collections mainly from Germany, Austria and Spain, serving the historic socialism research. This included the Party Archive of the Social Democratic Party of Germany with discounts of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. In the interiors, the " International Archives for the Women's Movement " was housed.

After the Second World War, he founded the Nederlands Instituut voor Oorlogsdocumentatie, where he was until 1949 Chairman of the Board.