Dutch journalist, stock broker, Marxist thinker and Labour Party pioneer.
He was the son of Willem van der Goes (4 March 1815, Ravenstein – 27 October 1881, A’dam) and Johanna Cnoop Koopman (30 Jan 1830 A’dam – 26 September 1896, A’dam), who married 31 Augustus 1854 in Amsterdam. His father was a captain of the artillery, who became an insurance broker.
The Flemish Primitive painter Hugo van der Goes was in his ancestry as were many Dutch regents between 1480 and 1795. His parents got five children: Margaretha (1855), Johanna Louise (1857), Franc (1859), Aert (1861-1878) and Catahrina (1864). As Aert died at age 17, Frank was supposed to succeed his father and was not called to arms (only son).
After his father’s death (1881), Frank took over his father’s business as a Dutch representative of the American Insurance Company “1’Equitable” and became director of the steamboat company Amsterdam-Rotterdam. Like Willem Witsen, he could permit to financially support friends and projects.
He studied at the Amsterdam HBS (1873-1878) with Jacques Perk under Dr. Willem Doorenbos. He learned for insurance broker at the “Assurantiekantoor van Ter Meulen” (1878), worked some years at the Amsterdam stock exchange, but his passions were letters and politics.
He wrote theatre critics for “De Amsterdammer, Weekblad voor Nederland” and became secretary of the Multatuli-Commissie in 1881. Conrad Busken Huet and Multatuli were his examples, as were H.Th. Buckle and Herbert, from whom he learned to think sociologically when describing history. His pseudonyms were: D.[en] H.[aag], Mr. F.P.V.K. and Ph. Hack van Outheusden, a name he found in his ancestry.
He was with M.B. Mendes da Costa the founder of the literary dispute Flanor. Flanor was erected 14 June 1881 in Amsterdam. The first working meetings started 18 October 1881, the last Flanor notes date from 22 June 1886. Early members of Flanor were Frank van der Goes, Frederik van Eeden, Willem Kloos, Willem Paap, Arnold Aletrino (since Dec 1884), Hein Boeken, Frans Erens, Charles Marius van Deventer, Karel Joan Lodewijk Alberdingk Thijm (Pseudonym of Lodewijk van Deyssel), Albert Verwey, the painters Jacobus van Looy, Jan Pieter Veth, Willem Witsen and Gerard Muller, the actor Arnold Ising jr. and the architect C.B. Posthumus Meyjes (sr.). His mentor Dr. Willem Doorenbos was a regular attender.
In 1885 he helped founding “De Nieuwe Gids” (The New Guide). In 1886 he wrote the pamphlet “Majesteitsschennis” in defence of the socialist Ferdinand Domela Nieuwenhuis, who was imprisoned. He was temporally banned form stock exchange for it. He was born as a Protestant, but in 1887 he became a member of the Freemason lodge “De dageraad” (1855) of the publisher R.C. d’Ablaing van Giessenburg. In 1889 he sympathised with socialism and in 1890 he openly pleaded for it. That year he visited the Halle convention of the just erected “Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands” (SPD) of Ferdinand Lassalle, after the end of the anti-socialist legislation. As an engaged journalist he would visit many more historic congresses and happenings lile the funeral of Friedrich Engels. But in his moderate version of socialism and communism, private property would stay, only capital goods as production assets and raw materials had to be nationalised. This brought him into conflict with A. Rot, the chairman of the Amsterdam department of the “Sociaal-Democratische Bond” (SDB), which he had joined July 1891.
It was a confusing time, in which he wanted to erect the Dutch counterpart of the Fabian Society in Zwolle (4 October 1891), along with AH and Gerhard D. de Clercq. He underwent the influence of William Morris, of whom he translated around 1897 News from Nowhere. In 1892 he lost his jobs as Amsterdam stock broker and teacher of declamation at the Amsterdam Theatre School and Conservatory, after a clear socialistic sounding speech. In 1893 he broke with the “l’art pour l’art” New Guide, as Willem Kloos did not want to follow his politically engaged course.
With Pieter Jelles Troelstra and Hendrik Spiekman, he became one of the “the twelve apostles of the SDAP” Dutch Labour party, today’s the Dutch labour party “Partij van de Arbeid”. The “Sociaal-Democratische Arbeiderspartij” (SDAP) was founded 26 Augustus 1894 in the taverne “Atlas” located Ossenmarkt 9 in Zwolle, as an alternative to the “Sociaal-Democratische Bond” (SDB) of Domela Nieuwenhuis. He wrote in left wing periodicals as “De Kroniek” and “De Nieuwe Tijd” (1896).
With Maurits Triebels and Anton Pannekoek he translated Das Kapital of Marx. In 1903 Van der Goes was sentenced to 4 months of prison for sedition.
In 1932 Van der Goes left the SDAP, as is was going to the right in his eyes. The SDAP board considered him too much a gentleman, that did not appeal to labourers. Later he was honoured as their spiritual father. He went to the “Onafhankelijke Socialistische Partij” (OSP) of Piet J. Schmidt and Jacques de Kadt and edited the OSP party magazine “De Fakkel” (The torch). Soon after the OSP fused with the “Revolutionair-Socialistische Partij” (RSP) to become the “Revolutionair-Socialistische Arbeiderspartij”(RSAP), he left it, as he found it to anarchistic and erected with others the “Bond van Revolutionaire Socialisten” (BRS).
Personal
Frank was an imposing figure, being tall for his time (1.82 m), well dressed and with an impressive voice.
On 2 March 1893 he married the 19 years old Maria Koens in Nieuwer-Amstel. They got four daughters. He died age 80 on 5 June 1939 in Laren, shortly before the first two SDAP socialists became a minister in a Dutch cabinet .
Link to Dutch Wikipedia