'Ik Zit Teveel In M'n Hoofd!!' (collection of Maarten-Kees strips)
Adriaan Soeterbroek was a Dutch cartoonist, who mostly worked for specialized magazines and the Dutch trade union FNV. For the welfare weekly Het Welzijnsweekblad, he created the comic features 'Café Welwezen' (1978-1981) and 'Maarten-Kees' (1981-1982). Between 2010 and 2012, he was a political cartoonist for the left wing opinion website Joop.nl.
'Café Welwezen!' (Welzijnsweekblad, 17 March 1978).
Life and career
Adriaan Soeterbroek was born in 1945 in Pijnacker, a horticultural village in the province of South Holland. In 1970, he settled in Alkmaar, where he began working as a self-employed, and self-taught, cartoonist. Working mostly for commercial clients, Soeterbroek was a longtime contributor to the magazines and other publications of the Federation of Dutch Trade Unions, FNV. Another regular client was Welzijnsweekblad, a professional journal for social workers in the Netherlands. For this title, he created two weekly comic strips, first the one-page gag series 'Café Welwezen!' (1978-1981), then the gag strip about social worker 'Maarten-Kees' (1981-1982). After a 1981 self-published comic book collection of 'Café Welwezen!', the 'Maarten-Kees' strips were collected in 1982 in a landscape-format booklet by Sjaloom.
'Café Welwezen'.
Joop.nl
Between 23 January 2010 and 18 September 2012, Soeterbroek's cartoons ran on the left wing opinion website Joop.nl, part of broadcasting organization VARA. Contributing two or three times a week, a regular target in his cartoons was Geert Wilders of the far-right party PVV, known for his staunch opinions on immigration and Islam. Soeterbroek's cartoon of 11 February 2011 caused uproar, as it compared Wilders' plan for "scum villages" - supposed places where repeat offenders live isolated from society - with the Nazi concentration camps of World War II. The cartoon showed Wilders leading the "scum" to the showers, drawing a comparison with prisoners who were gassed in the "showers" in the Nazi camps. As a result, the PVV refused to participate in an election debate on the VARA talk show 'Pauw & Witteman'. On 24 February, the editors removed the cartoon from the website, because employees of the broadcaster were so seriously threatened that they couldn't properly do their work any longer.
Soeterbroek's controversial 11 February 2011 cartoon for Joop.nl.
In September 2011, Soeterbroek contributed another controversial Wilders cartoon, responding to the PVV's plan to give the Dutch monarch less political power. The drawing showed Geert Wilders lying on the ground with scissors in his chest, while in the background Queen Beatrix is seen walking away with scissors in her hand.
Death
On 21 June 2023, the Friends of the History of the Trade Union Movement Foundation (VHV) announced on their social media accounts the death of longtime FNV cartoonist Adriaan Soeterbroek.
Portrait of Adriaan Soeterbroek, posted on 21 June 2011 by the Friends of the History of the Trade Union Movement Foundation.