Most of what happens on national talk shows is forgettable. Only very rarely something truly compelling happens. For me, this was a conversation on Dutch television between the Dutch progressive left’s darling, author Adriaan van Dis, and investigative journalist Willem Oltmans in 1985. In my memory, the well-known agitator Oltmans had provoked the intellectual Van Dis to the brink of irritation, and it was only due to Van Dis’s charm that the exchange didn’t escalate into a physical altercation. Yet, viewing it thirty years later, I observe something entirely different. A vulnerable Oltmans discusses his isolated youth and is met with nothing but icy arrogance from Van Dis. Watching the episode through this lens, Oltmans’ critique of the Dutch establishment, once snubbed, now crackles with an urgency that’s impossible to ignore, as anti-establishment fires rage hotter than ever.
Willem Leonard Oltmans (1925-2004), the “enfant terrible” of Dutch journalism, was a relentless thorn in the side of the Dutch establishment. He constantly rocked the boat with his reports across newspapers and television, igniting feuds with the powers that be. The high and mighty threw labels at him like darts. Joseph Luns, former Minister of Foreign Affairs, sneered at him as the “single-engine mosquito”; J.M. Bik, the scribe from NRC Handelsblad, dismissed him as a “drama queen”; and G.B.J. Hiltermann, the oracle of political commentary, blasted him as an “ambitious and pathological liar”. Two decades after his death, Oltmans is remembered as a peevish brawler, provocateur, a mere footnote in the annals of journalistic mischief.
Yet, beneath the very public confrontations and shouting matches he was famous for, Willem Oltmans was directly involved in significant historical events of the 20th century. He covered issues such as the conflict over New Guinea between the Netherlands and Indonesia, the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the military coup in Suriname led by Desi Bouterse. His reporting covered the entire world, from the United States to the USSR and from Europe to South-Africa. Oltmans had the remarkable ability to be present at pivotal moments in history, consistently amplifying the voices of those less heard. The account of his encounter with Lee Harvey Oswald’s mother at Dallas airport is nothing short of riveting, leaving one amazed at his journalistic ingenuity. How did he manage to pull off such a feat? Throughout his career, he maintained that his endeavours were thwarted by the Dutch government.
The establishment, feeling the heat from Oltmans’ relentless pursuit of truth and accountability, threw roadblocks in his path with bureaucratic zeal. The climax came in the early ’90s when Oltmans took his battle to the courts. After a marathon of legal wrangling, the state rewarded him with eight million guilders, tax-free, a silent nod to the years of obstruction. Yet, in a move as predictable as it was petty, the Dutch government stopped short of calling it an admission of guilt, nor did they deign to publicly own up to their part in the official obstruction. Oltmans remarked pointedly: “When it comes down to it, the Dutchman manifests himself as the scary, petty-bourgeois, complacent grocer from the Haarlemmerhouttuinen who can’t take a loss.”
Exploring Oltmans’ private archive, we discovered a man who meticulously documented every interaction and thought in hundreds of green binders throughout his life. He detailed his encounters, reflections, emotions and observations, spanning from familial relationships to friendships, from his intellectual evolution to the pivotal journalistic and political events he was part of. His diaries, enriched with newspaper clippings, documents and photographs, not only illuminate the significant historical moments he witnessed but also unveil a more intimate, personal side of a man who strived to maintain a public persona of a professional provocateur. Particularly poignant are the straightforward accounts of the discrimination he faced due to his homosexuality. Most notably, the diaries underscore that Oltmans’ struggle against the establishment was deeply personal, rooted in his upbringing among powerful families such as the Roëlls, Lippe-Biesterfelds, Bicker Caartens and Van Eeghens. His privileged background, coupled with his ties to the royal household, equipped him with a critic’s insider perspective. This unique position made him not only a formidable adversary to the establishment but arguably the only individual with both the credentials and the courage to take on such a challenge.