For Berlage, the Beurs was a fantastic laboratory—a project where he could not only implement his ideas about a new architectural style but also realize his vision for a fairer society. From this collectivist perspective, he wanted the new Stock Exchange to become a work where various art disciplines formed an equal and unified whole. This “Gesamtkunstwerk” was meant to stimulate people’s intellectual development and become a magnificent community creation, according to Berlage.
His friend and kindred spirit Albert Verwey (1865–1937) was tasked with conceptualizing the wall decorations, sculptures, and reliefs for the stock exchange building. This self-taught literary scholar, historian, and philosopher helped Berlage unite the sculptures and poetic foundations of the Beurs with the architectural design, creating an organic whole.
De decorations
The quatrains
In eighteen insightful quatrains, poet/writer Albert Verwey expressed Berlage’s deeper thoughts about the stock exchange building. The poems served as a guide for the decorations inside and outside the building. The artists working on the sculptures, reliefs, friezes, and glasswork each based their creations on one of the quatrains. Together, the quatrains form a beautiful poem (Dutch only).
Relief at the main entrance
The current main entrance was formerly used to access the Skippers Exchange and the Coffee House. The relief illustrates how international trade—symbolized by boats, goods, and pack animals from all directions, such as horses, bulls, and camels—promotes brotherhood among the world’s peoples, including the Chinese, Arabs, and Westerners. As described in the quatrain, this would ultimately lead to a united Europe and even a united world: equitable and just. The wagon and ship depicted on the keystones symbolize the transport that connects all these cultures and peoples.
“The earth shall soon be one: the peoples seem as summoned
To one bond that governs all the globe.
By land, by sea, strives train, strives fleet
Toward the changing goal to which they call each other.“
The keystones
“The keystone that holds the arches together
Shall bear as a sign above our heads
Arc net and plough, ship, fire gear: they promised
Did not those few things build the whole world?“
The keystones of the Beurs van Berlage are also the work of Lambertus Zijl, each with its own meaning. For instance, the keystone on the south facade reminds today’s office workers of the importance of trust and collaboration. The images on the keystones above the archways hint at the spaces behind them.
The statues
“One corner to the city, two to the IJ stand open:
A tower the one where Knight Gijsbrecht stands;
A Dam, his dam in the Amstel he lays:
Coen built the sea empire, Grotius gave sea law hope” Thus reads the poem by Albert Verwey about the statues on the three corners of the Beurs van Berlage.
The statues, created by Lambertus Zijl, were part of Berlage’s regular team. According to Berlage’s architectural philosophy, facades had to be flat, but decorations were allowed as long as they were integrated into the walls. The statue of Gijsbrecht van Amstel is carved into the corner of the south and west facades. Van Amstel determined the location of the Dam in the Amstel in 1240, marking the foundation of Amsterdam.
Hugo de Groot (Grotius), a seventeenth-century jurist and writer, advocated for free access to the seas and free trade and proposed the idea of a league of nations. These progressive ideas for his time were published in his book Mare Liberum, which he holds under his arm in the statue.
From the north, the Beurs opens toward the harbor, the station, and the world. This corner features the controversial statue of Jan Pieterszoon Coen.
