Elevating Piet Hein: The Monumental Myth of a Dutch Corsair

What should we do with the legacy of 17th century Dutch corsair Piet Hein? For ages, his capture of the Spanish Silver Fleet was celebrated in school songs, but now his actions are increasingly viewed through the lens of colonial ...

Tim Van den Hoff

Beelden van Piet Hein

What should we do with the legacy of 17th century Dutch corsair Piet Hein? For ages, his capture of the Spanish Silver Fleet was celebrated in school songs, but now his actions are increasingly viewed through the lens of colonial criticism. Does he still deserve a statue? Or perhaps even a taller pedestal? And what should be written on the accompanying plaque? In the documentary Elevating Piet Hein: the Monumental Myth of a Dutch Corsair, director Tim van den Hoff humorously exposes the discomfort that officials grapple with as they try to preserve their heritage.

Not much is actually known about Piet Hein himself, but that doesn't stop both supporters and critics from appropriating him and interpreting him in their own ways.

In the search for a broadly accepted text for the monument of Hein in Rotterdam's Delfshaven, the city is organizing an emotion-networking session. Participants awkwardly move around Piet Hein's grand statue. 'He doesn't look like someone worthy of carrying a sword,' remarks a critical speaker.

The simultaneous restorations of Piet Hein's national monument in his birthplace Rotterdam-Delfshaven, his grave monument in the Old Church in Delft, and a statue in Matanzas, Cuba (where the capture of the Silver Fleet took place) offer a glimpse into the peculiar world of heritage and hero-worship, showing how the myth of Piet Hein, nearly 400 years after his death, continues to live on.

From commemorative coins to the reverence of Hein's remains, from 19th-century nationalistic statues to the unlikely friendship between a Rotterdam scrap dealer and Fidel Castro-director Tim van den Hoff lightheartedly but incisively portrays the tantalizing relationship with our colonial past, accompanied by music from composer Ernst Reijseger, performed by the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and the Marine Band of the Royal Netherlands Navy.

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Beelden van Piet Hein

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