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The Zuiderzee Museum features a reconstruction of Anna Diender’s home. Anna Diender was born in Kampen in 1910, but she felt a special connection to Schokland, the island and birthplace of her grandparents.
In 1949, the director of the Zuiderzee Museum at the time bought various items and pieces of furniture from Anna Diender, including a cabinet. He then promised her that the latter would be given a prominent place in the museum. However, that didn’t happen, as the cabinet was first kept in his home and then stored for several decades.
In the spring of 2024, the cabinet and other objects from Anna’s estate finally took their rightful place in a newly furnished former Schokland house. Family members of Anna share stories about the objects – like the fireback and the typically Dutch horse-decorated clock – recalling memories of their ‘Auntie Anna’.
End of an Island
Schokland was a bustling fishing island in the heart of the Zuiderzee until the government decided in 1859 to evacuate it for the safety of its inhabitants. Fearing that they might return one day, the authorities forbade them from leaving anything behind on the island. The islanders subsequently demolished their houses right down to their foundations and transported the beams, planks and all their household belongings on their fishing boats to the mainland.
Brunnepe versus Schokland
Anna’s grandparents, along with many other Schokland islanders, moved to Brunnepe, a working-class neighbourhood just outside Kampen’s city walls. The islanders were not welcome within the city itself. Anna grew up in this tiny house in Brunnepe, partly rebuilt using Schokland construction materials.
With the closure and partial reclamation of the Zuiderzee, Schokland ceased to exist as its ancestral island. However, this by no means marked the end of the Schokland story for Anna Diender, as Schokland remained ‘home’ for her and many other descendants.
For the interior design of the building, we drew on the research conducted by Eva Vriend for her new book, Het Eiland van Anna, Schokland en de geschiedenis van een thuis (Atlas Contact Publishing 2024; Anna's Island, Schokland and the History of a Home, not translated as yet).