Biographical Dictionary of the Netherlands: 1880-2000

The Biografisch Woordenboek van Nederland (BWN) 1880-2000 (Biographical Dictionary of the Netherlands 1880-2000) is an academic reference work. It contains concise biographical entries of persons who distinguished themselves in some way or other at the end of the 19th century and in the course of the 20th century in the Netherlands or one of its overseas territories. These brief biographical entries were written by a large number of expert authors.

Six volumes of BWN 1880-2000 were published in print between 1979 and 2008, containing a total of 2,071 brief biographical entries. These volumes can be consulted in most public libraries and in the reading rooms of archives. One can also order them from bookstores or directly from the Huygens Institute of Netherlands History (Huygens ING).

As of 2002, all biographical entries from the six printed volumes of BWN 1880-2000 can be consulted free of charge via the website. The texts of the aforementioned entries can be accessed via multiple search and selection options. This way, one can not only search for a particular entry by entering the person's name, but one can also select groups of biographical entries using fixed search terms (sex, year of birth or death, profession) or by entering words that appear in the texts.

In December 2008, BWN 1880-2000 was rounded off for the time being with the publication of Volume 6. This applies to both the print and digital versions of the publication. In other words, no new biographical entries dealing with individuals from the period 1880-2000 will be added to the file made available here.

Work has since started on a new biographical sub-project that is limited in scope and that focuses on the turbulent period from the Patriottentijd (Era of the Patriots) to the Belgian Revolution: BWN 1780-1830.