Hotel des Indes (Batavia)
Encyclopedia
Hotel des Indes was one of the oldest and most prestigious hotels in Asia. Located in Batavia (now Jakarta), in the Dutch East Indies
(now Indonesia
). The hotel had accommodated countless famous patrons throughout its existence from 1829 to 1971. Before being named Hotel des Indes, a name suggested by the writer Multatuli
, it was named ‘Hotel de Provence’ by its first French owner and for a short spell went by the name ‘Hotel Rotterdam’. After Indonesian independence it was re-named ‘Hotel Duta Indonesia’, until it was demolished to make way for a shopping mall.
This hotel should not be confused with ‘Hotel des Indes’ in The Hague
, the Netherlands.
In 1824, the land was bought by the Dutch East Indies government. In 1828 a boarding school for girls was constructed. However the boarding school was soon abandoned because due to the lack of European females in the Dutch East Indies its teachers kept leaving to get married.
In 1851 the hotel was bought by Cornelis Denning Hoff, who changed the name to ‘Hotel Rotterdam’. Although the hotel was located close to the elite ‘Harmony Society’ and French tailor shop ‘Oger Frèves’, it lost prestige and the next year the property was bought by a Swiss staff member named Francois Auguste Emile Wijss, who was married to Antoinette Victorine Chaulan, the 16-year-old daughter of Surleon Chaulan.
In 1860 Wijss sold the hotel to the Frenchman Cresonnier. Louis Couperus
, yet another famous writer, became a regular patron. Cresonnier commissioned the famous British photographers Walter Bentley Woodbury
(1834–1885) and James Page (1833–1865) to photographically capture the hotel for an advertisement campaign.
Ocean travelers in the 19th century arriving in the port of Batavia were taken to shore with small boats and dropped off at the ‘Kleine Boom’ customs office. They were then taken to ‘Hotel Des Indes’ in a carriage along Molenvliet street. A 19th century visitor described his ride to ‘Hotel Des Indes’ in old Batavia as follows:
In 1869 British anthropologist Alfred Russel Wallace
described the hotel's accommodation as follows:
Cresonnier died in 1870 and his family sold the hotel to Theodor Gallas who in turn sold in 1886 to Jacob Lugt for 177.000 Dutch guilders. Lugt greatly expanded the hotel with land purchased from his neighbours. During the economic depression in 1897 Lugt founded the ‘s.a.Hotel Des Indes’ to avert financial liability in case of a potential bankruptcy.
In 1903 the hotel was owned by Gantvoort who eventually made the hotel famous (for instance for its grandiose Rijsttafel) throughout Asia and extremely successful. Under managing director Nieuwenhuys, father of the famous Indo author Rob Nieuwenhuys
the hotel paid 25% dividend.
Only W. F. Daniels, the general chief of service, who was held in high esteem by the indigenous staff was considered indispensable, until a Japanese hotelier took charge of the hotel. Thereafter the remaining indigenous staff was not treated very cordially, but encouraged by the elder employees they nevertheless remained in service.
" period, most of the indigenous staff quit, due to fear of violent reprisals from extremist revolutionaries.
June 1946 ‘Hotel des Indes’ was back in business. G.P.M. van Weel was appointed director, with advisory co-directors, A. and F.J. ZeiIinga, who ensured that for the time being the hotel was fully up and running again. May 7, 1949 the hotel was the historic location of the Van Royen-Roem negotiations, that led to the release of Sukarno
and Hatta
and eventually the Dutch transfer of sovereignty to the Indonesian Republic.
. Nevertheless the hotel’s commercial decline commenced, especially after 1962 when the Sukarno
commissioned competing ‘Hotel Indonesia
’ was inaugurated. The grand old ‘Hotel Des Indes’ was demolished in 1971 to make way for shopping mall ‘Duta Merlin’.
Dutch East Indies
The Dutch East Indies was a Dutch colony that became modern Indonesia following World War II. It was formed from the nationalised colonies of the Dutch East India Company, which came under the administration of the Netherlands government in 1800....
(now Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
). The hotel had accommodated countless famous patrons throughout its existence from 1829 to 1971. Before being named Hotel des Indes, a name suggested by the writer Multatuli
Multatuli
Eduard Douwes Dekker , better known by his pen name Multatuli , was a Dutch writer famous for his satirical novel, Max Havelaar , which denounced the abuses of colonialism in the Dutch East Indies .-Biography:Dekker was born in Amsterdam...
, it was named ‘Hotel de Provence’ by its first French owner and for a short spell went by the name ‘Hotel Rotterdam’. After Indonesian independence it was re-named ‘Hotel Duta Indonesia’, until it was demolished to make way for a shopping mall.
This hotel should not be confused with ‘Hotel des Indes’ in The Hague
The Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
, the Netherlands.
Hotel history
The city Batavia was founded by the VOC and became the main Dutch settlement in South East Asia. In 1747 the Dutch already started to build on the land where later the ‘Hotel Des Indes’ would arise. In 1760 the site was bought by the VOC Governor General Reynier de Klerk.In 1824, the land was bought by the Dutch East Indies government. In 1828 a boarding school for girls was constructed. However the boarding school was soon abandoned because due to the lack of European females in the Dutch East Indies its teachers kept leaving to get married.
Hotel de Provence
In 1829, the real estate was bought by the Frenchman Antoine Surleon Chaulan (born in 1793 Aubagne, Provence, France) who started a hotel named after his birth place ‘Hotel de Provence’. At an auction in 1845 Etienne Chaulan bought the hotel from his brother for 25,000 Dutch guilders. Etienne made the hotel famous for being the first to sell different types of European style ice cream.In 1851 the hotel was bought by Cornelis Denning Hoff, who changed the name to ‘Hotel Rotterdam’. Although the hotel was located close to the elite ‘Harmony Society’ and French tailor shop ‘Oger Frèves’, it lost prestige and the next year the property was bought by a Swiss staff member named Francois Auguste Emile Wijss, who was married to Antoinette Victorine Chaulan, the 16-year-old daughter of Surleon Chaulan.
Hotel des Indes
On the advise of non other than patron Eduard Douwes Dekker, Wijss changed the name of the hotel to the much more chic-sounding ‘Hotel Des Indes’ in 1856.In 1860 Wijss sold the hotel to the Frenchman Cresonnier. Louis Couperus
Louis Couperus
Louis Marie-Anne Couperus was a Dutch novelist and poet during the Belle Époque. There is a wide variety of genres in his oeuvre, which contains poetry, fairy tales, psychological novels, and historical novels...
, yet another famous writer, became a regular patron. Cresonnier commissioned the famous British photographers Walter Bentley Woodbury
Walter B. Woodbury
Walter Bentley Woodbury was an inventor and pioneering English photographer. He was one of the earliest photographers in Australia and the Dutch East Indies...
(1834–1885) and James Page (1833–1865) to photographically capture the hotel for an advertisement campaign.
Ocean travelers in the 19th century arriving in the port of Batavia were taken to shore with small boats and dropped off at the ‘Kleine Boom’ customs office. They were then taken to ‘Hotel Des Indes’ in a carriage along Molenvliet street. A 19th century visitor described his ride to ‘Hotel Des Indes’ in old Batavia as follows:
“When you ride along Molenvliet the whole scene changes: Gradually you see the nicer and bigger houses, surrounded by ornate gardens. We admire a succession of villas with coconut forests and fruit gardens. We're in that delicious part of Batavia, which is called Rijswijk.
In the morning between eight and ten hours we see the road covered with thousands of vehicles of all kinds carrying men rushing to their offices. Dignified trams are smoothly purring in between them, contrary to the cumbersome wooden carts on two high wheels, drawn by oxen.
Suddenly the driver turns right, leading us to a tall, shady banyan tree planted square and our carriage finally arrives at the colossal marble vestibule of the ‘Hotel des Indes’.”
In 1869 British anthropologist Alfred Russel Wallace
Alfred Russel Wallace
Alfred Russel Wallace, OM, FRS was a British naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist and biologist...
described the hotel's accommodation as follows:
"The Hôtel des Indes was very comfortable, each visitor having a sitting-room and bedroom opening on a verandah, where he can take his morning coffee and afternoon tea. In the centre of the quadrangle is a building containing a number of marble baths always ready for use; and there is an excellent table d'hôte breakfast at ten, and dinner at six, for all which there is a moderate charge per day."
Cresonnier died in 1870 and his family sold the hotel to Theodor Gallas who in turn sold in 1886 to Jacob Lugt for 177.000 Dutch guilders. Lugt greatly expanded the hotel with land purchased from his neighbours. During the economic depression in 1897 Lugt founded the ‘s.a.Hotel Des Indes’ to avert financial liability in case of a potential bankruptcy.
In 1903 the hotel was owned by Gantvoort who eventually made the hotel famous (for instance for its grandiose Rijsttafel) throughout Asia and extremely successful. Under managing director Nieuwenhuys, father of the famous Indo author Rob Nieuwenhuys
Rob Nieuwenhuys
Rob Nieuwenhuys was a Dutch writer of Indo descent. The son of a 'Totok' Dutchman and an Indo-European mother, he and his younger brother Roelof, grew up in Batavia, where his father was the managing director of the renowned Hotel des Indes .His Indies childhood profoundly influenced his life...
the hotel paid 25% dividend.
Hotel des Indes during WWII
In 1942 the Japanese seized the Hotel but left Director Mr. G. Hötte, manager since 1938, in charge. The remaining Indo-European staff was permitted to continue their work for over one year before being interned in a Japanese prisoner camp. Commissioners J. Berendsen, A. A. J. de Neef and A. F. Vas Dias were forced to resign and were imprisoned.Only W. F. Daniels, the general chief of service, who was held in high esteem by the indigenous staff was considered indispensable, until a Japanese hotelier took charge of the hotel. Thereafter the remaining indigenous staff was not treated very cordially, but encouraged by the elder employees they nevertheless remained in service.
Hotel des Indes during the Indonesian Revolution
After the Japanese capitulation in 1945 the R.A.P.W.I. (Organization for the Recovery of Allied Prisoners of War and Internees, the Initial Headquarters of the Allied Land Forces in South East Asia) took over the hotel and made it a safe haven for returning European refugees. However during the "BersiapBersiap
Bersiap is the name given by the Dutch to a violent and chaotic phase of Indonesia's revolutionary period following the end of World War II. The Indonesian word bersiap means 'get ready' or 'be prepared'...
" period, most of the indigenous staff quit, due to fear of violent reprisals from extremist revolutionaries.
June 1946 ‘Hotel des Indes’ was back in business. G.P.M. van Weel was appointed director, with advisory co-directors, A. and F.J. ZeiIinga, who ensured that for the time being the hotel was fully up and running again. May 7, 1949 the hotel was the historic location of the Van Royen-Roem negotiations, that led to the release of Sukarno
Sukarno
Sukarno, born Kusno Sosrodihardjo was the first President of Indonesia.Sukarno was the leader of his country's struggle for independence from the Netherlands and was Indonesia's first President from 1945 to 1967...
and Hatta
Hatta
Hatta may refer to:* Hatta, Gaza, an Arab village in Palestine depopulated in 1948* Hatta, Madhya Pradesh, a village in Damoh District, Madhya Pradesh, India* the Hatta number, a dimensionless parameter in chemical reaction engineering...
and eventually the Dutch transfer of sovereignty to the Indonesian Republic.
Hotel duta Indonesia
After Indonesian independence in 1949 the hotel was annexed without compensation and the name was changed to ‘Hotel Duta Indonesia’, a name change that continued the abbreviation HDI. In 1958 the hotel still welcomed the likes of American actor John WayneJohn Wayne
Marion Mitchell Morrison , better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and became an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height...
. Nevertheless the hotel’s commercial decline commenced, especially after 1962 when the Sukarno
Sukarno
Sukarno, born Kusno Sosrodihardjo was the first President of Indonesia.Sukarno was the leader of his country's struggle for independence from the Netherlands and was Indonesia's first President from 1945 to 1967...
commissioned competing ‘Hotel Indonesia
Hotel Indonesia
Hotel Indonesia - Kempinski, commonly abbreviated as HI, is one of the oldest and best known hotels in Indonesia. Located in Central Jakarta, it is one of the first 5-star hotels in the country. For many years, it has been the city's major landmark. Its fame is often linked to the country's...
’ was inaugurated. The grand old ‘Hotel Des Indes’ was demolished in 1971 to make way for shopping mall ‘Duta Merlin’.
External links
Dutch des Indes site. Retrieved 1 October 2010 Indonesian des Indes site. Retrieved 1 October 2010- Jakarta Post article dd 23 May 2009 referring to Hotel Des Indes. Retrieved 1 October 2010