This collection is described in Collection guide Godard Arend Johannes Hazeu Archive (KITLV) (ubl240).
Hazeu Papers (KITLV)
Subtitle Hazeu Papers
Hazeu Papers (KITLV)
Biography
Godard Arend Johannes Hazeu was born on 22 August 1870 in Amsterdam as the son of Arend Cornelis Hazeu, art painter, and Maria Dorothea Meinke. In 1890, he left for Leiden to study first ‘linguistics, philology, geography and ethnology of the East Indian archipelago’, including Sanskrit and the Arabic language, and then languages of the Malay archipelago. In 1897, he obtained his Ph.D. with a dissertation entitled “Bijdrage tot de kennis van het Javaansche toneel” [Contribution to the knowledge of the Javanese theatre]. His promoter was Prof. H. Kern. In the same year Hazeu got married to Petronella Jeannettte Opwyrda.
In 1898 and after having worked a brief period as ‘repetitor’ [coach for students], Hazeu left for the Dutch East Indies to pick up his position as lecturer for Javanese at the Gymnasium Willem III in Batavia. In 1904, Hazeu was appointed colonial official for the practice of Native languages and allocated to the Advisor or Native and Arabic Affairs, Snouck Hurgronje. In 1907, he succeeded Snouck Hurgronje in his function, and in 1912 he became director of the Department or Education and Religion. His career in the colonies continued when he was appointed Government commissioner for Native and Arabic Affairs in 1916. During his term of office, numerous national movements gained strength and influence. The Sarekat Islam was one of those movements that the Dutch colonial government watched with anxiety, certainly after the local representatives of colonial power were murdered in Toli Toli in June 1919. During that period, Gouvenor general J.P. Van Limburg Stirum increasingly relied on Hazeu’s knowledge and insights. Also in 1919 and after it has been offered twice, Hazeu finally accepted the call from Leiden University to succeed J.C.G. Jonker as professor of Javanese linguistic and philology. Back in the Netherlands, Hazeu is appointed professor by Royal decree on 12 maart 1920. He held his inaugural speech on 12 January 1921, entitled Oud en nieuw uit de Javaansche letterkunde [Old and new from Javanese philology]. In 1928, he was dismissed in full honour.
In 1979, the Oosters Instituut (Eastern Institute) in Leiden donated the archive of G.A.J. Hazeu (portfolio 1-81) to the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies at Leiden, where it was assigned the signature D H 1083. At a later moment, the National archive at The Hague made a supplementing gift (portfolio 82-149). Since 2014, Leiden University Libraries house the archive on loan.