Military History of Holland.

Some say, war is a necessary evil. There are many sides to the history of war. The Dutch National Militairy Museum (NMM) presents mainly a technical collection of items which illustrate warefare through the ages. Fighter planes, artillery,  missiles and guns offer a spectaculair insight into technical warfare in recent army history.Dogs, horses and bicycles also played their role in the First World War.

At the end of the 19the centery fortifications and fortified Dutch cities were crucial in the Dutch defense system. This sytem is known as the “Hollandse Waterlinie”. By letting the land between fortifications flow underwater many an ennemy was stopped before the 19th century. In one of the playgrounds around the museum children can play in a model of this sytem. Today it is too cold to play with water though. Right now on the 8th of February 2015 lots of children play within and around the army museum between planes, within tanks and on top of heavy artillery.

Will Dutch Army Museum Surprise US

The director of the brandnew National Military Museum is Paul van Vlijmen. He is the creative former director of the Dutch Railway Museum in Utrecht. In this museum Van Vlijmen developped a new dynamic approach to the public.  Under his wing this museum really became something special. He arranged e.g. an exhibition related to Harry Potter and the Schweinstein Express; organised horror nights and indoor skating between the ancient trains. Now Paul van Vlijmen disposes not only of a martial museum but he could dispose of an airport as well. This former airport is a unique spacious festival location of incredible dimensions. We dream about Paul bringing Country Joe McDonald to the museum domain in a Woodstock like atmosphere to sing his anti-war songs about Vietnam. Knowing Paul as a heartwarming person we hope he succeeds to ban wars to past episodes to be remembered only as an almost forgotten memory of  former generations.

Meeting 200 militairy musicians in NMM

But the time that ani-war songs roll over the museum’s dominion is yet to come. The army has a sound of its own. The 14 maart 2015 in the NMM  during the Night of Military  Music you can see 30 ensembles on 8 different stages and enjoy small concerts all over the museum’s domain.

• Big Band Expo feat. Big Band Tkkmar, Dancing with the Marineband, Big Band Air Force, Marine Steelband
• Dogfight feat. FBW in concert, Famous Marches RFGGJ. Big Brass KMKJWF, Egerlander Marinancas, Schoolconcert4adults
• Foyer du Trésor feat. HorHorn4 FKNR, woodwinds KMKJWF, woodwinds Air Force, sax-group Deep Purple, Wind5 Marineband
• Auditorium feat. Air force Klar4, Jazz Beatlezz & friends, Wind5 KMKJWF
• Dornier corner feat. workshop Drums and Fifes, Drums FKNR, Brass5 Marineband
• Jam Stage Resto feat. sax5 + band KMKJWF, band FBW, Marinebones4 + band, Jamsession
• F-16 stage feat. tuba4 FKNR, Big Braas KMKJWF, Tromboneband

Reservations: 085 003 6000 –

Travelling Information

By train, bus or bicycycle: The museum is at an hours travelling by train and bus from Amsterdam. The NMM being at a distance of 15 km, it is about 1.5 hours by bicycle from the Center of the City of Utrecht. You can rent a bycycle at the Central Railway Station. From the Central Railway Station in Utrecht you can also take bus 52 to the museum. You get off the bus at the busstop ” ’t Zwaantje”. From there it is a 10 minutes walk through the woods to the NMM.

Navigation: Navigate by car or bicycle to Verlengde Paltzerweg 1, 3768 MX Soest. I advise pedestrians and cyclists to use the APP Navfree on their smartphone to find their way to the Museum.

Phone the NMM: 085 003 6000