Multatuli (Eduard Douwes Dekker) - 7172 Multatuli (a main-belt asteroid), Amsterdam, Netherlands - Extraterrestrial Locations on Waymarking.com

The Multatuli statue was an inspirational work of contemporary Dutch artist Hans Bayens (b. 1924) as a tribute to Eduard Douwens Dekker. Eduard Douwes Dekker (1820-1887) who was a strong critic of Dutch imperialism and a popular Dutch satirist of the 19th century. He revelled and was famous for his skewering of the middle classes in their classism and racism. Dekker was actually born in Amsterdam as his father was a ship’s captain. His father intended for Dekker to follow in his footsteps but trade disgusted Dekker and in 1838 he became a civil servant in Java and eventually became the assistant-resident at Ambon. In 1857 he was transferred to the Bantam residency of Java in Lebak gaining all the secrets of the Dutch administration in his career progressions. He really hated the abuses of the colonial system and was threatened with dismissal from his office for his verbal protests. Upon his resignation and return to the Netherlands, he became much more vocal about his indignation and desire to expose all of the scandals he witnessed. He did so by the sword of the pen in newspaper articles and pamphlets, and finally in 1860 with his novel “Max Havelaar” under the pseudonym of “Multatuli”. This name was derived from Latin and means “I have suffered (or witnessed) much”. He exposed the abuse of free labour in the Dutch Indies and caused quite a controversy. He went on to publish Love Letters in 1861 which were mordant unsparing satires. After Dekker left the Netherlands to live in Wiesbaden, he became interested in theater. He wrote the School for Princes (1875 in the fourth volume of Ideas) which expressed his non-conformist views on politics, society and religion. He eventually moved his residence to Nieder Ingelheim, on the Rhine, where he died in 1887. By 2002 the Society for Dutch Literature proclaimed Multatuli the most important Dutch writer of all time.

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Eric Walter Elst is a Belgian astronomer and a prolific discoverer of asteroids, with over 3,000 discovered so far. On of these asteroids he discovered on February 17, 1988 and nemed it after a Dutch writer Eduard Douwes Dekker, who is known under a nickname - Multatuli.

Website of the Extraterrestrial Location: [Web Link] Website of location on Earth: [Web Link] Celestial Body: Asteroid

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Date Logged Log   04/29/2022 MaaBo visited it 04/11/2022 Dutch Coaster visited it 07/21/2019 Axel-F visited it 08/27/2014 delisles visited it 03/22/2014 HtV visited it 09/10/2011 Kelux visited it

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