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facts of amsterdam

Henk Sneevlietweg

5051
Opened
1 June 1997
Level
Elevated
District
Nieuw-West
lines
50 51

Where does the name come from?

The station is named after Henk Sneevlietweg, where its main entrance is. The street honours Henk Sneevliet (1883-1942), a communist politician and resistance fighter.

The story

The resistance fighter who turned up in China

Few Amsterdam metro stations carry the name of someone with such an international career. Henk Sneevliet was born in Rotterdam in 1883. In the Dutch East Indies he co-founded the Indies Social Democratic Association in 1914, forerunner of the Indonesian communist party; in 1918 he was forced to leave the colony. Under the alias Maring, the Communist International sent him to China, where in July 1921 he attended the founding congress of the Chinese Communist Party.

Back in the Netherlands he founded the Revolutionary Socialist Party in 1929, later the RSAP, which he represented alone in the House of Representatives from 1933 to 1937. After the German invasion he co-founded the resistance group MLL-Front at the end of 1940. The group was rounded up in 1942, and in April that year Sneevliet was executed at Amersfoort camp.

The station opened in 1997 with the Ring Line and sits on the railway embankment, with one island platform and two tracks. Just beyond it the line curves east, alongside the southern ring railway and the A10.

Did you know

In July 1921, under the alias Maring, Henk Sneevliet attended the founding of the Chinese Communist Party.

Sources (3)
  1. Wikipedia (EN): Henk Sneevlietweg metro station
  2. Wikipedia (EN): Henk Sneevliet
  3. Wikipedia (EN): Line 50 (Amsterdam Metro)

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