1950 - 1969
End of 40s, whilst The Netherlands joined NATO and The Dutch East Indies received its independence as Indonesia, HTH was also facing changing times. The school overcame that and in 1950 a lot of older boys joined Hotelschool The Hague. These older boys were army soldiers, who returned from the Dutch East Indies. A year after, in 1951, a class for ladies only was introduced. After all, the class didn’t turn out to be a success.
“On Thursday night we went out and we ran straight through The Hague to the Laan van Meerdervoort, to the new butcher Mr Slootweg who was going to teach us how to butcher a cow or pig. Arriving one minute too late was not acceptable according to Mr Slootweg. When we came back to school, they were also watching the clock. (....) But all in all, my time at the school was a good time where we actually learnt a profession.”
Alumnus Piet Mulders
On 1 September 1953, the first two-year course started (by 1959 HTH started its three-year curriculum) and the Board was busy with plans for a new school at the Badhuisweg. In 1957, Student Association ‘La Confrérie’ was founded.
“Cheeeeese! That one word that everybody knew in the year 1955-1957 (...), because every other day we got cheese for breakfast. The war was quite fresh, it had been ten years. Everything was being rebuilt and people were penny-pinching. There was not a serious lack of food, but I wouldn’t say there was an abundance of food either. So we got ‘beschuit met muisjes (a sweet Dutch breakfast) and jam’ on one day and on the other day we got: cheeeeese!”
Alumnus Bert Zekveld
Hotelschool The Hague opened a new boarding school at the Badhotel on the Gevers Deynootweg 15. In the year of 1963, when Martin Luther King Jr. gave his speech ‘I have a dream’, HTH received over 300 applicants. Eventually only 45 students got accepted.
On 15 September 1966, Prince Bernhard opened the new building of Hotelschool The Hague. The prince was ‘Act de Présence’ at the opening of the new HTH building at the Brusselselaan 2, in Scheveningen.
“The years were the first in which a relation was created between the Hotelschool and the Royal Dutch Family. I was one of the students who was allowed to serve Prince Bernhard, amongst many other guests. The opening of the school meant the end of the period of Assendelfstraat/Badhotel. We were lucky to have experienced both and we are now able to think back to the times at the Assendelftstraat as well as the Brusselselaan.”
Student, Emil Schaefer
During this year, the ladies of the HTH lived and slept in Villa Zonnehoek whereas the male students lived and slept in the new building at the Brusselselaan. Twice a year, a receptionist course was given, which was mostly by girls (95%), but was later on cancelled by the Department of Education.
