WV-HEDW, short for 'Wilhelmina Vooruit Hortus Eendracht Doet Winnen', is a football club in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The club is located at Sportpark Middenmeer. WV-HEDW was formed in 1956 after the merger of two clubs with predominantly Jewish members, namely Wilhelmina Vooruit, founded on 25 May 1908, and HEDW, which was formed in 1931 when Hortus, founded on 18 April 1912, and E.D.W. (Eendracht Doet Winnen, meaning unity leads to victory), founded on 8 November 1913, merged.
WV-HEDW is a club with facilities, a terrace, and eight football pitches, five of them artificial turf. WV-HEDW has some 2,100 members. This makes the club the second largest of Amsterdam. WV-HEDW will have 112 teams in competition in the 2025–2026 season: 50 senior teams, 32 teams aged 13 or older, and 30 teams under the age of 13. Of these 112 teams, 9 are women's and 17 are girls' teams.
WV-HEDW is by far the largest (amateur) senior and veteran team in the Netherlands. In the national ranking of best performing youth teams WV-HEDW has risen to the 14th place. The accommodation includes the André Lopes Dias Tribune, consisting of two separate parts (Diemen- and Cityside), which was opened in November 2023, along with the unveiling of the photo gallery along the main pitch, which offers an impression of 115 years of football (and baseball) at Wilhelmina Vooruit, Hortus, EDW, HEDW, and WV-HEDW.
History
Wilhelmina Vooruit (1908–1956) In June 1906, Louis Aussen (14) and Martijn Sajet (13), together with six friends from secondary school, founded their own football club under the name Uitspanning Door Inspanning (UNI, meaning unharnessing by relaxation). Sajet later said about this remarkable name: "As schoolboys, we thought that the opposite of relaxation was unharnessing, but unharnessing is something you do with horses." The membership fee was set at 2 cents per week. One of the house rules was: "Players are not allowed to use offensive language towards each other during the game." A year after its founding, UNI merged with Sparta, a club of slightly older boys who had 'real goalposts'. This led to the creation of the new club UNI Sparta Combinatie (USC) in 2007. Because the two groups did not get along, 'the old UNI people' resigned their membership and founded a new club on Monday evening, 25 May 1908, named Wilhelmina. The founders were Louis Aussen (chairman), Martijn Sajet (secretary-treasurer), Piet Mantel, Mau Wijnberg, Hers Cauveren, Arnold van Moppes, and Sjim de Vries. The club colors were blue and white. The first purchase was 'a real football'. Initially, games were played on a small grass pitch in the Oosterpark. Later, they moved to a pitch of sand where the Linnaeusparkweg met the Linnaeuskade. Still later, they moved to the former Parkschouwburg, where there are now korfball pitches adjacent to the Wertheimplantsoen. Via Banstraat, Kruislaan opposite Zeeburgia, Kruislaan opposite the Nieuwe Ooster cemetery, and the Middenweg, Wilhelmina Vooruit eventually ended up at Sportpark Voorland in 1939, the ground where the club would remain for the next 59 years. In October 1910, Wilhelmina was admitted to the second class of the Amsterdam Football Association (AVB), where it immediately won the championship. The following year, it repeated that achievement in the first class, resulting in promotion to the major league of the NVB (Dutch Football Association). Because there was already a club called Wilhelmina from Den Bosch playing in the NVB, the Amsterdam Wilhelmina had to change its name. Under the new name Wilhelmina Vooruit, the club was placed in the western third class in 1912. In the 1914–1915 season, Wilhelmina Vooruit became undefeated champion, one point ahead of Amsterdam's DWS. Normally, this would have meant promotion to the second class, but due to the war and mobilization, the promotion and relegation rules were suspended for that season. "How lucky can you get," Sajet sighed years later. In 1928, Wilhelmina Vooruit was relegated to the fourth class, where it continued to play until World War II. Wilhelmina Vooruit quickly made a name for itself because of the grand parties the club organised, with theater and revue performances. On 1 August 1910 the first issue of the club magazine 'Onze Revue' appeared. "No football club in Amsterdam had its own printed newspaper at the time", Sajet wrote on the occasion of the club's 50th anniversary. Another remarkable event was the trip to Germany in 1912. Wilhelmina Vooruit played matches in Essen and Elberfeld. Association officials and journalists attended the departure of the train to the Ruhr region. Wilhelmina Vooruit took the initiative to establish a youth competition. A mandatory sports examination was introduced for its own members. On the occasion of its first anniversary, the 'Illustrated Sports Memorial Book' was published, with a foreword by Pierre de Coubertin (the self-proclaimed founder of the modern Olympic Games). All these memorable achievements were accomplished by board members who were not yet 21 years old at the time. Wilhelmina Vooruit was more than a football club; it was one big family. Typical of the family atmosphere was that for the athletics competition held in honour of the fifteenth anniversary in 1923, in addition to 'working' (playing) and supporting members (non-playing), also were invited to participate aspirants (youth members under 16), wives, fiancées and sisters of members. In that year, Wilhelmina Vooruit had no fewer than 109 supporting members, including 37 women. Although Wilhelmina Vooruit was a club with predominantly Jewish members, the Jewish element was not dominant. Most parties took place on Saturdays. The biggest party of the year was the Christmas party. As former board member Willem Melkman put it on the club's 70th anniversary: "Wilhelmina Vooruit originally consisted of a group of Jewish boys and quickly grew into a very mixed group, half Jewish, half 'Aryan', half from the so-called 'better' circles and half from the 'ordinary' class. Perhaps this composition contributed to the unique character of WV." According to former member David van Minden, fun and camaraderie were paramount at WV. It was a mixed club with predominantly Jewish members. The ratio was "certainly ninety to ten": "They were not orthodox. All goyim, as we call them. Liberal, in other words." In 1933, Wilhelmina Vooruit celebrated its silver jubilee with a big party featuring the famous Fien de la Mar. Wilhelmina Vooruit had become a popular club in Rhineland and Westphalia, but due to political developments in Germany, the destination of the annual trips in the 1930s was shifted to France. In the 1939–1940 season, three senior and two youth teams participated in the competition. After the German occupiers issued a ban on Jews entering sports facilities in 1941 on September 15, Wilhelmina Vooruit ceased its football activities. At that time, the club had 73 playing members, 61 of whom were Jewish.
After the end of the war, the club made a new start under the leadership of board members Martijn Sajet, Leo van Geuns, and Bob Meijer Hamel. In the 1945–1946 season, Wilhelmina Vooruit managed to field one team that narrowly avoided relegation to the AVB. Membership grew from 40 at the start of the season to 53 in December. In June 1947, Wilhelmina Vooruit had 100 playing members and another 100 supporting members. Until 15 December 1946, Wilhelmina Vooruit also had to play its home games on foreign soil. Court rulings were necessary to evict the Zeeburg gymnastics club from the old pitch at Sportpark Voorland and to get back its own goalposts. In 1949, Wilhelmina Vooruit was relegated to the AVB. There, it immediately became champion, after which it had to play for promotion/relegation against . . . fourth class HEDW. The decisive match, which attracted thousands of spectators, was ceased with HEDW leading 2–1 after referee J. van Waalwijk van Doorn fell ill and died. The KNVB decided to admit both teams to the fourth class. In 1952, Wilhelmina Vooruit was promoted to the third class, where it was still playing in 1956 when the club merged with HEDW.
Hortus (1912–1931) Hortus was founded in 1912, on 18 April in Huize Tas on Rapenburg, in the old Jewish quarter, by, among others, the very young David Wijnschenk and Nathan Nikkelsberg. The founding took quite some effort as Nikkelsberg recalled in 1948: "There was no money for a meeting room. But no matter, because didn't I have a gold ring? On Wijnschenk's advice, I took it to 'Uncle Jan' (the pawnbroker) and the money was there." Hortus' club colors were black and white. According to the 1927–1928 membership list, the official ´club uniform´ consisted of: "Jersey: black and white vertical stripes, shorts: black, socks: black." Since 1924, Hortus played its games on a pitch on Röntgenstraat. The club advanced to the NVB in 1915 after winning the first class championship of the Amsterdam Voetbal Bond (AVB). Four years later, Hortus became champion of the third class of the major league. A remarkable detail: Wilhelmina Vooruit finished last that season in the same competition with 0 points and a goal difference of 3–93! Hortus won the home game against Wilhelmina Vooruit on 6 April 1919 by a whopping 12–0. Hortus was promoted to the second class, at that time the second highest level of football in the Netherlands. Bobo Lo Brunt, secretary of the Dutch Football Association KNVB, remembered Hortus well. In the anniversary edition marking the 40th anniversary of HEDW in 1953, he wrote: "I remember my first trip to De Meer as if it were yesterday, when I saw where Hortus celebrated its triumphs. In those days, Hortus was a club to be reckoned with, a strong second class team." In the same publication, renowned referee H. Boekman referred to Hortus as´an old club that you don't easily forget´: "One of my first matches at the AVB was at Hortus. Later, there was a Hortus-Rapiditas match on a frighteningly small pitch, but it was enjoyable. I can still see them in front of me, the members of the Moffie family, Aldewereld, and others. The diligent secretary Simon Aldewereld, Duits, and whatever else they may have been called. I can still see them standing there, the excited family members, supporters, neighbours, when one of the hard-hitting smackers himself was treated roughly. How many deaths must I have already suffered when, in my innocence, I awarded an offside goal against Hortus and had to endure those reproachful and deadly glances afterwards." In its first season in the second class, Hortus finished third. It was the highest ranking at that level. In 1923, Hortus was relegated to the third class, where it failed to make an impact. In the 1929–1930 season, Hortus finished last with nine points in eighteen games. Hortus narrowly avoided relegation by winning the promotion/relegation battle against EVC from Edam. As the level of play declined, so did membership numbers. At the time of the merger with E.D.W. in 1931, Hortus had only 35 members left.
Eendracht Doet Winnen (1913–1931)