The Dockworker

On 25 and 26 February 1941 workers from Amsterdam organized a massive strike to protest against the persecution of the Jews. In 1951 the artist Mari Andriessen (1897-1987) was asked to create a sculpture commemorating the February Strike. Using a friend who was a carpenter as model, Andriessen shaped this symbol of the indomitable worker. By the time Andriessen finished the plaster model, the carpenter had become a dockworker in the eyes of his creator. The Dockworker monument was instantly praised, and to this day focalizes the commemoration in Amsterdam every 25th of February. In 2001 the miniature city of Madurodam received its own Dockworker. It took two weeks to build it.