Piet Meertens

Pieter Jacobus (Piet) Meertens (Middelburg, 6 September 1899 – Amstelveen, 28 October 1985) was a Dutch scholar of literature, dialects, and ethnology.

He was actively involved with the Phonologische Werkgemeenschap, an organization of phonologists, and when the Centrale Commissie voor Onderzoek naar het Nederlandse Volkseigen was founded in 1948, a state-supported institution that oversaw the entire field of Dutch linguistics and onomastics, Meertens was appointed president of the bureaus for dialectology, onomastics, and ethnography, a function he held until his retirement in 1965.

Christian-Socialist friends of his were journalist Henk van Randwijk, preachers Willem Banning en Jan Buskes, and poet Fedde Schurer.

From 1938 on he was active in the Comité van Waakzaamheid, an association of artists and intellectuals inspired by Menno ter Braak which opposed the rise of fascism and nazism.

His role during the war began to be investigated in 2005 by a committee led by Hermann von der Dunk, after sociologist Hans Derks had accused Meertens of collaboration with the Germans and the KNAW of sweeping the matter under the rug.