Theo Thijssen

Theo Thijssen, the oldest child of six, grew up in the Amsterdam neighbourhood Jordaan, where his father had a small shoe-shop.

After a tough entrance exam he was admitted to the Rijkskweekschool voor onderwijzers, a teacher training college, in Haarlem with a scholarship.

In this book he enriched the Dutch language with the word "zwembadpas", a quick way of walking that Kees had developed.

This word became so legendary that the Theo Thijssen Museum organized the day of the "zwembadpas".

Just like his father Thijssen harboured socialistic sympathies from an early age, although he only became member of the Sociaal Democratische Arbeiders Partij (SDAP), a social party in the Netherlands, in 1912.