Wybo Fijnje

Wybo Fijnje (24 January 1750 in Zwolle – 2 October 1809 in Amsterdam) was a Dutch Mennonite minister, publisher in Delft, Patriot, exile, coup perpetrator, politician and – during the Batavian Republic and Kingdom of Holland – manager of the predecessor of the Staatscourant.

Johan Luzac, writing under the pseudonym Attica in Fijnje's Dutch-language paper, therefore warned his brother-in-law to practice more discretion in dealing with his co-worker, the journalist Gerrit Paape, who routinely expounded anti-orangist points of view.

All this happened without the stadholder's knowledge or consent (necessary under the Regeringsreglementen - "Government Regulations"), but with the assent of the population, although they apparently remained outside, silent, watching the flying column under the leadership of Adam Gerard Mappa, a type-setter.

Wijbo Fijnje was one of the convinced and militant Patriots who were forced to leave the city on 19 September 1787, when the Prussian army occupied Delft.

The population of Delft took revenge on the exercitiegenootschap by smashing up a room full of Delftware painted with symbols of freedom, and throwing its contents into a city canal.

On 22 January 1798, he performed a Coup d'état with general Herman Willem Daendels, Pieter Vreede and Van Langen to guarantee "the unity and indivisibility" of the Batavian republic.

On recommendation of Rutger Jan Schimmelpenninck, Alexander Gogel and Hendrik van Rays Fijnje became in 1805 editor-in-chief of the "Bataafse Staatscourant" (Batavian state courier).