ABSTRACT
The Eerder Achterbroek, part of the Eerde country estate, is an exceptionally well- preserved enclosed landscape in the province of Overijssel, The Netherlands. In this chapter two authors of this agricultural landscape are identified: the last owner from the baronial family, Philip Dirk van Pallandt, and the current owner, Natuurmonumenten. Van Pallandt, who inherited the estate in 1913, was an idealistic man with strong ideas about nature and landscape architecture. He made his own contributions to the estate, but respected the framework of the existing historical landscape. Due to the financial burden of the inheritance, he was forced to sell parts of the estate. In 1949 Natuurmonumenten, a non-governmental organization aiming at the preservation of nature and landscape in the Netherlands, bought the Eerder Achterbroek. Natuurmonumenten was well aware of the historical value of this purchase. The management since then has been aesthetic and conservative. The landscape was to be preserved as it was. Historical research, as presented in this chapter, has pointed out that the Eerder Achterbroek is not a textbook example of an east-Netherlands enclosed landscape, but is strongly influenced by the identified authors. The outcomes of this research, a combination of field study, oral history and archival research, are useful for the management, which is changing its aims from aesthetics to heritage preservation.
