Klaas Schilder

Eminent Dutch theologian and professor in the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands.

Klaas Schilder was the son of the poor and hard working cigar maker Johannes Schilder (7 March 1860, Kampen - 18 December 1896, Kampen), who worked under bad sanitary circumstances at home. On 15 February 1883, his father had married Elisabeth Nieuwenhuis, who died 15 April 1886. On 4 November 1886, he remarried Grietje Leydekker (3 March 1881 - 9 Augustus 1854 - 21 December 1926) and got three children: Arnoldus (2 December 1887 - 12 May 1964), Klaas (19 December 1890 - 23 March 1952) and Neeltje Johanna Maria Aleida (29 April 1897 - 17 November 1979). But his father died before the birth of his sister.

After the death of her husband, the pregnant Grietje had to sustain the family by going out to work. For health reasons, she could not maintain that and also her work of sewing and ironing collars failed. Through a friend she got alternative unskilled labour, and helped by her children, especially Arnold, they managed to survive under difficult circumstances. Grietje also changed church from the Dutch Reformed ("Hervormde") Church to the "Gereformeerde" Reformed Churches in the Netherlands (1892). Her son Klaas would contribute the the foundation of the "Gereformeerde Kerken vrijgemaakt" (Liberated Reformed Churches in the Netherlands, 1944), that was a split off from the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands. It is of interest that the word "Kampen" means "wrestle" and that the medieval Hanze city Kampen is famous for its many competing churches.

The very intelligent Klaas Schilder had to work after the elementary school, as his mother was not able to pay for the school. He first worked as a bellboy at a hosiery and later as junior clerk at a notary office. But his schoolmaster plead for him and succeeded in sending him with a stipend to the Reformed Gymnasium and the associated Theological School in Kampen.