Libelle
The very first issue of Libelle, 13 April 1934
The magazine Libelle is still available in Dutch stores every week. The first issue was published in 1934. The 'illustrated weekly magazine for women' has changed considerably in the meantime.
Contents
The first issue of Libelle: illustrated weekly magazine for women was published on 13 April 1934. The magazine was an immediate success. Dutch women liked to read about household chores, (homemade) fashion, family and upbringing, cooking, the seasons and holidays. Letter columns, reports, stories, serials, puzzles and advertisements filled the remaining pages. Human interest was discussed in the articles about royal families and famous Dutch people. Libelle had no explicit religious or social signature. With a circulation of more than one hundred thousand copies, the magazine reached a large female readership. That brought the advertisers to Libelle: after all, most of those women managed a household purse.
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World War II
During the Second World War, Libelle continued to appear, although the issues became thinner due to the pressure of paper shortages. The section 'Extensive menu' was replaced by 'What's on the menu' and tips were given on how to make new clothes from old ones. By order of the German occupier, Libelle had to stop appearing in September 1944. To the delight of countless readers, this "trade magazine for women" was on the doormat again on 8 March 1946. The content was the same as before the war: practical tips, background information and recreational reading. But in the sixties, society changed: depillarisation and secularisation, television, emancipation, drugs and communes made their entrance. Youth culture emerged and people had more free time. The content of Libelle changed along with it: the articles on sexuality and contraception, on marriage, relationships and on working women reflected the spirit of the times.
Developments and high circulation figures
In the seventies and eighties, these changes continued. From divorces, individualisation and educational opportunities to singles (the new bachelor), LAT relationships and unmarried cohabitation: Libelle could not ignore them. The editors and a team of experts closely followed such social developments in order to inform the readers about them. In this, Libelle was more trend-following than trend-setting, but not conservative. The magazine did not take explicit positions, but remained practical and reasonable above all. That kept it popular: for years, hundreds of thousands of copies rolled off the press, millions of female readers got their hands on Libelle. And all this while all kinds of ‘glossies’ and various so-called ‘gossip magazines’ came to compete.
Jubilees
Libelle : een fascinerende selectie uit de jaargangen 1934-1974. Leonard de Vries, 1974. Request number: NL 64 G 7112
The Libelle has already celebrated several anniversaries, on the occasion of which special editions were published. For example, in 1974 Leonard de Vries compiled an edition when Libelle existed forty years: Weekly Libelle: a fascinating selection from the years 1934-1974. On the occasion of its fiftieth anniversary, Libelle summarized its role as a “friend” of women in the publication Libelle 50.
Spin-offs and special editions
In addition to the weekly women's magazine, the Libelle editors also produced their own publications, such as Libelle weet 't from 1969 and the Libelle kookboek from 1974 or Opvoeden is leuk! from 2006. In 1970, the immensely popular comic strip Jan, Jans en de kinderen started in Libelle. After twenty-five years, a special anniversary edition Jan Kruis: the history of 25 years of 'Jan, Jans en de kinderen' was published.
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Marianne de Groot, Libelle 50: 50 jaar dagelijks leven in Nederland. Utrecht: Het Spectrum, cop. 1984. Request number: NE 1984/310
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Jan Kruis, Opvoeden is leuk! : de allerleukste strips en verhalen over opvoeden. Hoofddorp: Sanoma, 2006. Request number: 4235396
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Marianne de Groot, Jan Kruis : de geschiedenis van 25 jaar 'Jan, Jans en de kinderen'. Breukelen: Joop Wiggers Produkties, 1995. Request number: 18003184
Libelle website and the readership
Since the end of the twentieth century, Libelle has also had a website. Via this multimedia platform, all kinds of questions and comments reach Libelle and readers can communicate with each other. The site functions as an extension of the paper magazine and offers surveys and polls, columns, calls and references to other relevant websites. It is an addition to the community of the magazine, which participates in a changing society.
Libelle in the KB
The KB owns the Libelle complete from 1962. The volumes from the early years, from 1934, are unfortunately only partially present in the collection. These volumes and issues were only added to the collection in small batches decades later. The reason is that the KB initially acquired mainly scientific journals and not systematically consumer magazines and women's magazines. Consumer magazines such as Libelle have often become the subject of research since the 1970s, because in their role as advisor and/or source of information they function as a mirror of society at a certain time.
The issues of Libelle can be requested and viewed in the reading room via the KB catalogue. The book publications by and about Libelle can also be viewed in the KB.
View the magazine online
References
- Magazine! : 150 jaar Nederlandse publiekstijdschriften / red.: Marieke van Delft, Nel van Dijk, Reinder Storm. Zwolle: Waanders, cop. 2006. Request number: 5227695.
- Website Libelle
