Columns by Helmut Hetzel

Published: 19 July 2011 Modified: 11 August 2011

The German journalist Helmut Hetzel lives and works in The Hague and writes a column about life in the International City of Peace and Justice.

Helmut Hetzel has lived and worked in The Hague for 25 years where he is the Benelux correspondent for a number of German newspapers. For more information about him and his work, please visit his websites www.hetzelmedia.com and www.helmuthetzel.com.

Column: 'Let Love Rule'

The Occupy Wall Street movement has arrived in The Hague. Indignant protestors, the ‘Indignados’, demonstrated on 15 October on the Plein and Malieveld.

Last modified: 10 November 2011

Column 'That Hague feeling'

'A glass of rosé, please.’ The waitress asks: ‘Dry or sweet?’ ‘Dry’, I answer. ‘But just as sweet as you.’

Last modified: 10 November 2011

Column 'Oktoberfest'

'Ich bin wie du. Wir sind wie Sand und Meer und darum brauch´ ich dich so sehr'. Marianne Rosenberg’s hit song blares from the speakers for the third time.

Last modified: 4 October 2011

Column 'Kazakhstan in The Hague’

The room fills. By the time the conference on nuclear disarmament opens in The Hague’s Peace Palace, all the seats have been taken.

Last modified: 4 October 2011

Column: 'Wild Weeks'

'I wouldn’t want to live anywhere other than The Hague.’ The sentence isn’t mine but it could have been. It’s from Mark Rutte, the incumbent Dutch prime minister.

Last modified: 23 September 2011

Column: 'Zimmer frei for Gaddafi'

Is he coming or not? This is the question they are asking at the moment at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.

Last modified: 23 September 2011

Column: ‘The caretaker of The Hague'

Water damage and a short. A power outage. The kitchen is full of water on a Friday evening at 18.00 hrs. Thank goodness that you have a caretaker – ‘The caretaker of The Hague’.

Last modified: 23 August 2011

Column: ‘No paper tiger’

Attornies can have humour, too. Serge Brammertz proves this. He is the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, originates from the German-speaking, eastern part of Belgium and ...

Last modified: 11 August 2011

Column: 'The Hague under the Heavens'

‘Experience the Chinese adventure.’ This is how The Hague Sculpture director Maya Meijer ushered in the Chinese cultural event of the year on the Lange Voorhout. It was opened by Princes Máxima.

Last modified: 11 August 2011

Column: 'Hague tribunals write history'

He appears angry. He is furious. And Ratko Mladic certainly won’t part with his baseball cap. He needs it because otherwise he’ll catch cold, says the 69-year-old Bosnian Serb Mladic during his second hearing at the Hague-bas ...

Last modified: 11 August 2011