--- In BoundaryPoint@yahoogroups.com, Brendan Whyte <bwhyte@u...>
wrote:

> A comment from a purchaser of my Baarle book raises a point I had

not

> considered:
>
> >There is one aspect that you were apparently unaware of - that is

time.

> >Before the Second World War, the Netherlands did not keep Western
> >European/Greenwich Time. It had its own standard time

called "Amsterdam

> >Time" which was 20 minutes ahead of Western European Time. This

may have

> >had implications in Baarle. I have a 1926 timetable of the SNCB

(Societe

> >des Chemins de fer Belges - only French used in those days!). For

Baarle,

> >it shows times in both "heures Belges" and "heures d'Amsterdam" -

> >minutes different. I think that Amsterdam Time was abolished by

the

> >German occupiers in 1940.
>
> So, does anyone know if Baarle operated under Belgian or Dutch time

before

> the Second World War?

Probably Belgian time in Baarle-Hertog, and Dutch time in Baarle-
Nassau. The railway station at Baarle village would have operated at
Dutch time. The station at Baarle border would probably have had two
clocks...

It was very confusing, time-wise, in the Netherlands in those days.
Railways and telegraph used Western European time (GMT) since 1892.
Before that, it was Amsterdam time (GMT + 19 m 32.13 s, after 1937:
GMT + 20 m). Municipalities could decide for themselves what time
they would use, and many towns picked their own, local, time. From
1909, Amsterdam time became compulsory everywhere. On May 17, 1940,
the Netherlands changed over to Central European Time.

This is the way a traveller described the confusion in 1907 in the
watchmakers' magazine "Christiaan Huygens":

"Recently, yours truly departed from a little village across the
border at 12.11 German time, and arrived in Venlo at 11.42 railway
time; the time indicated on the church tower in Venlo was 12.07. My
train to Amsterdam would depart at 3.42; the four hours in between I
wanted to spend making a short trip to Tegelen.
The tram to Tegelen was already waiting with passengers in front of
the station. "When do yo leave, conductor?" "At 12.50, Sir" "OK, so I
still have half an hour to go into town" "Sorry, Sir, we are leaving
now, we are already late" "But it's only 11.52!" "Yes, but we are
using German time."
"Conductor, I leave for Amsterdam at 3.42 railway time. Can I ride
back with you, or will I have to walk?" "No need for that, Sir, we
leave Tegelen at 3.40, so you'll be back at the station about 3.30."
Right. You leave at 3.40, you arrive at 3.30, now try to keep track
of things. No wonder the sympathetic conductor had to explain to half
the passengers the times of departure and arrival in German time,
railway time, and Venlo time. Will the situation improve with the
implementation of universal time, especially when it's going to be
Amsterdam Universal Time?"

Source: http://www.phys.uu.nl/~vgent/wettijd/wt_text3c.htm

Another link (also in Dutch):
http://www.knmi.nl/voorl/nader/dewettelijketijdinnederland.htm

Peter