Maatschappij tot Nut van't Algemeen
Meeting of the society in the Old Lutheran Church of Amsterdam, 1791
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| Formation | 16 November 1784 |
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| Founder | Martinus Nieuwenhuyzen (1759–93) |
| Type | Non-profit |
| Legal status | Active |
| Services | Education |
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Official language
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Dutch |
| Website | www |
The Maatschappij tot Nut van 't Algemeen (Nut for short; Society for Public Welfare) is a non-profit organization in the Netherlands founded in 1784 with the purpose of developing individuals and society, primarily through education. It had great influence in improving public education through better textbooks, model schools and teacher's training. The society continues to be involved in extracurricular education.
At the end of the 18th century there were many freethinkers and believers in democracy in the Netherlands, who felt that better education would bring greater prosperity for all. A group of friends of the Baptist minister Jan Nieuwenhuijzen from Monnickendam and Edam in North Holland decided to found a society that would help underprivileged people gain education by providing them with books written in simple language. The minister's son, doctor Martinus Nieuwenhuijzen, took the lead in founding a society with the goal of "improving the school system and the education of youth as the main basis for the formation, improvement and civilization of the citizen."
An inaugural meeting for the Society was held in the minister's house of 16 November 1784. Local branches of the Society were formed in other parts of North Holland, Friesland and Groningen, and then in the rest of the northern Netherlands. Guiding principles were that the organization was humanitarian, run for the public benefit and open to all. Most activity took place at the local level, with a Board at the national level to contribute to public debate and assist the local groups. The objective was not to help the lower classes to rise in social status, but to help them develop and contribute economically and socially to the community. It is hard to estimate how effective the Society was in helping working people, but there is no doubt that the Society was a vehicle for the middle classes to create social networks.
The Society aimed to promote the well-being of the people through higher levels of cultivation and civilization, and specifically through better education. The Society was not against the church, but aimed to provide education that conformed to general Christian ethical principles and that was not dogmatic about doctrine. Thus in 1785 the Society awarded the Catholic Peter Schouten first prize in a contest for a treatise on the existence of God and the need to serve him. Although very liberal, the Society did not willing extend its membership to Jews, or receive Jewish pupils. At first Nut was confined to the mainly Protestant north. The first southern branch was opened in Diksmuide, West Flanders, in 1819, followed the same year with branches in Ostend, Ypres, Nieuwpoort and Bruges, and later by other southern branches. Apart from Ghent, the southern branches were all small. In 1825 there were about 12,000 members in the north and less than 500 in the south.
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