A woman with a university degree who makes a career outside of the home was rather exceptional in the first half of the twentieth century. This biography about Dien Hoetink (1904-1945) describes her legal work in Dutch agriculture between 1933 and 1945. It attemps to answer the question to what degree her work can be considered the preliminary draft for the public regulation of Dutch agriculture after the Second World War. When describing her work as an lawyer emphasis is placed on the interaction between her personal life history and her work.
In November 1933 Dien Hoetink was appointed as a staff member in the office of the Agricultural Crises Committee in The Hague. At the end of 1939 she was appointed head of the legal department of the Government Organisation for Food Supply during Times of War. (RbVVO) In this position she was responsible for the legislation on food supply during the German occupation. She based this legislation on the articles 152-154 of the Dutch Constitution in order to get a fluent transition to new legislation after the departure of the Germans.
Dien Hoetink lost her life (Ravensbrück 1945) because of her struggle to maintain important elements of Dutch legal practice during the German occupation. In spite of her tragic death, her role as legal advisor for the RbVVO marked the start of the introduction of public duties for civil organisations in Dutch agriculture. Her main intellectual issue, the importance of the ‘public interest’, will be remembered.
Free desriptors: intellectual biography, emancipation of women, social-historical biography, Dutch East Indies, agricultural depression, food supply during Worldwar II, black market, Dutch Constitution, public duties of civil organisations, concentration camp Ravensbrück.