Alexander Johan Berman


Ds. Alexander Johan Berman was the Dutch Reformed minister of Watergang. He also engaged in literary criticism and, in his younger years, poetry. He published an anthology with works by authors of his era.

Life

A. J. Berman studied at Leiden University, which was also the alma mater of his father, judge and writer Joost Berman. Upon graduation Alexander Johan became in 1854 assistant minister in Nijmegen.
In 1856 Berman was appointed minister at the Dutch Reformed Church of Watergang. Sunday, 16 November was the official start of his work. On 26 November 1857 Berman married in Alkmaar with Gerarda Blom. They had 4 children. Since Watergang was a small community and Berman, who suffered from a lung condition, did not progress to a larger community, the family struggled financially. A friend from university, the author and literary critic Conrad Busken Huet, initiated an anthology through which money was collected for the family. The anthology Landjuweel, set up a series of which only one volume was published, was edited by Berman. The minister's wife died in 1881, aged 45.
Due to his health condition, Berman retired in 1883, just 2 years after his silver jubilee in Watergang. He then spent some time at the city archives of Amsterdam and died in that city in 1886. Two of his children, Simon and Johan Alexander, enjoyed successful careers as a mayor and notary respectively, after training on the job.

Poetry