The park was established by the businessman Anton Kröller and his wife Helene Kröller-Müller as a private estate in 1909. Up until 1923 the park was under construction with wildlife being imported and the building of the hunting lodge and fences. The hunting residence is called St. HubertusHunting Lodge after St. Hubertus and was designed by prominent Dutch architect Hendrik Petrus Berlage. Helene Kröller-Müller was an art collector and work had begun on a museum inside the park. Due to worsening economic conditions the building of the museum was halted and the couple found themselves unable to keep the estate. In 1935 the art collection was donated to the State of the Netherlands, which then continued to build the Kröller-Müller Museum. The park was handed over to a foundation, which received a loan from the State. At that time the estate became the second national park in the Netherlands. The park is still one of the two private owned national parks in the Netherlands, but the only one that asks an entrance fee. There was a plan to connect the reserve with the renown Oostvaardersplassen to secure food sources for herbivores, but it failed due to conflicts with farmers and a lack of political supports.
Layout and contents
The park is surrounded by fences. These, combined with the required entrance fee, led to years of protests by cyclists and hikers who were forced either to pay the fee or else to follow lengthy detours. In 2007 a solution was reached by charging reduced fees for cyclists who spend only a limited amount of time within the confines of the park. There are three entrances, located at the villages of Otterlo, Hoenderloo and Schaarsbergen. There are several notable buildings inside the park. The Kröller-Müller Museum houses the art collection of the Kröller-Müller couple and includes numerous important works by artists such as Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Odilon Redon, Georges-Pierre Seurat, Auguste Rodin and Piet Mondrian among others. A second museum, Museonder, can be found at the park's visitor centre and focuses on the geology and biology of the Veluwe. Finally there is the aforementioned hunting residence which was designed by Hendrik Petrus Berlage. A bicycle sharing system in the park makes bicycles available for free to visitors, with much of the area being inaccessible by car.
Wildlife
During spring the wildlife population in the park usually consists roughly of:
Other species found in the park include foxes, badgers, and the European pine marten.
Miscellaneous
's new airliner, a Boeing 777-300ER, has been given the name "Nationaal Park De Hoge Veluwe", because an airplane of this type is supposedly the most efficient and environmentally friendly one in its series.
