If you’ve ever wanted to see the university’s rector magnificus rap and our city’s mayor dance, click play on the video ‘Hai is vot’ (‘He’s gone’ in the Groningen dialect), which the university and city shot together to celebrate the end of the Siege of Groningen 350 years ago.
In the video, citizens and dignitaries get together on August 28, 1672, to celebrate, in a surprisingly modern way, that the bishop of Münster, Bernhard von Galen, also known as Bommen Berend, has been driven out of the city.
The video is the brainchild of retiring UB employee Frank den Hollander, who also wrote the song’s lyrics.