“A New Peace of Munster” at Utrecht University
A documentary film speculating on climate migration along the Dutch-German border helps us to critically reflect on the notion of climate refugees and how we represent them in the media.
A few weeks ago, in the course “Anthropology and Sustainability” at Utrecht University, we watched the documentary film “A New Peace of Munster” followed by a discussion with the author, anthropologist and filmmaker Maria Kolossa, and with one of the producers, Simon Richter, professor of German and Dutch literature at the University of Pennsylvania, better known to Dutch water professionals and the readers of this blog as Dr. Poldergeist. The other producer, the comedian Patrick Nederkoorn, was present in spirit and in the opening slide of the lecture on Climate and Mobility that hosted the screening, as you can see in the photo.
“A New Peace of Münster” (The Netherlands, 2023, 45 min.) is a documentary film about climate migration along the Dutch-German border. You might wonder what such an unusual team – a visual anthropologist, a professor of German literature, and a comedian – has to say about climate migration. The best way to discover it is, of course, by watching the documentary! Knowing that it is part of a broader project that includes Dr. Poldergeist’s series of animated videos, Patrick Nederkoorn’s show, an exhibition, and workshops with residents of towns along the Dutch-German border. The video offers a glimpse of all these activities, and, in Simon’s words, “perhaps it was the one that had the bigger impact”.
The Peace of Munster (1648) was signed between the Spanish crown and the representatives of the United Provinces of the Netherlands. That treaty marked the end of the Eighty Years’ War, with Spain’s formal recognition of the Dutch sovereignty. It is a cornerstone event, often regarded as the birth of the modern Netherlands. “A New Peace of Munster” poses the provocative question of whether a new negotiation might be needed – this time involving Germany and, even more significantly, water – to address the end of the Netherlands and its territory as we have come to know it due to the climate crisis. Some of the worst IPCC scenarios predict a 2-meter sea level rise by the end of this century. But the infrastructural barriers that the Dutch have built to keep their country dry, such as the Eastern Scheldt, can cope with a maximum of 40 centimeters of sea level rise.
Why did we watch this documentary film with the students of the Anthropology and Sustainability course? In my opinion, this documentary helps to critically reflect on some of the climate migration myths criticized in an opinion piece in the journal Nature and Climate Change – dated 2019 but still very actual! – by a group of scholars led by Ingrid Boas (Wageningen University and Research). That piece calls for a new research agenda, more critical and nuanced, on climate mobility, moving beyond the securitization and simplifications of the official discourses on climate migrants or refugees. This documentary can contribute to such an endeavor in at least three ways, corresponding to more general functions of the video. As lighting is an essential ingredient of filmmaking, in framing these functions, I will play with light as well.
Spotlighting
The first function is an unveiling one. “A new Peace of Munster” spotlights one of the potential responses to sea level rise, that of meebewegen or “moving with it”. This scenario implies a retreat towards the East of the country, abandoning the Randstand (the conglomerate of cities like Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht and The Hague constituting the political and economic core of the Netherlands) to the sea, and relocating people and investments at the border with Germany. This scenario has hardly been taken seriously and discussed in the public debate. The documentary asks a difficult question with a certain lightness: What if the Dutch will have to migrate to Germany because of climate change and sea level rise? It speculates on how such a future could be and how a new peace could be negotiated with the German neighbors, and also with water and the landscape.
Highlighting
The second function of this documentary is an informative one. By highlighting the social, cultural, and historical dimensions of the relations between the Netherlands and Germany, it shows the complexity of mobility: migration choices are influenced by a mix of political, economic, social, cultural, and environmental factors and cannot be directly and exclusively attributed to climate change. If this is true for the Dutch, it should also be the case for the other nationalities or groups that we tend to represent as “climate refugees”. It does not mean downplaying the seriousness and consequences of the climate crisis. On the contrary, it allows to better situate those in the social and political context and to hold accountable those in power. People do not move because of climate change but because of the limits or lack of policies and actions to address its consequences.
Delighting
The third function is an ethical one. By showing personal stories, local experiences, and intimate reflections of Dutch people that have moved towards the East, and of their German neighbors questioning about a future ‘Orange Wave” of migrants, “A New Peace of Munster” contributes to re-humanise the category of climate refugees. This calls for a critical reflection on how migrants, and in particular climate migrants, are represented in the European media and public discourse, mostly in a way that excludes them from our collective identity and society.
After running the summer course Video storytelling for Water Communication for several years, I’ve learnt that videos are firstly and foremost about emotions. When watching this documentary for the first time, I appreciated how it addresses a grave topic from an original entry point, that of history and national identity, and with a certain humor. If not full amusement, the documentary elicited in me a sense of surprise and curiosity. Watching it in class with students and colleagues and discussing it afterward was a good opportunity to remember and acknowledge the existence of different perspectives on climate and mobility. The same documentary can elicit very different emotions depending on our own story and background. A student born in one of the areas of the Netherlands that are projected to be flooded and abandoned to water in the future shared feelings of sadness and apprehension, asking if there is nothing that we can do. Another student from Aruba, in the Dutch Caribbean, expressed anger at the fact that his island faces similar problems of sea level rise without having at its disposal the same technical and financial resources or a space to relocate. A colleague who recently moved to the Netherlands and bought a house, shared his bewilderment about the Dutch real estate market. Such diverse emotions elicited by the same documentary remind us that our story is not the only one in town, and invite us to learn about others with curiosity and sympathy as the first step to act together.
OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
Emanuele Fantini (April 14, 2025). “A New Peace of Munster” at Utrecht University. FLOWs. Retrieved June 20, 2025 from https://doi.org/10.58079/13r1d