De Vrienden

De Vrienden is a five-member Dutch group formed between 1974 and 1976. Its long-term personal association became the basis of the relationship between the Noord family and the Paap family. The Van Hetten family entered the group through Imro van Hetten in early 1975. Lourens Schroeter brought the Schroeter family into the association later that year, and Eef Hoos completed the group in 1976.

The members remained in contact across the following decades. They formed the music group De Lijers, adopted a numerical order that became associated with their families and later participated together in the Takistan War.

Formation and internal structure

Angelo Noord and Martin Paap formed the initial core of De Vrienden in 1974. Both were adolescents at the time. Imro van Hetten joined in early 1975 as the third member. Lourens Schroeter became associated with them later that year. He was the oldest member of the group. Eef Hoos joined in 1976 as the fifth person to enter the association, completing the group of five.

Informal roles developed during the group's early years. Noord organized its internal records and documented its activities. Paap took the initiative during group activities and was associated with direct action. Van Hetten was treated as a stabilizing member. Schroeter provided logistical and material support. Hoos entered after these roles had begun to develop and became part of the completed group structure.

Around 1980, De Vrienden formalized a numerical system that associated each member and family with a fixed number. The resulting order was:

1. Angelo Noord
2. Martin Paap
3. Imro van Hetten
4. Eef Hoos
5. Lourens Schroeter

This arrangement differed from the chronological joining order. Schroeter had joined before Hoos and had initially been regarded as the fourth member. The later numerical structure assigned the Hoos family the number four and the Schroeter family the number five. These associations later affected symbolic preferences concerning numbering in Rotterdam-West and Rotterdam-Zuid.

Cultural activity and travel

The members began making music together during the late 1970s. In 1978, they established De Lijers as their formal music group. Their early work developed through experiments with electronic sound and home-recording equipment.

De Lijers released Het Vriendenliedje in 1987 as its first official release. Following the imprisonment of Eef Hoos, the remaining four members released Veroordeeld in 1989. The song addressed Hoos's legal situation and became recognized within the Hoos family.

From approximately 1980 until 2014, the members undertook frequent road trips together. Southern France was a common destination. These journeys maintained regular contact between the five members during periods when their family responsibilities and other activities increasingly developed separately.

Later history

In November 2007, Martin Paap became leader of the Paap family following internal conflict in Rotterdam. His father, Martin Paap I, had previously held the position. The appointment connected the group's long-standing personal association more directly to the leadership of the Paap family.

Angelo Noord documented the leadership change and continued recording developments involving De Vrienden. He later compiled and finalized his written records in 2017.

Between 2017 and 2019, Noord investigated the influence of Rotterdam-Zuid. The investigation identified Khalid bin Thani in Takistan as a source of support for groups operating in the southern Netherlands and Belgium. The investigation developed into the Takistan War, in which all five members of De Vrienden participated.

The conflict required repeated travel to Takistan and included armed confrontations. Martin Paap sustained a severe gunshot wound in 2018. Imro van Hetten treated him, and Paap recovered after approximately seven months. The conflict ended in late 2019 with a neutrality agreement.

In 2021, Angelo Noord travelled to Tanoa and remained there for approximately one year. He had no direct contact with the other four members during this period. Noord later reported that he had observed Mark Hugerinus Paap in the Tanoan jungle.

Legacy

De Vrienden established the personal relationship connecting the Noord, Paap, Van Hetten, Hoos and Schroeter families. The numerical order adopted around 1980 gave each family a fixed position from one to five. De Lijers preserved the group's musical activity, while Angelo Noord's written records documented its development across several decades.

The group's continued association also allowed its members to act together during the Takistan War despite their separate family roles and personal activities. De Vrienden became a central subject of the Vriend Era through these family relationships, recordings and shared events.

See also

• Noord family
• Paap family
• Van Hetten family
• Hoos family
• Schroeter family
• De Lijers
• Takistan War
• Vriend Era