Van Meerwijk is a name that I often run into when I am looking for information about Farwerck. There was a couple Van Meerwijk. He was Joseph Leonard Corneille van Meerwijk (1873-1948), she Anna Petronella Verdonck (1886-1984). They married on September 11th 1918.
Joseph is mostly known as director of one of the biggest insurance companies in the Netherlands, Centraal Beheer (until 1937).
The couple Van Meerwijk joined the effort of the Coué foundation, were also members of Univeral Sufism, fellow Theosophists (at least in 1913) and they were members of Le Droit Humain.
High up on the social ladder, Van Meerwijk is a likely contact for Farwerck. Contrary to many of his contacts, the Van Meerwijks didn’t live near Hilversum. They did live in Amsterdam for a couple of years and Van Meerwijk was member of Amstelodamum (since 1924) like Carl Wilhelm Farwerck. For the last 22 years of his and 21 years of her lives, the Van Meerwijks lived in Aerdenhout to the West of Amsterdam.
I haven’t found much information about Van Meerwijk save for things in his professional life. Perhaps interesting is a short note in a biography that he preferred to spend his holidays in Switzerland, so maybe here we have the Coué connection.
It seems that Van Meerwijk operated more under the radar like Farwerck’s brother. The most ‘juicy’ anecdote connects Willy Farwerck and the Van Meerwijks.
Franz Farwerck joined the National Socialist Movement in 1932 and was removed in 1940. In that same year 1940 Willy Farwerck and the Van Meerwijks resigned from Le Droit Humain because they were of the opinion that there was no place for Freemasonry under a National Socialist regime. When the Dutch federation didn’t disband itself, the three left and shortly after five other members of their Amsterdam lodge did too.
Here we at least have the very strong suggestion that Willy Farwerck was in good contact (and accord) with the Van Meerwijks, which is not strange, as they were members of the same lodge. I have found no indication that Van Meerwijk actually joined the NSB.
It would have been interesting to find out more about the couple who seem to have been close to Farwerck for a long time, but this is it. For now.