The Giants Hanneken and Bamberg

Hanneken and Bamberg worked in 1421 as harbour-labourers; together they could lift a fluyt for repair. On 17 November the north-west wind began. On 18 November at four in the morning the Wieldrecht dyke split. Water rose two metres an hour. Hanneken (the elder): «The breach is twenty metres. We two can hold it six hours, while the city evacuates.» They lay backs to the breach, one north, one south. Water washed six hours over their heads. Dordrecht had time to evacuate to the Great Church tower.

By ten the farmers did not come back, all fled. Hanneken: «Bamberg, we cannot both stay. One must go on to rebuild Dordrecht after the water. The other stays.» Bamberg was three minutes younger: «I stay. You go.» Hanneken wept, swam six hours to the city wall. Bamberg stayed with his back in the breach. Three days the water flowed. When the wind turned, they found Bamberg drowned in the breach, one hand on the post, one on the bank. He had held it with his body till the current ceased. Hanneken rebuilt Dordrecht — 1422 to 1453, thirty-one years — alone. He died 1453, eighty-one, on the Grote Markt. His will: «Bamberg lies in the breach. Bamberg gave Dordrecht its second life by his death. Do not forget him.» In 2026 the statue «Two Giants» stands; Hanneken larger, Bamberg smaller — for Bamberg still lies under. Tradition: «Two giants do not survive a flood together. One goes on, one stays. Who stays carries the city. Who goes on rebuilds it. Both needed.»