non-jumping equestrian and the running part of the modern pentathlon event. The city was the headquarters of the German ground forces (Wehrmacht) in the Netherlands.
The Nederlandse Seintoestellen Fabriek (NSF) company established a professional transmitter and radio factory in Hilversum in the early 1920s, growing into the largest of its kind in the Netherlands, and in 1948 being taken over by Philips. By then the textile industry had started its decline; only one factory, Veneta, managed to continue into the 1960s, when it also had to close its doors. Another major industry, the chemical factory IFF, also closed by the end of the 1960s. In the meantime, almost all Dutch radio broadcasting organizations (followed by television broadcasters in the 1950s) established their headquarters in Hilversum and provided a source of continuing economic growth. The concentration of broadcasters in Hilversum has given it its enduring status as the media city for The Netherlands.
In 1964, the population reached a record high – over 103,000 people called Hilversum home. The current population hovers around 85,000. Several factors figure into the decline: one is the fact that the average family nowadays consists of fewer people, so fewer people live in each house; second, the town is virtually unable to expand because all the surrounding lands were sold to the Gooisch Natuurreservaat by city architect W.M. Dudok. The third reason for this decline of the population was due to the fact that the property values were increasing rapidly in that moment of time. So many people were forced to move to cheaper areas in The Netherlands.
Some sources blame connections in the television world for attracting crime to Hilversum, and the town has had to cope with mounting drug-related issues in a community with higher than average unemployment and ongoing housing shortage.
Hilversum was one of the first towns to have a local party of the populist movement called
