Bilderberg/1954
Hotel Bilderberg, Oosterbeek, Netherlands
| File:Bilderberg 1954.jpg The 1954 Meeting | |
| Date | 29 May 1954 - 31 May 1954 |
|---|---|
| Location | Hotel Bilderberg, Oosterbeek, Netherlands |
| Description | The first Bilderberg meeting, attended by 68 men from Europe and the US, including 20 businessmen, 25 politicians, 5 financiers & 4 academics. |
| Perpetrators | Bilderberg/Steering committee |
| Participants | George Barry Bingham, Hugh Gaitskell, H. M. Hirschfeld, Guy Mollet, Paul H. Nitze, Etienne de la Vallee Poussin, David Rockefeller, J. D. Zellerbach, Robert Andre, Ralph Assheton, G. De Beaumont, Pierre Bonvoisin, Robert Boothby, Max Brauer, Raffaele Cafiero, Walker L. Cisler, Gardner Cowles, Clement Davies, Jean Drapier, Roger Duchet, Maurice Faure, John H. Ferguson, John Foster, Oliver Franks, Gerhard P. Th. Geyer, Colin Gubbins, Dennis Healey, H. John Heinz II, Leif Høegh, C. D. Jackson, Nelson Dean Jay, P. Kanellopoulos, V. J. Koningsberger, Ole Bjørn Kraft, P. M. A. Leverkuehn, Giovanni F. Malagodi, Finn Moe, H. Montgomery Hyde, Roger Motz, Rudolf Mueller, George C. McGhee, George Nebolsine, H. Oosterhuis, Cola G. Parker, George Perkins Jr, Harry Pilkington, Alberto Pirelli, Ludwig Rosenberg, Paolo Rossi, Denis de Rougemont, Paul Rijkens, Ernst Georg Schneider, Joseph P. Spang, M. P. L. Steenberghe, Terkel Terkelsen, Herbert L. G. Tingsten, H. Troeger, Vittorio Valletta, Andre Voisin, M. Waldenstrom, H. F. van Walsem, Jean Willems, Thomas Williamson |
| Witnessed by | B. H. M. Vlekke, W. Veenstra, E. G. Focke, G. E. Overweg, J. Pomian |
The 1954 Bilderberg Meeting was the first Bilderberg meeting. It had participants from European countries and the United States. All were male. The guests included business executives, politicians, financiers, editors/journalists and academics. It was held at the Bilderberg Hotel in Oosterbeek, the Netherlands. The next one was the 1955 March meeting.
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“Americans saw that firm Western action in Persia, Berlin, and Korea had produced successful results and they therefore believed in continuing a firm policy.”
(1954) 1954 Bilderberg report [1]
Origins
In August 1956 Józef Retinger completed an account of how the group was set up, in which he tracks the group's origins to 1952. He reportedly approached H.R.H. Prince Bernhard, Dr Paul Rykens and Paul van Zeeland "with the suggestion that we should organize some unofficial and private meetings to discuss the difficulties and dangers which were causing us so much anxiety. To these meetings we would invite influential and reliable people who carried the respect of those working in the field of national and international affairs and whose personal contact with men at the summit of public activity could help to smooth over these difficulties."[2] On their advice, he approached a larger group of his friends, who met in Paris on 25 September 1952 and "discussed what could be done to improve American-European relations and on the initiative of M. van Zeeland we decided to set up a corresponding group in the United States."[2] Retinger went to USA in November that year and organised a US contingent, under John Coleman. Together they organised the list of guests for the 1954 conference.
{{#subobject: |Has superobject=Bilderberg/1954 |Has objectClass=Quotation |Has author=|+sep=, |Has text=“Finally, in view of the desire expressed by the majority of the participants in Bilderberg, and on the invitation of the American members, it was decided that a similar conference should be convened in the U.S.A., time and place to be decided upon later.” |Is about=Bilderberg/1954,|+sep=, |Has wikipediaPage= |Has location=|+sep=, |Has publicationDate=1954 |Sourced from= |Has sourceDetails= |Has sourceTitle=1954 Bilderberg report |Has sourceName= |Has sourceURL=https://wikispooks.com/wiki/File:BilderbergConferenceReport1954.pdf }}“Finally, in view of the desire expressed by the majority of the participants in Bilderberg, and on the invitation of the American members, it was decided that a similar conference should be convened in the U.S.A., time and place to be decided upon later.” [3]
Invitations
In mid April, 1954, the invited guests were sent personal invitations from Soetdijk Palace to "an unofficial international conference which is to be held in the Netherlands at the end of May" for "a candid exchange of views". They were signed by Prince Bernhard.
Location
The "Hotel De Bilderberg" is located in Oosterbeek, a small town near Arnhem, which was the site of a major World War II battle. Bilderberg researcher Tony Gosling has suggested that this may have been a deliberate choice, an indirect reference to Operation Market Garden, which he sees as the deceit which deliberately prolonged World War II.
Meetings
There were morning and afternoon meetings on all 3 days. On Saturday, 29th May, 10:00-13:00 and then 15:00-18:00. On Sunday, 11:00-13:00 and then 15:00-18:00. On Monday, 10:00-13:00 and then 14:30-18:00. "For reasons of convenience only the English and French languages" were used. The conference room was equipped for simultaneous interpretation into English and French. Secretaries were "made available to the participants on request to the Secretariat."[4]
Notes On Discussion
Subsequent Bilderberg meetings issued a formal conference report, but no such is known to exist for the original Bilderberg conference. Instead, a set of typed notes records 21 pages of opinions expressed at the meeting. These notes are exceptional in that they attribute names to the comments they record. Concern about privacy probably caused this policy to be amended, to that subsequent conference reports instead attributed comments instead to "An American", "A German" etc.
Non-attendance
According to the report, Antoine Pinay, Panagiotis Pipinelis, Alcide de Gasperi and P. Quaroni did not attend due to illness and P. H. Teitgen & Guy Mollet were both marked "unable to attend owing to an unforeseen and urgent meeting of his party regarding the EDC".[5]
Recording
An audio recording of Prince Bernhard opening the conference was made, which was posted on YouTube. It is occasionally taken down due to claims of copyright infringement, but remains available. Photos were also taken, but are unknown for later conferences.
Agenda
The Bilderberg meetings website (which is known to have omitted certain items)[6] summarised the agenda as follows:
- The attitude towards communism and the Soviet Union
- The attitude towards dependent areas and peoples overseas
- The attitude towards economic policies and problems
- The attitude towards European integration and the European Defence Community
The report was leaked online.[5]