Ernst van der Beugel

Ernst van der Beugel     (economist, academic, deep politician)
Born	2 February 1918 Amsterdam, Netherlands
Died	29 September 2004 (Age 86)
Nationality	Dutch
Alma mater	University of Amsterdam, Erasmus University Rotterdam
Parents	• Theodor Max van der Beugel • Sophia van Praag
Member of	Bilderberg/Advisory Committee, Bilderberg/Steering committee, Dutch Round Table
34 Bilderberg meetings, on both the Advisory Committee & Steering committees

Ernst van der Beugel was a Dutch academic and a member of both the Bilderberg/Advisory Committee and Bilderberg/Steering committee. He visited 34 Bilderberg meetings.

Background and Career in government

Van der Beugel graduated in economics from the University of Amsterdam in 1941.From 1945 to 1952 he was directly involved in the planning and implementation of post-war economic recovery, particularly in coordination with the Marshall Plan. He then switched from the Ministry of Economics to Foreign Affairs, at first continuing his role in coordinating the US-sponsored economic and military assistance programme, before becoming the State Secretary for European Affairs during 1957-58. .

Van der Beugel belonged to a realist stream of Atlanticism that wanted US leadership, based in NATO and extending into other policy fields, to provide the focal point for Western unity. The US security guarantee was the corner-stone for continuing West European stability and integrity. European integration was a necessity but should not trigger false – and dangerous – illusions of grandeur. US policy support for European unity therefore placed van der Beugel and other Dutch Atlanticists in the position of "more American than the Americans"

After official career

On 1 July 1959 his official connection with the Dutch government ended, and the mapping of his influence becomes sketchier. Van der Beugel had at least forty-eight board memberships and advisory posts, spanning the 1950s to the 1980s and covering everything from business, academia, and health to cultural exchange, economic planning, and security think tanks.

From 1966 to 1983 he was very influential as Professor of Western Cooperation after World War II at the University of Leiden, a host of future members of the Dutch diplomatic corps passing through his classes, including Secretary General of NATO, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, remarking that professor van der Beugel was a major influence on his political thinking as a student.

Kissinger

Henry Kissinger and van der Beugel first met in 1957, when Kissinger was Associate Professor at Harvard and recently appointed Associate Director of the think tank Center for International Affairs. He was touring Europe following the publication of his book Nuclear Weapons and Foreign Policy. At the time, van der Beugel was the Secretary of State for European Cooperation in the Dutch Foreign Ministry, and Kissinger was introduced to him thanks to a suggestion of the then US Ambassador to the Netherlands, H. Freeman Matthews. Kissinger was always active in meeting and tracking rising talents on the European scene, and as Director of the Harvard International Seminar he would invite many of them to the US.

Despite the increasing intensity of their professional lives, their contact developed considerably over the ensuing years. Yet in the recent major biographies of Kissinger, fuelled by the opening of archival material from his time at the helm of US foreign policy, no mention is made of this friendship.

Bilderberg

In 1959 van der Beugel, who already knew Prince Bernhard through his government work, came into more regular contact with him through their common association with the Dutch airline KLM. The Prince invited to become the group’s chairman, succeeding Joseph Retinger, and he attended his first Bilderberg meeting in Turkey later that same year to assume this new role.

Van der Beugel stated openly that it not only provided a second-to-none source for his research on transatlantic relations, but it also opened doors for the expansion of his own activities into the boardrooms of Xerox, Petrofina, and General Electric.

Deep Politics

In 1966 Ernst van der Beugel was and received a Ph.D. from Erasmus University Rotterdam in 1966 on the dissertation From Marshall plan to Atlantic Partnership (with a foreword by Henry Kissinger). He spoke at the European Atlantic Group as Secretary-General of the Bilderberg group on "Atlantic Partnership" and became a member of the elite Bilderberg Advisory Committee.

Ernst van der Beugel and Max Kohnstamm prepared a paper on Western Europe and America in the Seventies for the 1970 Bilderberg. Van der Beugel wrote on The State of the Atlantic Alliance for the 1974 Bilderberg

 

Events Participated in

Event	Start	End	Location(s)	Description
Bilderberg/1959	18 September 1959	20 September 1959	Turkey Yesilkoy	The 8th Bilderberg and the first in Turkey. 60 guests.
Bilderberg/1960	28 May 1960	29 May 1960	Switzerland Bürgenstock	The 9th such meeting and the first one in Switzerland. 61 participants + 4 "in attendance". The meeting report contains a press statement, 4 sentences long.
Bilderberg/1961	21 April 1961	23 April 1961	Canada Quebec St-Castin	The 10th Bilderberg, the first in Canada and the 2nd outside Europe.
Bilderberg/1962	18 May 1962	20 May 1962	Sweden Saltsjöbaden	The 11th Bilderberg meeting and the first one in Sweden.
Bilderberg/1963	29 March 1963	31 March 1963	France Cannes Hotel Martinez	The 12th Bilderberg meeting and the second one in France.
Bilderberg/1964	20 March 1964	22 March 1964	US Virginia Williamsburg	A year after this meeting, the post of GATT/Director-General was set up, and given Eric Wyndham White, who attended the '64 meeting. Several subsequent holders have been Bilderberg insiders, only 2 are not known to have attended the group.
Bilderberg/1965	2 April 1965	4 April 1965	Italy Villa d'Este	The 14th Bilderberg meeting, held in Italy
Bilderberg/1966	25 March 1966	27 March 1966	Germany Wiesbaden Hotel Nassauer Hof	Top of the agenda of the 15th Bilderberg in Wiesbaden, Germany, was the restructuring of NATO. Since this discussion was held, all permanent holders of the position of NATO Secretary General have attended at least one Bilderberg conference prior to their appointment.
Bilderberg/1967	31 March 1967	2 April 1967	United Kingdom St John's College (Cambridge) UK	Possibly the only Bilderberg meeting held in a university college rather than a hotel (St. John's College, Cambridge)
Bilderberg/1968	26 April 1968	28 April 1968	Canada Mont Tremblant	The 17th Bilderberg and the 2nd in Canada
Bilderberg/1969	9 May 1969	11 May 1969	Denmark Hotel Marienlyst Elsinore	The 18th Bilderberg meeting, with 85 participants
Bilderberg/1970	17 April 1970	19 April 1970	Switzerland Hotel Quellenhof Bad Ragaz	the 19th Bilderberg meeting, in Switzerland.
Bilderberg/1971	23 April 1971	25 April 1971	US Vermont Woodstock Woodstock Inn	The 20th Bilderberg, 89 guests
Bilderberg/1972	21 April 1972	23 April 1972	Belgium Hotel La Reserve Knokke	The 21st Bilderberg, 102 guests. It spawned the Trilateral Commission.
Bilderberg/1973	11 May 1973	13 May 1973	Sweden Saltsjöbaden	The meeting at which the 1973 oil crisis appears to have been planned.
Bilderberg/1974	19 April 1974	21 April 1974	France Hotel Mont d' Arbois Megève	The 23rd Bilderberg, held in France
Bilderberg/1975	25 April 1975	27 April 1975	Turkey Golden Dolphin Hotel Cesme	The 24th Bilderberg Meeting, 98 guests
Bilderberg/1977	22 April 1977	24 April 1977	United Kingdom Imperial Hotel Torquay	The 25th Bilderberg, held in Torquay, England.
Bilderberg/1978	21 April 1978	23 April 1978	US New Jersey Princeton University	The 26th Bilderberg, held in the US
Bilderberg/1979	27 April 1979	29 April 1979	Austria Baden Clubhotel Schloss Weikersdorf	27th Bilderberg, 95 guests, Austria
Bilderberg/1980	18 April 1980	20 April 1980	Germany Aachen	The 28th Bilderberg, held in West Germany, unusually exposed by the Daily Mirror
Bilderberg/1981	15 May 1981	17 May 1981	Switzerland Palace Hotel Bürgenstock	The 29th Bilderberg
Bilderberg/1982	14 May 1982	16 May 1982	Norway Sandefjord	The 30th Bilderberg, held in Norway.
Bilderberg/1983	13 May 1983	15 May 1983	Canada Quebec Château Montebello	The 31st Bilderberg, held in Canada
Bilderberg/1984	11 May 1984	13 May 1984	Sweden Saltsjöbaden	The 32nd Bilderberg, held in Sweden
Bilderberg/1988	3 June 1988	5 June 1988	Austria Interalpen-Hotel Telfs-Buchen	The 36th meeting, 114 participants
Bilderberg/1989	12 May 1989	14 May 1989	Spain Galicia La Toja Island	37th Bilderberg meeting, 110 guests
Bilderberg/1990	10 May 1990	13 May 1990	New York US Glen Cove	38th Bilderberg meeting, 119 guests
Bilderberg/1991	6 June 1991	9 June 1991	Germany Baden-Baden Steigenberger Hotel Badischer Hof	The 39th Bilderberg, 114 guests
Bilderberg/1992	21 May 1992	24 May 1992	France Royal Club Evian Evian-les-Bains	The 40th Bilderberg. It had 121 participants.
Bilderberg/1993	22 April 1993	25 April 1993	Greece Nafsika Astir Palace Hotel Vouliagmeni	The 41st Bilderberg, held in Greece
Bilderberg/1994	2 June 1994	5 June 1994	Finland Helsinki	The 42nd Bilderberg, in Helsinki.
Bilderberg/1997	12 June 1997	15 June 1997	US Lake Lanier Georgia (State)	The 45th Bilderberg meeting
Bilderberg/1998	14 May 1998	17 May 1998	Scotland Turnberry	The 46th Bilderberg meeting, held in Scotland, chaired by Peter Carrington

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