Wilfrid Baumgartner

Wilfrid Baumgartner   (politician, central banker)
Born	21 May 1902 Paris, France
Died	1 June 1978 (Age 76) Paris, France
Nationality	French
Alma mater	lycée Buffon, Sciences Po, Sorbonne
Member of	Bilderberg/Steering committee
Interests	Marshall Plan
Governor of the Bank of France, Bilderberg Steering Committee  France/Minister/Finance  In office 13 January 1960 - 19 January 1962  Bank of France/Governor  In office 19 January 1949 - 21 January 1960

Wilfrid Baumgartner was a French civil servant and central banker. He was a member of the Bilderberg Steering Committee.

Background

Wilfrid Baumgartner's father was doctor Amédée Baumgartner, a hospital surgeon and president of the National Academy of Medicine. Wilfrid attended secondary school at the Lycée Buffon. During the First World War, he attended high school in Poitiers.

Education

He enrolled in the Free School of Political Sciences, and later obtained a bachelor of arts and a law degree from the University of Paris. He defended a doctoral thesis in law devoted to the Rentenmark (German transitional currency, between 1919 and 1923) and German monetary policy, under the supervision of Louis Germain-Martin. The thesis would be read carefully by Doctor Hjalmar Schacht, Minister of the Economy in the Third Reich.

Marriage

He married in 1930 Christiane Mercier, daughter of the industrialist Ernest Mercier. They had three children.

Career

He became inspector of finance in 1925. He taught courses on monetary policy at the Sciences Po from 1932.

From March to December 1930, he was the cabinet director of Finance Minister Paul Reynaud. After working as a Director of the Treasury (Directeur générale du Trésor) in the Ministry of Finance from January 1935 to November 1936. He was president of the government credit institution Crédit National between 1936 and 1949.

In 1943, he was deported to Buchenwald as a VIP hostage.

In 1946, he chaired the London international conference on the reparation of war damage. He was involved in the implementation of the Marshall Plan.

In 1949, [[Maurice Petsche] appointed him Governor of the Bank of France and held this post until January 1960.

He refused the first time the proposal to be appointed Minister of the Economy by Michel Debré. However, he accepted the proposal some time later, in 1960, to replace Antoine Pinay as Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs in the Michel Debré government, on January 13, 1960. He remained so for two years. He was in turn replaced by Valéry Giscard d'Estaing on January 18, 1962.

In 1961, even before leaving the government, he became the president of the Alliance française, an association with the aim of spreading the French language abroad. He held this position until his death.

He became Président-directeur général (CEO) of the chemical and pharmaceutical company Rhône-Poulenc (1963-1973). He was also a member of the Académie des sciences morales et politiques between 1965 and his death, and a member of the Economic and Social Council (Conseil économique, social et environnemental), a body that advises the government and parliament on economic and social issues, from 1969 to 1974.

[[Display born on::21 May 1902| ]][[Display died on::1 June 1978| ]] 

Events Participated in

Event	Start	End	Location(s)	Description
Bilderberg/1957 October	4 October 1957	6 October 1957	Italy Fiuggi	The 6th Bilderberg meeting, the latest ever in the year and the first one in Italy.
Bilderberg/1958	13 September 1958	15 September 1958	Buxton UK England	The 7th Bilderberg and the first one in the UK. 72 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/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	St John's College (Cambridge) UK England	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

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