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Photo: Thuring |
Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld was born into the German aristocracy in 1911. He spent his childhood on the family estate in a part of Germany that now lies in Poland. Bernhard entered Dutch history when he became engaged to Crown Princess Juliana of the House of Orange in 1936.
| Juliana's mother Wilhelmina had been Queen of the Netherlands since 1890. She was 56 years old and a widow. The House of Orange at that time only consisted of Queen Wilhelmina and her daughter Juliana. This had raised the issue of the very survival of the House of Orange. The arrival of Prince Bernhard solved this problem. Enthusiastic crowds turned out to greet Bernhard and Juliana at their engagement on September 9, 1936. |
Formally he had no position at all. He did have a yearly allowance, something which his predecessor and father-in-law had not been granted, but politically he had no role to play. The constitution did not provide for a consort. For the time being, he had to wait in the wings.
War Years
Bernhard did not have to wait long, for world events soon thrust upon him one of the defining roles of his life. In May 1940, Germany invaded The Netherlands. Princess Juliana and the couple's two young daughters, Beatrix and Irene, were taken to safety in Canada. Bernhard himself remained in Britain during the war, at the side of Queen Wilhelmina and the government in-exile.
But Bernhard himself was German by birth. He eagerly offered to contribute to the fight against the Nazis, but the allies were reluctant at first to enlist his services. Bernhard had, after all, studied law in Berlin and Munich in the days when Hitler's national socialists were on the rise. He had joined Nazi student organisations and the Reiter-SS, though it has never been established whether he did so willingly. Bernhard had disassociated himself entirely from all such ties long before the outbreak of the war. And slowly but surely he won the confidence of the allies.
The war changed the Dutch monarchy. Parliamentary control was non-existent during the years of the government's exile in London. The elected politicians had lost much of their credibility for failing to foresee the true threat of Nazism, while pursuing a policy of appeasement towards the Third Reich.
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| Resistance movement |
Wilhelmina, on the other hand, emerged as a figure of heroic dignity. For the people of the occupied Netherlands she became a symbol of the Dutch nation, and Bernhard became a symbol of the Resistance.
Bernhard had become Wilhelmina's closest confidant during the war years; her "eyes and ears". Reactionary circles who wanted a stronger monarchy devised plans to restrict suffrage and reduce the power of parliament after the war, and there was even talk of making Bernhard a kind of viceroy.
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| May 1945 |
Bernhard´s Role Changes
| Bernhard was clearly not the type to settle for an ornamental role as a mere fixture of court ceremony. In 1958 he set up the Erasmus Foundation, whose annual award is Holland's highest distinction for international achievement in the field of European culture. In 1960, in the early years of European integration, Bernhard himself was awarded the Europa prize of the Council of Europe. |
Bernhard was intensely interested in the political developments that shaped the post-war era. His vast network of contacts with some of the world's key decision-makers placed him in an ideal position to initiate and chair the so-called Bilderberg conferences first held in 1954. These prestigious private discussions of Cold War issues brought together some of the western world's most powerful people: Henry Kissinger, Willy Brandt, Giscard d'Estaing and captains of industry like Nelson Rockefeller and the president of Philips.
| Bernhard´s political principles manifested themselves in the crisis surrounding New Guinea, which brought the Netherlands into serious conflict with its former colony Indonesia in 1961. Indonesia wanted to seize control over New Guinea, the last remnant of the Dutch East Indies still under Holland's administration. Foreign minister Joseph Luns was prepared to go to war over the issue. The United States, fearing instability in the region, proposed a compromise called the Bunker plan. The Americans sensed that the Dutch government was seriously divided on the issue. And so, while prince Bernhard was on one of his many visits to America, President John F. Kennedy invited him to the White House for… a chat. That conversation became a factor in the U.S. strategy in the crisis. The president asked the prince what he thought about the situation in New Guinea. Bernhard gave his spontaneous advice according to his political beliefs. He was opposed to war at the time, and he didn't think the country should go to war. This was remarkable for a man who was considered to act under the responsibility of the government. In the 1960s, his American biographer Alden Hatch explained how Bernhard himself saw the role of royalty. He considered royalty to have a very valuable function, being above the battle, without a political axe to grind. But Bernhard did have moral and political principles to which he was deeply engaged. |
Controversy
In the 1960s, his American biographer Alden Hatch explained how Bernhard himself saw the role of the royalty. He considered royalty to have a very valuable function, being beyond battle, without a political axe to grind. But Berhard did have moral and political principles to which he was deeply engrained.
In 1956, Bernhard actually helped to resolve a crisis precisely because he took sides, even though it meant that he was overstepping his bounds as prince consort. Queen Juliana had come into close contact with a faith healer, Greet Hofmans, a woman with strong pacifist views who claimed that she could cure the blindness of the royal couple's youngest daughter.
The prince later told his biographer of his increasing frustration as he observed the faith healer's growing influence over the queen. While tensions mounted at the palace, the government did nothing. In the end Bernhard was instrumental in forcing the government to act. After four years Greet Hofmans had to leave the court. The affair was the first in a series of incidents that transformed the Dutch public's perception of the monarchy.
Lockheed
The prestige of the House of Orange suffered a serious blow in 1976 when Prince Bernhard was implicated in the Lockheed bribery scandal. A commission of three wise men was set up to investigate allegations that Bernhard had accepted a large sum of money from the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation in America in exchange for promoting the company's interests in the Netherlands.
The commission concluded that Bernhard's dealings with Lockheed had not in the end affected Dutch military acquisitions policy and the government ultimately decided not to prosecute the prince. The queen considered abdication in the event of legal proceedings against her husband. Instead, Bernhard was forced to relinquish all his public functions and resign from all his military ranks, a decision that was partially reversed under pressure from former members of the Dutch resistance.
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WWF
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Although he almost never again wore a military uniform, Bernhard's presence remained indispensable at the annual commemoration of the German capitulation in Wageningen and he continued to sport the white carnation that practically became his personal insignia.
| Although his latter years were spent in relative quiet, he still managed to make the headlines on occasion. In late 2002, he publicly expressed his anger over a decision to prosecute two supermarket employees who had overpowered a robber at their place of work. He eventually paid the legal costs of the two individuals concerned. Finally, early in 2004 he wrote an open letter to a leading Dutch newspaper in which he reflected on a number of controversial events in his long life. Then 92, he touched on issues such as allegations of betrayal regarding the plans for the allied attack on Arnhem in 1944, and the supposed existence of a letter from him offering his services to the Nazis. "I offer a million to the person who can show me that letter," he wrote. He also denied as nonsense stories about him having fathered two illegitimate sons in England during the Second World War. Finally, he called for the report on the Greet Hofmans affair of the 1950s to be made public. |
He added a distinguished new touch to his appearance and grew a beard. In recent years the prince underwent a series of major operations and the public's expression of concern reflected the affection for him by many of his countrymen.
For the international community, the achievement he will most often be remembered for in the future is his work as founder-president of the World Wildlife Fund.
Founded in 1961, the Worldwide Fund for Nature, as it is now called, is the world's largest voluntary organisation promoting nature conservation. It's a subject that has never failed to arouse his emotions.
Prince Bernhard was closely involved in some of the key events of this century: World War II resistance, post-war economic reconstruction Western security and environmental preservation. He was a man who consciously experienced and reflected on the contradictions of his age.