Ninety-two-year-old Dutch Prince Bernhard, father of Queen Beatrix, wearing an army beret as he reviews a parade in the eastern Dutch town of Wageningen Tuesday May 5, 2004, during celebrations marking the liberation of the Netherlands from NAZI rule, exactly 59 years ago.
Prince Bernhard 1911-2004
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.
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.
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.
Nothing ever came of these plans, but they reflected the enhanced status he had acquired during the war. In the final months of the fighting he was placed in charge of the armed resistance groups. It was under his command that they were unified and incorporated into the regular armed forces.And in May 1945 - as commander of the Dutch forces - Bernhard joined Canadian and U.S. commanders in the final negotiations for the surrender of the German forces occupying Holland.
Bernhard´s Role Changes
Three years after the war, on September 4, 1948, Wilhelmina abdicated and Juliana became Queen of the Netherlands, Bernhard now found himself in a more subdued role as husband of the head of state. In many ways, he had more freedom than the monarch, and the government was in a bit of quandary as to what his new role should be.
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.
The prince's unique network of contacts became a valuable asset for Dutch export promotion. Bernhard possessed legendary public relations skills in creating new international markets for Dutch business and industry. He dazzled his foreign hosts with his fluency in five languages, his wide range of interests and his royal status.
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.
Worldwide Fund for Nature
Although he almost never again wore a military uniform, Bernhard's presence has remained indispensable at the annual commemoration of the German capitulation in Wageningen and he has continued to sport the white carnation that practically became his personal insignia.
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.
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Originally Posted by Digital Marine
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