Foreign students who missed Delft’s last big royal funeral . that of Juliana, the former queen, this year – don’t fret, because this Saturday Delft hosts 2004’s Mega-Royal Funeral II, when 93-year-old Prince Bernhard is laid to rest here.
Bernhard, Queen Beatrix’s father, died on December 1 of cancer. But it’ll all be worth the wait, as this royal funeral promises to be another million euro, made-for-TV spectacle.
Tickets aren’t being sold for seats inside the church, so interested foreign students will have to join the masses of Dutch burghers lining the sidewalks to gawk at the funeral procession, as it travels from Den Haag to Delft, ending at the Markt’s New Church. All the Dutch royals will attend, so this is also your chance to see Maxima on more than just the covers of supermarket gossip magazines.
Saturday’s funeral means that for ‘normal’ weekend business, such as shopping, Delft center’s a no-go area, with police barriers everywhere and city workers out in force to haul away any unsightly bicycles that might be captured by TV cameras. So, don’t leave your bikes in the city center on Friday or Saturday.
Since most foreign students probably don’t have a clue as to who Bernhard is, or was, we offer a brief history of this controversial royal’s life. In our age of shameless ‘spin’, an objective rendering of a man’s life (or anything else for that matter) is impossible: Love or hate, for or against, there’s very little in between. And such is the case with Bernhard, who had his share of admirers and enemies.
Prince Bernhard was born in Germany (1911), the son of Prince Bernhard zur Lippe. He went on to study law at the universities of Lausanne, Munich and Berlin. While at university in the early 1930s, Bernhard joined a Nazi paramilitary organization. After graduating, he worked for German chemical company, I. G. Farben, then a major financer of the Nazi Party. In 1936 he became engaged to Princess Juliana, heiress to the Dutch throne, acquired Dutch nationality, and then married the future Queen of the Netherlands.
When World War II began and Holland fell to the Germans in 1940, Bernhard and the royal family retreated to England and Canada, where they safely spent the remainder of the war. When Holland was liberated in 1945, Bernhard returned a hero, because of his leadership of the Dutch forces in exile.
After the war, Bernhard was, in short, a ‘player’ – he was seemingly involved in everything, knew all the powerful people and enjoyed acting on the global stage. He was a tireless promoter of Dutch business and interests at home and abroad. He also loved Africa and animals and helped found the World Wildlife Foundation – in fact, elephants and other exotic animals join his funeral procession to Delft. In the 1950s, Bernhard founded the Bilderberg Group, an annual gathering of the global elite (mainly powerful industrialists and politicians) who meet to… well, nobody really knows what they meet for.
Bernhard certainly wasn’t free of controversy. A Dutch historian recently suggested Bernhard might have written a letter to Hitler during WWII, offering to govern Holland for the Germans; however, no such letter has ever been found. Bernard kept mistresses and was publicly exposed as having fathered a (French) bastard child. In the 1970s, Bernard was caught taking a $1 million bribe from US company Lockheed in return for granting the company lucrative Dutch military contracts. Too powerful to prosecute, Bernhard’s punishment was a government decree banning him from wearing a Dutch military uniform at state functions.
In recent years, Bernhard made headlines when he publicly defended two Albert Hein supermarket employees who were arrested after they caught and severely beat a shoplifter.
Love him or hate him, Bernhard led a full life and was one of Europe’s last great royal power-brokers. Of course whether that’s a good or bad thing depends on your politics. (DM)
Foreign students who missed Delft’s last big royal funeral . that of Juliana, the former queen, this year – don’t fret, because this Saturday Delft hosts 2004’s Mega-Royal Funeral II, when 93-year-old Prince Bernhard is laid to rest here. Bernhard, Queen Beatrix’s father, died on December 1 of cancer. But it’ll all be worth the wait, as this royal funeral promises to be another million euro, made-for-TV spectacle.
Tickets aren’t being sold for seats inside the church, so interested foreign students will have to join the masses of Dutch burghers lining the sidewalks to gawk at the funeral procession, as it travels from Den Haag to Delft, ending at the Markt’s New Church. All the Dutch royals will attend, so this is also your chance to see Maxima on more than just the covers of supermarket gossip magazines.
Saturday’s funeral means that for ‘normal’ weekend business, such as shopping, Delft center’s a no-go area, with police barriers everywhere and city workers out in force to haul away any unsightly bicycles that might be captured by TV cameras. So, don’t leave your bikes in the city center on Friday or Saturday.
Since most foreign students probably don’t have a clue as to who Bernhard is, or was, we offer a brief history of this controversial royal’s life. In our age of shameless ‘spin’, an objective rendering of a man’s life (or anything else for that matter) is impossible: Love or hate, for or against, there’s very little in between. And such is the case with Bernhard, who had his share of admirers and enemies.
Prince Bernhard was born in Germany (1911), the son of Prince Bernhard zur Lippe. He went on to study law at the universities of Lausanne, Munich and Berlin. While at university in the early 1930s, Bernhard joined a Nazi paramilitary organization. After graduating, he worked for German chemical company, I. G. Farben, then a major financer of the Nazi Party. In 1936 he became engaged to Princess Juliana, heiress to the Dutch throne, acquired Dutch nationality, and then married the future Queen of the Netherlands.
When World War II began and Holland fell to the Germans in 1940, Bernhard and the royal family retreated to England and Canada, where they safely spent the remainder of the war. When Holland was liberated in 1945, Bernhard returned a hero, because of his leadership of the Dutch forces in exile.
After the war, Bernhard was, in short, a ‘player’ – he was seemingly involved in everything, knew all the powerful people and enjoyed acting on the global stage. He was a tireless promoter of Dutch business and interests at home and abroad. He also loved Africa and animals and helped found the World Wildlife Foundation – in fact, elephants and other exotic animals join his funeral procession to Delft. In the 1950s, Bernhard founded the Bilderberg Group, an annual gathering of the global elite (mainly powerful industrialists and politicians) who meet to… well, nobody really knows what they meet for.
Bernhard certainly wasn’t free of controversy. A Dutch historian recently suggested Bernhard might have written a letter to Hitler during WWII, offering to govern Holland for the Germans; however, no such letter has ever been found. Bernard kept mistresses and was publicly exposed as having fathered a (French) bastard child. In the 1970s, Bernard was caught taking a $1 million bribe from US company Lockheed in return for granting the company lucrative Dutch military contracts. Too powerful to prosecute, Bernhard’s punishment was a government decree banning him from wearing a Dutch military uniform at state functions.
In recent years, Bernhard made headlines when he publicly defended two Albert Hein supermarket employees who were arrested after they caught and severely beat a shoplifter.
Love him or hate him, Bernhard led a full life and was one of Europe’s last great royal power-brokers. Of course whether that’s a good or bad thing depends on your politics. (DM)
Comments are closed.