The Bilderberg Group

The Bilderberg Group cancelled its 1976 meeting because its founding chairman, Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, was caught in the Lockheed bribery scandals. The cancellation hit an organization built for discretion at exactly the wrong moment. For two decades, the group had operated as a private, off-the-record forum where European and North American leaders hashed out the future of the postwar transatlantic alliance. Now its public face was a disgraced royal.

Prince Bernhard had chaired the meetings since co-founding the group in 1954 alongside Polish-born political adviser Joseph Retinger. The first gathering took place at the Hotel de Bilderberg in Oosterbeek, Netherlands, giving the organization its name. The original purpose was straightforward: prevent another world war by locking policymakers, financiers, and industry titans in a room together once a year. Attendance ran between 120 and 150 people, all operating under the Chatham House Rule, meaning they could use whatever they learned but could not name who said it. Bernhard presided over every session until 1975, when the Lockheed scandal broke and he stepped down. The fallout was severe enough that the group scrubbed its 1976 meeting entirely, the first cancellation in its history.

French businessman Henri de Castries now chairs the organization, leading the steering committee that picks invitees and sets the agenda. The group has met every year since 1954 except for three: the 1976 cancellation tied to Lockheed, and the 2020 and 2021 cancellations caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The 71st Bilderberg Meeting convened from June 12 to 15, 2025, in Stockholm, Sweden.