Dutch Unilever chairman Paul Rijkens could be...one of the 3 founders, with his friends Prince Bernhard and the Polish-born Joseph Retinger, of the Bilderberg Conference, but for some reason is often overlooked…

Bilderberg was founded with additional help of CIA-directors Walter Bedell Smith and Allen Dulles.

In the 1930s, the Anglo-Dutch Unilever was the biggest foreign corporation in Germany. By 1930, following various acquisitions, mergers and joint-ventures, Unilever’s share in the margarine industry in Germany was a whopping 69%.

In April 1933, Unilever had invested £18 to £20 million in Germany that continued to increase during the rest of the decade.

In 1940, Unilever’s total direct investment in Germany of $167 million was 81% of the total direct investment in Greater Germany of the $206 million by the (much larger) US.

Part of the rise in Unilever’s investment figures was caused by the Anschluss of Austria and the annexation of Czechoslovakia. In the latter country alone, Unilever had invested nearly £8 million.

On the eve of World War II, Unilever had become highly diversified in Germany, besides its very strong position in the margarine industry. In September 1939, when WW II broke out, Unilever’s total FDI in Greater Germany, including Austria and Sudetenland, amounted to approximately £37.6 million.

In September 1939, Unilever’s 102 companies in Greater Germany had 33,900 staff; it’s second most important market after Britain, where the company had 41,000 employees.

By 1941, Unilever (MVU) had bought 49% of the share capital of Nordsee Deutsche Hochseefischerei AG with its head office at Bremerhaven (worth nearly RM 11 million).

In July 1933, Unilever British chairman Francis D’Arcy Cooper and Paul Rijkens flew to Berlin for meetings arranged by British businessman E.W.D. Tennant, who was close to Nazi Minister for Foreign affairs Joachim von Ribbentrop (whose brother-in-law was married to Frits Fentener van Vlissingen’s daughter), and had arranged a meeting with Hitler’s economic adviser Keppler. Tennant also mentioned that Fuhrer Adolf Hitler would like to meet D’Arcy Cooper in Berlin, as he was anxious to maintain good relations with the British business community.

In May 1936, Georg Schicht for Unilever met Hermann Göring, who expressed his appreciation of the British Empire, which Germany would never disturb.

Georg Schicht later noted that Unilever’s chairmen Sir D’Arcy Cooper and Rijkens had done everything they could to improve relations between Germany and Britain, by co-founding the Anglo-German Fellowship in 1935.

From 1935 to 1938, Unilever benefitted from acquiring “Jewish property” (“non-Aryan” in Nazi terminology).

When the pressure on Jewish businesses increased, some German Jews offered their assets (companies and pieces of land) for sale below the market price. From June 1938 on, transfers of “Jewish property” to non-Jewish partners were made punishable by Nazi law.

On 27 November 1937, one day after Hjalmar Schacht’s resigned as Economics Minister, State Secretary Hans Ernst Posse of the Economic Ministry signed an order to expel Jews from the German economy.

In 1938, the Unilever Board informed Hans Kehrl, a high-ranking official in the Ministry of Economics in Nazi Germany that “the Jewish share in the Unilever capital was only 1.65 per cent”.

Keppler then informed Rijkens that there were concerns over the 5 of the 24 Directors that weren’t “pure Aryans” (Jews): Albert van den Bergh, James P. van den Bergh, Sidney van den Bergh, Arthur Hartog and Dr. J.L. Polak. Keppler then gave Rijkens the suggestion to claim that only the “Aryan” board members Dr. Heinrich Schicht, Rudolf Jurgens, P.D.H. Hendriks, C. Barnish and Rijkens himself were involved in the German Unilever business.

After doing so, on 28 November 1938 the Luftwaffen-Verordnungsblatt published, signed by Hermann Göring