The origins of Wilton Park
Wilton Park was founded in January 1946, under the direction of a newly formed Labour government. Historian Holger Nehring points out, ‘Labour in particular was keen on using German Social Democrats in exile for the rebuilding of Germany. Moreover, Ernest Bevin, the Foreign Secretary, placed an increased emphasis on public diplomacy.’
Between January 1946 and June 1948 more than 4,000 Germans attended education classes at Wilton Park, where they discussed democratic processes with visiting political figures and intellectuals, including philosopher Bertrand Russell, social reformer Lord William Beveridge, and the first female Member of Parliament, Lady Astor.
The first participants at Wilton Park included some of the most senior German PoWs in Britain and many became leading figures in the rebuilding of post-war Germany. Helmut Schmidt, for example, the former German Chancellor, hailed Wilton Park’s role for post-war Germany, stating that “many ideas became a political reality.” The success of these classes is epitomised in one German participant’s statement of his time at Wilton Park: “I was a Nazi; I came to Wilton Park and it changed my life.”
Our first visiting speaker on 2 February 1946, was Richard Crossman, later a Labour Minister, who spoke on the theme of ‘The Labour Government’s task in Europe’.
