33rd G8 summit

33rd G8 Summit
33rd G8 Summit official logo
Host country	Germany
Dates	6–8 June 2007
Follows	32nd G8 summit
Precedes	34th G8 summit

The 33rd G8 summit was held at Kempinski Grand Hotel, 6–8 June 2007. The group of eight leaders met, while more than 100,000 citizens from around the world came to protest the undemocratic nature of the summit, and blocked the main entrance for three days. The summit took place in Heiligendamm in the old Duchy of Mecklenburg in the Northern German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern on the Baltic Coast. The locations of previous G8 summits to have been hosted by Germany include Bonn (1978, 1985), Munich (1992) and Cologne (1999).

The Group of Seven (G7) was an unofficial forum which brought together the heads of the richest industrialized countries: France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada starting in 1976. The G8, meeting for the first time in 1997, was formed with the addition of Russia. In addition, the President of the European Commission has been formally included in summits since 1981. The summits were not meant to be linked formally with wider international institutions; and in fact, a mild rebellion against the stiff formality of other international meetings was a part of the genesis of cooperation between France's President Giscard d'Estaing and West Germany's Chancellor Helmut Schmidt as they conceived the initial summit of the Group of Six (G6) in 1975.

The G8 summits during the 21st century have inspired widespread debates, protests and demonstrations; and the two- or three-day event becomes more than the sum of its parts, elevating the participants, the issues and the venue as focal points for activist pressure.

The G8 is an unofficial annual forum for the leaders of Canada, the European Commission, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States.