Christoph of Hesse

Christoph of Hesse (1921)

Christoph Ernst August Prince of Hesse (born May 14, 1901 in Frankfurt am Main ; † October 7, 1943 in the Apennines near Forlì , Italy ) was a German National Socialist , SS-Oberführer and head of the so-called Research Office of the Reich Aviation Ministry .

family

Christoph von Hessen-Kassel was the sixth child of Friedrich Karl von Hessen and Margarethe von Prussia . His mother was a sister of Kaiser Wilhelm II and a granddaughter of Queen Victoria . His siblings were Friedrich Wilhelm Sigismund von Hessen (1893–1916), Maximilian Friedrich Wilhelm Georg von Hessen (1894–1914), Philipp von Hessen (1896–1980), Wolfgang von Hessen (1896–1989) and his twin brother Richard von Hessen ( 1901-1969).

The parents Friedrich Karl von Hessen and Margarethe von Prussia

Christoph von Hessen married on December 15, 1930 in Kronberg im Taunus the then 16-year-old Sophie von Greece (1914-2001), the youngest daughter of Andreas von Greece and Alice von Battenberg . Sophie was the sister of Philip Mountbatten , Christoph von Hessen was thus the brother-in-law of the future Prince Consort of the British Queen Elizabeth II , Prince Philip.

Christoph von Hessen and his wife had five children:

• Christina Margarethe (1933–2011) ⚭ 1956 Andreas of Yugoslavia
• Dorothea Charlotte Karin (* 1934) ⚭ 1959 Friedrich Karl von Windisch-Graetz
• Karl Adolf Andreas (* 1937) ⚭ 1966 Countess Yvonne Margit Valerie Szapáry von Muraszombath, Széchysziget and Szapár
• Rainer Christoph Friedrich (* 1939)
• Clarissa Alice (* 1944) ⚭ 1971–1976 Jean-Claude Derrien

Career in the Third Reich

In a cadet institution, Christoph von Hessen met Hermann Göring , with whom he was personally friends. In October 1931 von Hessen became a member of the NSDAP . However, his membership application got lost between several party offices, so that he submitted a membership application again and on July 3, 1933 received the membership number 1,498,608. Its membership was dated back to March 1, 1933. In 1936 von Hessen tried to assert his former membership - before the seizure of power . Goering had his State Secretary Paul Körner send a letter to Martin Bormann so that Christoph von Hessen would get a lower membership number. Göring himself certified von Hessen that he had been active for the party since October 1931. Adolf Hitler was named as a witness . As a result, Christoph von Hessen's NSDAP membership number was corrected to 696.176. His wife Sophie became a member of the Nazi women's association in 1938 . Von Hessen joined the SS in February 1932. He was given SS number 39.903. In 1934 von Hessen was SS-Untersturmführer . He was promoted regularly, a total of six times. On June 12, 1933 he was SS-Sturmführer , on April 20, 1934 SS-Sturmhauptführer and on June 21, 1934 SS-Sturmbannführer . On June 1, 1939, he reached his highest rank, that of SS-Oberführer .

From 1933 Christoph von Hessen worked as a personal advisor to State Secretary Paul Körner in the Prussian State Ministry . On April 10, 1935 he became head of the research office. In this role as head of office, he succeeded Hans Schimpf , who had died under mysterious circumstances. The transfer of the trunk line to von Hessen was unusual. Of Hesse was one in the field of intelligence services dilettante without a university study and without the necessary technical knowledge. In exercising the office, he relies primarily on the skills of Gottfried Schapper , one of the co-founders of the research office. However, he had already contributed to the establishment of the research office in his function under State Secretary Körner. The Research Office was an imperial institution that in 1938 had over 3000 employees. The research office monitored telephone calls , telex and telegrams , among other things . In this way it provided evidence for the elimination of opponents of the regime. Von Hessen, who was a reserve officer in the Luftwaffe, volunteered for the Luftwaffe at the front shortly after the start of the Second World War . During his absence, Gottfried Schapper was represented in the office . From October to November 1939 he initially served in Bad Kreuznach . After that he was in the general command of the II. Air Corps in Bad Homburg vor der Höhe with the commanding general Bruno Loerzer until May 1940 . He was then transferred to Luxembourg until the end of June 1940. On May 15th he received the Iron Cross 2nd Class from Loerzer , presumably for his collaboration in planning the bombing of Eindhoven and Rotterdam. He himself did not fly any sorties. In June 1941 Hesse and the II. Air Corps were transferred to the Eastern Front.

In October 1939 he was promoted to lieutenant, on May 1, 1940 to first lieutenant and on September 1, 1940 to captain. After that, his military career lost a lot of momentum. He was only promoted to major in April 1943.

On October 7, 1943, von Hessen took off with his pilot Wilhelm Gsteu in a Siebel Si 204 or a Siebel Fh 104 from an airfield near Rome. Their destination was Mannheim . At 5:30 p.m., however, the machine crashed on a mountain about 1000 m high near Monte Collino in the Apennines, about 30 km southwest of Forlì. The machine was completely destroyed in the impact. The two bodies were only found two days later and buried in a German military cemetery near Forlì. In 1953 the coffin was transferred to Kronberg im Taunus . The exact cause of the plane crash is unclear.

ancestors

Wilhelm of Hesse (1787–1867)

Friedrich Wilhelm of Hesse (1820-1884)

Louise Charlotte of Denmark (1789–1864)

Friedrich Karl of Hesse (1868–1940)

Carl of Prussia (1801-1883)

Anna of Prussia (1836–1918)

Marie of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (1808–1877)

Christoph of Hesse

Kaiser Wilhelm I (1797–1888)

Emperor Friedrich III. (1831-1888)

Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (1811–1890)

Margarethe of Prussia (1872–1954)

Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1819–1861)

Victoria of Great Britain (1840-1901)

Victoria Queen of Great Britain (1819–1901)

literature

• Jonathan Petropoulos : Royals and the Reich. The Princes of Hessen in Nazi Germany. Oxford University Press, 2006 ISBN 0-19-920377-6 limited preview in Google Book Search
• Christian Göschel, Jonathan Petropoulos: The House of Hesse in the Third Reich - Notes on Prince Philipp and Prince Christoph of Hesse. In: Bernd Heidenreich, Eckhart G. Franz (ed.): Crowns, wars, arts: the house of Hesse in the 19th and 20th centuries. Societäts-Verlag, 2009, ISBN 978-3-7973-1142-9 , pp. 262-283.

Web links

• Blue blood and brown brood. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine from March 28, 2007
• Hesse, Christoph Prince of. Hessian biography. (As of January 22, 2020). In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).

Individual evidence

1. ^ Jobst Knigge : Prince Philip of Hesse - Hitler's special ambassador for Italy. (PDF; 486 kB) Open Access , 2009, p. 9.
2. ↑ Petropoulos, p. 115.
3. ↑ Petropoulos, p. 116.
4. ↑ Petropoulos, p. 140.
5. ↑ Petropoulos, p. 221.
6. ↑ Petropoulos, p. 129.
7. ↑ Joachim Beckh: Blitz & Anker. Volume 2: Information Technology, History & Backgrounds, Books on Demand, 2005, ISBN 3-8334-2997-6 , p. 542. Restricted preview in the Google book search
8. ↑ Petropoulos, p. 130.
9. ↑ Petropoulos, p. 131.
10. ↑ "Hessen, Christoph Prinz von", in: Hessian Biography (as of May 14, 2020)
11. ^ Robert H. Whealey: Hitler And Spain: The Nazi Role In The Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939. University Press of Kentucky, 2005, ISBN 0-8131-9139-4 , p. 126. Limited preview in Google Book Search
12. ↑ In the shadow of history. At: Deutschlandradio on August 18, 2009
13. ^ ^{A b} Günther W. Gellermann: … And listened to Hitler. Bernard & Graefe Verlag, 1991, ISBN 3-7637-5899-2 , pp. 21-22.
14. ↑ Petropoulos, p. 226.
15. ↑ Petropoulos, p. 228.
16. ↑ Petropoulos, p. 227.
17. ↑ Petropoulos, p. 308.
18. ↑ "Hessen, Christoph Prinz von", in: Hessian Biography (as of May 14, 2020)
19. ↑ Petropoulos, p. 308.
20. ^ Günther W. Gellermann: ... And listened to Hitler. Bernard & Graefe Verlag, 1991, ISBN 3-7637-5899-2 , p. 28.