Claus von Amsberg
Claus von Amsberg (born September 6, 1926 in Hitzacker (Elbe) ; † October 6, 2002 in Amsterdam ; baptismal name: Klaus-Georg Wilhelm Otto Friedrich Gerd von Amsberg ) was the prince consort of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands .
The German diplomat married her on March 10, 1966. The special Dutch title Jonkheer van Amsberg was bestowed on him by Queen Juliana on February 16, 1966, hereditary for the expected , together with the title Prince of the Netherlands and the salutation Royal Highness Descendants with his then still fiancé Princess Beatrix. After initial difficulties, Prins Claus became the most popular member of the royal family.
Life
childhood
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Claus von Amsberg was born in 1926 on the North German estate Dötzingen near Hitzacker (Elbe). He came from the Mecklenburg noble family Amsberg . His father Klaus Felix Friedrich Leopold von Amsberg (1890–1953) was the eldest son of Wilhelm von Amsberg (1856–1929) and his wife Elise von Vieregge (1866–1951). The father had worked as a manager on the estate since 1917, after having had a failed adventure as a farmer in Africa . He married Gösta Freiin von dem Bussche- Haddenhausen (1902–1996), the youngest daughter of the landowner von Dötzingen, Georg Freiherr von dem Bussche-Haddenhausen (1869–1923) and his wife Gabriele, nee. Freiin von dem Bussche-Ippenburg (1877–1973).
In 1928 Klaus Felix von Amsberg emigrated with his family to Tanganyika (today's Tanzania ), where he became the manager of a German-English coffee and sisal plantation . Claus von Amsberg spent ten years of his childhood in Tanzania and remembered those years as particularly happy. In 1933 his mother sent him and his younger sisters to their family in Bad Doberan , where he attended the Friderico-Francisceum high school. In 1936 he went back to Africa and went to a German boarding school in Tanganyika, which was connected to the Hitler Youth .
War years
In 1938 his mother went back to Germany with him , where Claus attended the Baltic School in Misdroy on the Baltic Sea from 1938 to 1942 . He continued his school career at the local Friderico-Francisceum high school with his grandmother in Bad Doberan. Like most German students at the time, he became a member of the Hitler Youth and the Young People . In 1942, at the age of 16, he was committed to the Reich Labor Service at the airport in the East Prussian capital of Königsberg . After a stopover in Denmark , he came to Italy as a German soldier in the 90th Panzer Grenadier Division . At the beginning of May 1945, before his first assignment , he was taken prisoner by the US , was interned and acted as an interpreter and driver.
Career
He returned to Germany at Christmas 1945 and moved to Hitzacker. He did not see his parents again, who were being held in Africa, until 1947. Meanwhile, Claus made up his Abitur at the Johanneum Lüneburg . Before he could enroll in a university, he had to face a denazification committee , which cleared him of all concerns. Because he could not study mechanical engineering , he enrolled for a law degree in Hamburg , where he worked several times as a student trainee . In 1952 he finished his studies. In 1953 his father died.
After an apprenticeship in the USA and several months' employment in the office of the Hamburg attorney Walter Lippmann , where he dealt with the legal claims of German Jews, he took a new direction: diplomacy . On April 1, 1957, he joined the German foreign service as a civil servant . 1958 followed his examination as attaché .
His first foreign assignment as a diplomat was the position of the third embassy secretary in the Dominican Republic . There Claus von Amsberg reported on the authoritarian regime in the country and the then growing number of regime critics. He was promoted to second secretary of the embassy, but also began to be interested in a position in Africa. In 1961 he became second secretary of the embassy and deputy ambassador to the German embassy on the Ivory Coast . Here he sought the acquaintance of Avi Primor , who later became the ambassador for Israel in Germany, and as the “first German” to meet him, he acquired his esteem and lifelong friendship.
Getting to know and getting married with Beatrix
On New Year's Eve 1962 he met the Dutch Crown Princess Beatrix at a party held by the Count of Oeynhausen -Sierstorpff, who were friends and distantly related to him in Bad Driburg , who also belong to the relatives of Beatrix's father Bernhard zur Lippe-Biesterfeld . A year and a half later, a second and third meeting followed in connection with the wedding of Tatjana Princess zu Sayn-Wittgenstein and Moritz Prince of Hesse . In 1963 Claus returned to Germany to work at the Foreign Office in Bonn in the field of economic relations with countries in sub-Saharan Africa . Various meetings in 1964 and 1965 led to a consolidation of the acquaintance. On May 1, 1965, the photographer John de Rooy discovered the couple walking "hugging" in the garden of the Drakensteyn castle . The photo appeared in the British daily Daily Express on May 6, 1965 and then in the Dutch press. After Amsberg's identity was discovered, the couple had to make a quick decision: on June 28, their engagement was announced on television.
The fact that Claus, as a German, had been a member of the Hitler Youth and had served in the Wehrmacht , caused great excitement in parts of the Dutch population twenty years after the German occupation . There was a signature campaign against the planned wedding.
The Second Chamber of Parliament debated it long and hard. It was only after the well-known historian Loe de Jong established in Italy that Claus could in no way be accused of war crimes and that no signs of anti-Semitism were discovered in his biography that the parliamentary group leaders assured a majority of the legislative proposal for marriage.
On December 10, 1965, Claus received a Dutch passport and on February 16, 1966 his family name was officially changed to "van Amsberg". The Dutch citizen was necessary because otherwise after the law then the children would have been out of wedlock not Dutch.
On March 10, 1966, Claus and Beatrix were married in Amsterdam and Claus received the title of Prince of the Netherlands and Jonkheers of Amsberg. The young anarchist movement Provo disrupted the wedding procession by having Peter Bronkhorst set off a smoke bomb.
Prince Consort since 1980
When Beatrix became queen in 1980 and her family moved from Drakensteyn Castle in Baarn to The Hague in 1981 , the pressure on the royal family increased and influenced the life of Prince Claus more. As a prince consort he was given additional ceremonial tasks and seemed to suffer greatly from the fact that he could not pursue any substantial activities.
The prince consort, often referred to as a sad prince , had gained a lot of recognition in the Netherlands since the wedding, which was still accompanied by protests. In surveys, he was considered the most likable member of the royal family of Orange-Nassau . With his warm sympathy for the well-being of the developing countries, his open language, the legal disputes over incorrect reporting by the tabloids and his playful and humorous actions such as the protest against the court's straitjacket , many Dutch people took him to their hearts. Once he paused a lecture to take off the tie and throw it away.
In 1996, on the occasion of his 30th anniversary as Prince of the Netherlands, the Dutch government set up the Prince Claus Fund, which provides money for cultural and development projects in third world countries with the Prince Claus Prize .
Sickness and death
In 1982 the prince was admitted to the “ Radboudziekenhuis” in Nijmegen . The government press office explained this because of "complaints of a depressive nature". It took the prince several years to overcome his illness. In the eyes of the Dutch population, Prince Claus has long been a kind, if sad and vulnerable, husband alongside Queen Beatrix. As the coverage of his illness increased in the 1990s, this public image intensified. In the last years of his life he managed to correct this image a little. In 1991 his depression returned and he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease . Because of this, and also because of his medication, his motor skills were severely impaired. In the last years of his life, Prince Claus went through various phases of illness, which alternated with phases of regeneration and activity. In 1998 he was operated on and successfully treated for prostate cancer , but radiation therapy caused urinary problems in 2000 . In 2001, one kidney had to be removed, which led to difficulties with the other kidney. On February 2, 2002 he was still able to attend the wedding of his son Crown Prince Willem-Alexander with Máxima Zorreguieta . He was hospitalized for several weeks that spring because of respiratory problems. His first grandchild was born on June 8th: Countess Eloise, the daughter of his son Prince Constantijn and his wife Princess Laurentien . On August 9, a narrowing of his was coronary arteries using balloon catheters treated. He died as one of the most popular members of the Dutch royal family on October 6, 2002 at the age of 76 in Amsterdam from the effects of Parkinson's disease and pneumonia .
Prince Claus was buried on October 15, 2002 in the royal tomb of the Nieuwe Kerk in Delft . He leaves the image of a stylish and particularly honest man. The funeral speech was given by the poet and former Catholic priest Huub Oosterhuis .
Tasks and social engagement
At the time of his marriage, von Amsberg could still assume that as Prince Consort - like his father-in-law, Prince Bernhard - he would perform important diplomatic tasks. Since the Lockheed Affair of 1976, however, the freedom for the Prince Consort has been severely curtailed.
Prince Claus was committed to Africa all his life. In 1970 he was appointed chairman of the national committee for development strategy , a kind of public relations body for the Dutch government's development policy. A number of the recommendations of this commission, such as a small aid to the Angola committee that fought for an independent Angola and a coffee boycott organized to overthrow the regime of the then Portuguese colony , seemed to turn the prince into a politically controversial and therefore compromising one Able to bring. That is why he was given positions that were less sensitive: he became President of the Foundation of Dutch Volunteers and political advisor to the Minister for Development Cooperation . But even in these functions, Prince Claus felt very limited. He had to keep his personal opinion to himself, which is why he often appeared colorless and could not go to work briskly in his function. But through his diplomatic demeanor and his many lectures on the subject of development cooperation, he was able to convey some of his ideas. His influence changed the principle of development aid policy: instead of traveling to the Third World to help there, the principle of helping people to help themselves arose .
In 1984 he became Inspector General for Development Cooperation, an activity that involved a lot of travel. He also became a board member of the Dutch central bank , the then state-owned postal and telecommunications company PTT, and chairman of the export platform for transport. The well-educated prince was also chairman of the Foundation for Life Sciences and Society. Nevertheless, his ability to assert himself remained limited due to belonging to the royal family.
Awards (selection)
- 1983: Special level of the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
- 1985: Grand Cross with Order Chain of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic
- 1990: Collane of the Finnish Order of the White Rose
- 1991: Grand Cross of the Portuguese Order of Christ
- 1994: Grand Star of the Decoration of Honor for Services to the Republic of Austria
See also: Prince Claus Prize
family tree
| Family tree Claus van Amsberg (1926–2002) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grandparents |
Wilhelm von Amsberg (1856–1929)
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Georg von dem Bussche-Haddenhausen (1869–1923)
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| parents |
Klaus Felix von Amsberg (1890–1953)
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Claus von Amsberg (1926–2002)
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| children |
Willem-Alexander of Orange-Nassau (1967)
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Johan Friso from Oranien-Nassau (1968–2013)
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Constantijn von Oranien-Nassau (1969)
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| Grandchildren |
Catharina-Amalia von Oranien-Nassau (2003)
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Luana of Orange-Nassau (2005)
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Eloise von Oranien-Nassau (2002)
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literature
- Claus , in: Internationales Biographisches Archiv 04/2003 of January 13, 2003, in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely accessible)
Web links
- Pedigree ( Memento from January 31, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
- Literature about Claus von Amsberg in the state bibliography MV
- Commemorative page on the Royal Family website (Dutch)
- Appreciation on Hitzacker's website with his own view of the city (1997)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Genealogical Handbook of the Nobility , Princely Houses Volume XV, Volume 114 of the complete series, Limburg (Lahn) 1997, p. 73 f.
- ↑ Avi Primor: "... with the exception of Germany" As Israel's ambassador in Bonn. Berlin 1997. online edition: [1] 2nd part b / c
- ↑ Christoph Driessen : History of the Netherlands. From sea power to trend land . Pustet, Regensburg 2009, p. 255 (section Prince Claus, The Favorite German of the Dutch ).
- ↑ List of all decorations awarded by the Federal President for services to the Republic of Austria from 1952 (PDF; 6.9 MB)
| predecessor | Office | Successor |
|---|---|---|
| Bernhard zur Lippe-Biesterfeld | Prince Consort of the Netherlands 1980–2002 |
Máxima (Queen) |
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Amsberg, Claus von |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Amsberg, Klaus Georg Wilhelm Otto Friedrich Gerd von; Prince Claus; Prince Claus of the Netherlands |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Dutch prince consort |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 6, 1926 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Hitzacker (Elbe) |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 6, 2002 |
| Place of death | Amsterdam |