Prince of The Netherlands Claus von Amsberg Born: 6 SEP 1926 Hitzacker, Doetzingen, Lower Saxony, GERMANY Sex: M Died: 6 OCT 2002 Academisch Medisch Centrum, Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
Marriage(s) and Relationships: Married to: Queen of The Netherlands Beatrix 10 MAR 1966, Amsterdam, NETHERLANDS
Child:Pc of The Netherlands Willem-Alex. o Orange Child:Pc of The Netherlands Johan Friso van Orange Child:Pc of The Netherlands Constantijn van OrangeNotes: Jonkheer van Amsberg.
Source: Leo van de Pas.
Prince Claus was born on 6 September 1926 as Claus von Amsberg on the
estate of his mother's family in Hitzacker, Dötzingen, in Lower Saxony.
The only son of Claus von Amsberg and Frau Gosta von Amsberg, Freiin
von dem Bussche Haddenhausen, Prince Claus had six sisters.
From 1933 to 1937 Prince Claus attended primary school, first in Bad
Doberan in Mecklenburg and then in Lushoto in Tanganyika, where his
parents had settled in 1928. In 1938 he returned to Germany, and until
1943 received his secondary education at the Baltenschule, a boarding
school at Misdroy in Pomerania. From January to August 1943 he attended
secondary school at Bad Doberan, Mecklenburg, and from August 1943 to
January 1944 he served as a naval auxiliary near Kiel.
In January 1944 he was called up for a two-month period of service in the
Labour Corps in Königsberg/Neumark. He then returned to secondary school
and was awarded his (wartime) school-leaving certificate in July
1944. Immediately after leaving school he was called up for military
service, and served in Reserve Armoured Division no. 6 in Neuruppin from
July 1944 to March 1945. He attended the Armoured Vehicle Training School
at Viborg in Denmark for three months of this period. From March to May
1945 he served with the 90. Panzer Division in Italy, but did not see
active combat.
He was captured by the Americans near Merano in early May and sent to a
prisoner-of-war camp at Ghedi near Brescia, where he was employed as a
driver and interpreter. In September 1945 the Americans transferred him to
the US base Latimer Camp near Amersham in the United Kingdom to work as
an interpreter. After his release in December 1945 Prince Claus returned
to Hitzacker.
All young men who wished to enter university just after the war had to be
cleared by a denazification court established by the Allies, and Prince
Claus was no exception. Like most secondary school pupils he was
automatically a member of the Nazi youth organisations Jungvolk and
Hitlerjugend. He was fully cleared by the court.
Before being admitted to university he had again to sit the
school-leaving examinations, as the certificate awarded him during the
war was not officially recognised. He took a special course for
ex-servicemen and
passed the examinations in Lüneburg in 1947.
Prince Claus originally wanted to study mechanical engineering, but as
the German universities were overcrowded and priority was being given to
older candidates, he was unable to enrol in 1947. He therefore began the
year's work experience placement which was prescribed as part of the
university course, taking a job at an engineering works at Winsen/Luhe,
near Hamburg. At the end of 1948, however, he decided to enrol in the
Faculty of Law and Political Science of the University of Hamburg. He sat
his first law examination (Referendar) in
1952 and his second (Assessor) in September 1956, after having gained the
necessary practical experience in a number of law courts and in a firm
of lawyers in Hamburg. During this period he went on a four-month study
trip to the United States.
In early 1957 he passed the competitive examination for entry into the
German Foreign Service and passed the Diplomatic Service (Attaché)
examination in May 1958. From May 1958 to March 1961, he was successively
Third Secretary and Second Secretary at the German Embassy at Ciudad
Trujillo (now Santo Domingo), Dominican Republic. In April 1961 he was
posted to Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, as Second Secretary. He remained in
Africa until January 1963. Later the same year he was transferred to the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Bonn, where he worked in the department
responsible for economic relations with Africa south of the Sahara until
August 1965.
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