Klaus-Georg Wilhelm Otto Friedrich Gerd von Amsberg was born on his mother's family's estate, Schloss Dötzingen,
Hitzacker,
Germany, on 6 September 1926. He was the second child and only son of
Claus Felix von Amsberg and his wife,
Baroness Gösta von dem Bussche-Haddenhausen. His father, by birth a member of
House of Amsberg which belonged to the untitled
German nobility from
Mecklenburg, operated a large farm in
Tanganyika (formerly
German East Africa) from 1928 until
World War II. His mother belonged to the ancient
von dem Bussche noble family which originated from the
County of Ravensberg. From 1938, Claus and his six sisters grew up on their maternal grandmother's estate in
Lower Saxony; he attended the
Friderico-Francisceum-Gymnasium in
Bad Doberan from 1933 to 1936 and a boarding school in Tanganyika from 1936 to 1938. From 1938 until 1942, he attended the German Baltenschule Misdroy in what is now
Międzyzdroje, Poland. In 1944, Claus was conscripted into the German
Wehrmacht, becoming a soldier in the German
90th Panzergrenadier Division in Italy in March 1945. Claus met Princess Beatrix for the first time on New Year's Eve 1963 in
Bad Driburg at a dinner hosted by the Count von
Oeynhausen-Sierstorpff, who was a distant relative of both of them. Claus and Beatrix were also distantly related (5th cousins twice removed), as both being descendants from
von dem Bussche family. They met again at the wedding-eve party of Princess Tatjana of
Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg and
Moritz, Landgrave of Hesse, in the summer of 1964. With memories of German oppression still very strong 20 years after the war, sections of the Dutch population were unhappy that Beatrix's fiancé was a German and former member of the
Hitler Youth. Nonetheless,
Queen Juliana gave the engagement her blessing For a time, it was thought that Beatrix would be the last monarch of the Netherlands. However, over time, Claus became accepted by the public, so much so that during the last part of his life he was considered by some to be the most popular member of the
royal family. This change in Dutch opinion was brought about by Claus's strong motivation to contribute to public causes (especially
Third World development, on which he was considered an expert), his sincere modesty and his candor (within but sometimes on the edge of royal protocol). The public also sympathised with Claus for his efforts to give meaning to his life beyond the restrictions that Dutch law imposed on the royal family's freedom of speech and action. However, these restrictions were gradually loosened; Claus was even appointed as senior staff member at the Department of Developing Aid, albeit in an advisory role. One example of his attitude toward protocol was the "Declaration of the Tie". In 1998, after presenting the annual
Prince Claus Awards to three
African
fashion designers, Claus told "workers of all nations to unite and cast away the new shackles they have voluntarily cast upon themselves", meaning the
necktie, that "snake around my neck," Claus battled depression for a number of years, and underwent surgery in 1998 to remove his prostate. In 2001, he underwent another surgery to remove one of his kidneys. He eventually died on 6 October 2002 from Parkinson's disease and heart failure. On 30 April 1980, Claus' mother-in-law, Queen Juliana, abdicated in favour of Princess Beatrix, who became Queen of the Netherlands. After the investiture, the couple visited the
Netherlands Antilles and
Aruba. On Claus' seventieth birthday, the Prince Claus Fund for Culture and Development was established on the initiative of the Dutch government. The fund focused on enhancing understanding of cultures and promoting interaction between culture and development.
Declining health and death Claus suffered various health problems, such as
depression,
cancer and
Parkinson's disease. He died of complications of
pneumonia and Parkinson's at the
Academic Medical Center in
Amsterdam on 6 October 2002 after a long illness, aged 76. He died less than four months after the birth of
his first grandchild. Claus is interred in the royal family's tomb in
Delft on 15 October. It was the first full
state funeral since
Queen Wilhelmina's in 1962. ==Titles, styles, honours, and arms==