Prince Christoph of Hesse
| Prince Christoph | |
|---|---|
 Christoph in 1921 | |
| Born | 14 May 1901 Frankfurt, German Empire |
| Died | 7 October 1943 (aged 42) Forlì, Italian Social Republic |
| Spouse | |
| Issue | Princess Christina Princess Dorothea Prince Karl Adolf Prince Rainer Princess Clarissa |
| House | Hesse-Kassel |
| Father | Prince Frederick Charles of Hesse |
| Mother | Princess Margaret of Prussia |
| Military career | |
| Allegiance |  Nazi Germany |
| Service |  Luftwaffe |
| Rank | Major in the Reserve |
Prince Christoph of Hesse (Christoph Ernst August; 14 May 1901 – 7 October 1943) was a nephew of Kaiser Wilhelm II. He was an SS-Oberführer in the Allgemeine SS and an officer in the Luftwaffe Reserve, killed on active duty in a plane crash during World War II. His brother-in-law, Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, fought on the British side and married the future Queen Elizabeth II after the war.[1]
Birth
[edit]Prince Christoph of Hesse was born in Frankfurt, the fifth son of Prince Frederick Charles of Hesse and Princess Margaret of Prussia. He was as a twin, with Prince Richard of Hesse. His father, Frederick Charles, a scion of the House of Hesse, was elected King of Finland in 1918, when Finland declared its independence after the collapse of the Russian Empire.[2] However, the overwhelming Republican victories in the 1919 Finnish parliamentary election effectively ended any ambitions for a Finnish monarchy.[2]
Christoph's mother was the daughter of Emperor Frederick III and of Victoria, Princess Royal. Prince Christoph was thus a great-grandson of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.[3] Christoph had several brothers, including Prince Philipp and Prince Wolfgang.[4] His two eldest brothers, Friedrich Wilhelm and Maximilian, both died in World War I.
Career and death
[edit]Prince Christoph was a director in the Third Reich's Ministry of Air Forces, Commander of the Air Reserves, and held the rank of Oberführer in the SS.[5] His brother Prince Philipp joined Hitler's SA.[4] They were not the only family members to embrace Nazism; their mother "Mossy" (a sister of Kaiser Wilhelm II) invited Adolf Hitler to tea and flew the swastika from her home at Schloss Kronberg.[6]
According to the historian Hugo Vickers, Prince Christoph became "disenchanted" with the Nazi Party by the time of the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in 1942.[7] He told his mother: "The death of a certain dangerous and cruel man is the best news I had in a long time."[8]
Prince Christoph served in the Luftwaffe Research Office[9] and, in 1942, he joined the staff of a fighter unit, Jagdgeschwader 53.[7] He was based primarily in Tunisia and Sicily, with missions to Malta.[7]
After the Allied Invasion of Italy, Christoph was recalled to Germany, but was killed during his return.[7] On 7 October 1943, his plane, a Siebel 104, collided with a hill in the Apennine Mountains 30 km southwest of Forlì, Italy.[7] His body and the body of his copilot Wilhelm Gsteu were found two days later and were buried.[7] in a German military cemetery near Forlì. In 1953, the coffin was transferred to Kronberg im Taunus
Family
[edit]Christoph married his second cousin, once removed, Princess Sophie of Greece and Denmark on 15 December 1930 in Kronberg im Taunus, Germany.[5] Princess Sophie was the youngest daughter of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark and Princess Alice of Battenberg, and the sister of the future Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.[7]
The couple had five children:[10][11]
- Princess Christina Margarethe of Hesse (10 January 1933 – 22 November 2011), married Prince Andrew of Yugoslavia (1929–1990) on 2 August 1956 and divorced in London in 1962. They had two children and two granddaughters. She remarried Robert Floris van Eyck (1916–1991) on 3 December 1962 and had two further children and two granddaughters.
- Princess Dorothea Charlotte Karin of Hesse (24 July 1934) married Prince Friedrich Karl zu Windisch-Grätz (7 July 1917 – 29 May 2002) on 31 March 1959 and had two daughters, six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
- Prince Karl Adolf Andreas of Hesse (26 March 1937 – 23 March 2022) married Countess Yvonne Margit Valerie Szapáry von Muraszombath, Széchysziget und Szapár (born 4 April 1944 in Budapest) on 26 March 1966 and had two children.
- Prince Rainer Christoph Friedrich of Hesse (born 18 November 1939), unmarried and without issue.
- Princess Clarissa Alice of Hesse (born 6 February 1944) married Jean-Claude Derrien (born 12 March 1948) on 20 July 1971 and was divorced in 1976. She has a daughter.
Some years after Christoph's death, his widow married Prince George William of Hanover, a brother of Queen Fredrica of Greece and a grandson of Kaiser Wilhelm II. She had a further three children.
Four years after Christoph's death, his widow's brother, Philip, married the future Queen Elizabeth II. Christoph's surviving children are first cousins of King Charles III.
Ancestry
[edit]| Ancestors of Prince Christoph of Hesse[5] |
|---|
References
[edit]- ^ Eade, Philip (2011). Prince Philip: The Turbulent Early Life of the Man Who Married Queen Elizabeth II (Kindle ed.). New York: Henry Holt. ISBN 9781429961684.
- ^ a b Tillotson, H.M. (June 1993). Finland at Peace and War 1918-1993 (First ed.). Michael Russell. ISBN 978-0859551960.
- ^ Hoelterhoff, Manuela. "'Royals and the Reich' Reveals Fateful History of Nazi Princes". Bloomberg. Archived from the original on 30 September 2007. Retrieved 13 December 2017.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - ^ a b Petropoulos, Jonathan (2008). Royals and the Reich (First ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195339277.
- ^ a b c Almanach de Gotha. Gotha, Germany: Justus Perthes. 1944. pp. 61–62.
- ^ Philip, Mansel. "The Prince and the F". The Spectator (UK). Retrieved 13 December 2017.
- ^ a b c d e f g Vickers, Hugo (2013). Alice: Princess Andrew of Greece (Kindle ed.). St Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0312288860.
- ^ Landgravine Margaret of Hesse-Kassel, June 1942. (Archives of Hessische Hausstiftung, Schloss Fasanerie, Eichenzell). Vickers, Hugo. Alice: Princess Andrew of Greece. St. Martin's Press. Kindle Edition.
- ^ Judd, Denis (1981). Prince Philip: A Biography (First American ed.). New York: Atheneum. ISBN 0-689-11131-2.
- ^ Montgomery-Massingberd, Hugh (editor). Burke's Guide to the Royal Family, Burke's Peerage, London, 1973, pp. 284-285 ISBN 0-220-66222-3
- ^ Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels, Fürstliche Häuser XVIIII. "Haus Hessen". C.A. Starke Verlag, 2007, pp. 34-35. (German). ISBN 978-3-7980-0841-0.
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