Gottfried von Bismarck

Count Gottfried Alexander Leopold von Bismarck-Schönhausen (Gottfried Alexander Leopold Graf von Bismarck-Schönhausen in German; 19 September 1962 – 29 June 2007) was a German businessman, socialite and member of the princely German House of Bismarck. Bismarck was noted for his flamboyant lifestyle that some called ‘dissolute’ after he died, and his homes were linked to two deaths from narcotics, but he was not found responsible for either. He died of a cocaine overdose in 2007. Family Born in Uccle, Belgium, Gottfried von Bismarck-Schönhausen was the second son of Ferdinand, Prince von Bismarck and grandson of Otto, Prince von Bismarck, a diplomat at Germany's embassy in London until a feud with Third Reich foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop. He was the great-great-grandson of German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. Bismarck's great uncle and namesake Count Gottfried was a Nazi official who may have been part of the 20 July plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler. His younger sister Vanessa Gräfin von Bismarck-Schönhausen (born 26 March 1971, Hamburg) is a public relations agent in the United States. His elder brother Carl-Eduard Fürst von Bismarck-Schönhausen (born 1961) was a member (MP) of the German Bundestag. His younger brother Count Gregor von Bismarck-Schönhausen (born 1964) became the heir of the family estates according to the Will of his father. Early life and education Bismarck grew up primarily in his family's ancestral estate near Hamburg. He attended school in Germany and Switzerland, had a brief internship at the New York Stock Exchange, then enrolled at Christ Church, Oxford University, where he studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) earning a third class honours degree. He was a member of the exclusive Piers Gaveston Society, "noted for its predilection for rubber wear and whips, which he embellished with his androgynous apparel and lipstick", as well as the prohibitively expensive Bullingdon Club, known for its members' wealth and destructive binges, alongside friends like Darius Guppy. Confessing that he did not enjoy the typical social life in Oxford, he and his friends escaped to the wild, fashionable parties in London on the weekends or whenever possible. He reportedly drank heavily at night and took amphetamines by day to concentrate on his studies.