Prince Claus of the Netherlands, Jonkheer van Amsberg (born Klaus-Georg Wilhelm Otto Friedrich Gerd von Amsberg; 6 September 1926 – 6 October 2002) was Prince of the Netherlands from 30 April 1980 until his death on 6 October 2002, as the husband of Queen Beatrix.
Initially a diplomat in the service of West Germany and West German deputy ambassador to Ivory Coast, Claus met Beatrix on New Year's Eve 1963 and married her in 1966. When his wife ascended to the throne in 1980, Claus took his place as Prince of the Netherlands, which he held until his death in 2002.
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Biography
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.