Portrait of Prince Claus of the Netherlands

Birthday profile

Prince Claus of the Netherlands

Prince Claus of the Netherlands (died 2002)

Born
September 6, 1926
Died
October 6, 2002
Zodiac sign
Virgo
Birth year
1926

About Prince Claus of the Netherlands

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. == 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. Claus was a member of such Nazi youth organisations as Deutsches Jungvolk and the Hitler Youth. 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.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Career and life highlights

Prince Claus of the Netherlands timeline

  1. 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.
  2. On 30 April 1980, Claus' mother-in-law, Queen Juliana, abdicated in favour of Princess Beatrix, who became Queen of the Netherlands.

The world when Prince Claus of the Netherlands was born

Prince Claus of the Netherlands was born in 1926. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1926

  • #1 song"Bye Bye Blackbird"
  • Top movieThe General (Buster Keaton)
  • Best-selling bookThe Sun Also Rises – Ernest Hemingway

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentGertrude Ederle swims the English Channel
  • Top headlineA.A. Milne publishes Winnie-the-Pooh
  • Technology milestoneFirst demonstration of television
  • Defining fadFlagpole sitting
  • Notable inventionPop-up toaster
  • World population2.01 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderCalvin Coolidge
  • Sports championSt. Louis Cardinals (World Series)
  • U.S. population117.4M

1926 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Prince Claus of the Netherlands's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19262026
Gas$0.23$3.45/gal
Average home$6,000$435,000
Average income$3,620$67,500
Movie ticket$0.25$11.95
Postage stamp$0.02$0.73
Population117.4M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Library of Congress, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.