Prince Christoph of Hesse

Christoph Ernst August of Hesse (Frankfurt, 14 May 1901 – Apennine Mountains near Forlì, 7 October 1943) was the fifth son of Prince Frederick Charles of Hesse and Princess Margaret of Prussia. He was a German SS officer killed accidentally during World War II.

Prince Christophe 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. On 7 October 1943, he was killed in an airplane accident in the Apennine Mountains near Forlì, Italy. His body was found two days later.

Born in Frankfurt, Prince Christoph was a great-grandson of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha through their eldest daughter Victoria, Princess Royal, wife of Frederick III, German Emperor.

Christoph married Princess Sophie of Greece and Denmark on 15 December 1930 in Kronberg im Taunus, Germany. 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.

They had five children:

• Princess Christina Margarethe of Hesse (b. Kronberg im Taunus, 10 January 1933 – 21 November 2011), married firstly in Kronberg im Taunus on 2 August 1956 and divorced in London in 1962 Prince Andrew of Yugoslavia, and had issue, and married secondly in London on 3 December 1962 and divorced in 1986 Robert Floris van Eyck a London poet, artist and art restorer, brother of architect Aldo van Eyck and son of poet, critic, essayist and philosopher Pieter Nicolaas van Eyck and wife Nelly Estelle Benjamins, a woman of Jewish and Latin origin born and raised in Suriname, and had issue
• Princess Dorothea Charlotte Karin of Hesse (b. Schloss Panker, 24 July 1934), married civilly at Schliersee, Upper Bavaria, on 31 March 1959 and religiously in Munich on 1 April 1959 to Prince Friedrich zu Windisch-Grätz (Heiligenberg, Baden, 7 July 1917 – Gersau, 29 May 2002), and had issue
  • Marina Margherita Sophia Leontina Christiana Prinzessin zu Windisch-Grätz1 b. 3 Dec 1960
  • Clarissa Elisabetta Fiore Prinzessin zu Windisch-Grätz b. 5 Aug. 1966 married to married Eric Michel Jacques de Waele and had issue:
    • Michel Jean Henri de Waele (18 May 1986)
• Prince Karl Adolf Andreas of Hesse (b. Berlin, 26 March 1937), married at The Hague civilly on 26 March 1966 and religiously on 18 April 1966 to Countess Yvonne Szapáry von Muraszombath, Széchysziget und Szapár (b. Budapest, 4 April 1944), and had issue, two children:
  • Prince Christoph of Hesse (b. Munich, 18 June 1969), unmarried and without issue
  • Princess Irina Verena of Hesse (b. Munich, 1 April 1971), married civilly in Berlin on 30 April 1999 and religiously at Heusenstamm on 29 May 1999 to Alexander, Count von Schönburg-Glauchau (b. Mogadishu, Somalia, 15 August 1969), and had issue
• Prince Rainer Christoph Friedrich of Hesse (b. Kronberg im Taunus, 18 November 1939), unmarried and without issue
• Princess Clarissa Alice of Hesse (b. Kronberg im Taunus, 6 February 1944), married in Paris on 20 July 1971 and divorced in 1976 to Claude Jean Derrien (b. Boulogne-Billancourt, Hauts-de-Seine, 12 March 1948), son of Jean Guillaume Derrien and wife Jacqueline Laine, without issue; she went on to have a daughter by an unknown father:
  • Johanna Sophia/Sophie von Hessen (b. Munich, 25 August 1980)

• Montgomery-Massingberd, Hugh (editor). Burke's Guide to the Royal Family, Burke's Peerage, London, 1973, pp. 284-285 ISBN 0-220-66222-3
• http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/hoor009ahil01_01/hoor009ahil01_01_0153.htm (in Dutch)
• http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/gres002svan02_01/gres002svan02_01_0658.htm (in Dutch)
• http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,939908-1,00.html
• http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,835176,00.html?promoid=googlep
• http://www.inghist.nl/Onderzoek/Projecten/BWN/lemmata/bwn1/eijk (in Dutch)
• Marlene A. Eilers, Queen Victoria's Descendants (Falkoping, Sweden: Rosvall Royal Books, 1997), pp 35-37, 134-135. ISBN 91-6305964-9.
• http://www.elpais.com/articulo/cultura/Fallece/Aldo/van/Eyck/arquitecto/clave/estructuralismo/holandes/elpepicul/19990116elpepicul_6/Tes/ (in Spanish)