Wednesday, July 24, 2019

The Prince of Bismarck is dead


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The German magazine Bunte is reporting the death of HSH Herbord Ivar Ferdinand,  Prince von Bismarck.   He  was 88 years old.

Bunte states that the prince died on July 23 at St. Adolf-Stift in Reinbeker following complications from surgery.  He was the great-grandson of Otto von Bismarck, the first German chancellor.

Prince Ferdinand was the second of six children of Otto Christian Archibald Prince von Bismarck and Ann-Mari Tengbom.  He was born at London on November 22, 1930.


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Most of his childhood was spent in Sweden, where his mother was born.   He attended Schloss Salem, the boarding school near Lake Constance.   After graduation, he attended university, where he studied law and economics.    He received his law degree in 1967, and practiced law in Friedrichsruh.  The family estate is Schloss Friedrichsruh, which has been the home of the Bismarcks since Otto von Bismarck.

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Ferdinand, then styled as Count Ferdinand von Bismarck-Schönhausen, succeeded as Prince in 1975, following the death of his father.


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He married a Belgian, Elisabeth Lippens in 1960.   He is survived by his wife, three children. Carl-Eduard, who succeeds as the Prince von Bismarck, Count Gregor and Countess Vanessa and eight grandchildren, Count Alexei and Countess Grace von Bismarck-Schönhausen, Counts Leon and Otis and Countess Wilhelmina von Bismarck-Schönhausen  Marina von Bismarck-Schönhausen and Laszlo and Cosmo Weiner and two great-grandchildren, Heidi and Otto Swindle, the children of Marina von Bismarck, who is the natural daughter of Count Gregor, and her husband Michael Swindle.

He is also survived by his four young siblings, Count Carl, Count Maximilian, Countess Gunilla and Count Leopold.  His older sister, Countess Mari-Ann died in 1981.


Ferdinand's  second son, Count Gottfried, died from a cocaine overdose in London on July 2, 2007.


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The new Prince Bismarck, who has been married four times, has continued the family political tradition.  He is a member of of Germany's CDU party.   Alexei and Grace are his children by his third wife,  Natalie Barlman.



Otto von Bismarck was created Prince in 1871.


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https://www.bunte.de/royals/royals-weltweit/deutscher-adel/ferdinand-von-bismarck-88-der-fuerst-ist-tot.html#h=topBar_2

https://www.welt.de/newsticker/dpa_nt/infoline_nt/boulevard_nt/article197428641/Ferdinand-von-Bismarck-gestorben.html

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