“Matchmaker” to Beatrix and Claus Passed Away

The man who introduced Queen Beatrix to her future husband, Count Caspar von Oeynhausen-Sierstorpff, has passed away.

 

On new year’s eve 1962, crown princess Beatrix of the Netherlands first met Claus von Amsberg, who she would marry in 1966. Both Beatrix as Claus were related to the count, in Beatrix’s case through a sister of her paternal grandmother, Princess Armgard of Lippe-Biesterfeld, born Baroness of Sierstorpff-Cramm. The count also acted as a page at the wedding of crown princess Juliana of The Netherlands and prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld.

 

In 1982 prince Claus suffered from a depression and after he was unsuccesfully treated in clinics in Breda (The Netherlands) and Basel (Switzerland) the prince turned to count Caspar, who had a clinic with 1200 beds in his castle in Bad Driburg (near Hanover). The prince however lived in the private part of the castle, with the count and his wife Ramona, where he slowly recovered.

 

Count Caspar was married to countess Ramona von Wendel, who died in 2003. They had two children, countess Angelina of Stolberg-Wernigerode and count Marcus von Oeynhausen-Sierstorpff, who already took over his father’s work in 1995.

 

According to the Neue Westfãlische Zeitung the funeral of count Caspar was attended by 900 guests, among them duchess Elisabeth in Bavaria and her husband Daniel Terberger, hereditairy princess Alexandra of Hohenzollern, princess Edda of Anhalt and the hereditairy prince and princess of Rabitor and Corvey. The Dutch royal family sent a wreath with white flowers with the names ‘Beatrix, Willem Alexander, Maxima, Friso, Mabel, Constantijn, Laurentien’ on seven white ribbons, though royalty-online.nl claims that HM the Queen and the prince of Orange flew to Paderborn to attend the funeral.

Click here for an article in the the Neue Westfãlische Zeitung (in German). And click here for the website of the health center of the Oeynhausen family and here a link to their spa.

Filed under The Netherlands
Tagged Death, Funeral, Prince Claus of the Netherlands, Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands.