Gottfried von Bismarck

Count Gottfried Alexander Leopold von Bismarck-Schönhausen (Gottfried Alexander Leopold Graf von Bismarck-Schönhausen in German; 19 September 1962 – 29 June 2007) was a German businessman, socialite and member of the princely German House of Bismarck. Bismarck was noted for his flamboyant lifestyle that some called ‘dissolute’ after he died, and his homes were linked to two deaths from narcotics, but he was not found responsible for either. He died of a cocaine overdose in 2007.

Family Born in Uccle, Belgium, Gottfried von Bismarck-Schönhausen was the second son of Ferdinand, Prince von Bismarck and grandson of Otto, Prince von Bismarck, a diplomat at Germany's embassy in London until a feud with Third Reich foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop. He was the great-great-grandson of German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck.

Bismarck's great uncle and namesake Count Gottfried was a Nazi official who may have been part of the 20 July plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler. His younger sister Vanessa Gräfin von Bismarck-Schönhausen (born 26 March 1971, Hamburg) is a public relations agent in the United States. His elder brother Carl-Eduard Fürst von Bismarck-Schönhausen (born 1961) was a member (MP) of the German Bundestag. His younger brother Count Gregor von Bismarck-Schönhausen (born 1964) became the heir of the family estates according to the will of his father.

Early life and education Bismarck grew up primarily in his family's ancestral estate near Hamburg. He attended school in Germany and Switzerland, had a brief internship at the New York Stock Exchange, then enrolled at Christ Church, Oxford University, where he studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) earning a third class honours degree. He was a member of the exclusive Piers Gaveston Society, "noted for its predilection for rubber wear and whips, which he embellished with his androgynous apparel and lipstick", as well as the prohibitively expensive Bullingdon Club, known for its members' wealth and destructive binges, alongside friends like Darius Guppy. Confessing that he did not enjoy the typical social life in Oxford, he and his friends escaped to the wild, fashionable parties in London at the weekends or whenever possible. He reportedly drank heavily at night and took amphetamines by day to concentrate on his studies.

Narcotics incident at university The death of heiress Olivia Channon, the daughter of the English Conservative politician Paul Channon, had a devastating effect on Bismarck's life. "In common parlance, in the early hours of the morning, there was a gay orgy going on", Dr. Knapman told the newspaper. "Nevertheless, this was conducted by consenting males in private." The claim that a "gay orgy" took place was officially denied by Bismarck.

Death In early 2007, Bismarck discreetly moved in with an old friend on Portobello Road, Notting Hill. He had been heard to say that he was deeply saddened that his life had brought so much shame upon his family. Friends were relieved he was making such a concerted effort to clean up his life and that he was being helped to start afresh in a new environment. On 2 July 2007, he was found dead in the almost empty £5 million flat, which was in the process of being sold. He was 44 years old. An inquest into the circumstances was opened on 6 July 2007. Sebastien Lucas, the pathologist who carried out the post-mortem examination, said that Bismarck had been injecting cocaine on an hourly basis on the day before his death, and that his body contained the highest level of cocaine that he had ever seen, as well as morphine; he also had liver damage, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and HIV.

Ancestry