Prince Christoph of Hesse-Kassel

Prince Christoph of Hesse (Christoph Ernst August; 14 May 1901 – 7 October 1943) was a nephew of Kaiser Wilhelm II. He was an SS-Oberführer in the Allgemeine SS and an officer in the Luftwaffe Reserve, killed on active duty in a plane crash during World War II. His brother-in-law Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark fought on the British side and married the future Queen Elizabeth II after the war.

Birth Prince Christoph of Hesse was born in Frankfurt, the fifth son of Prince Frederick Charles of Hesse and Princess Margaret of Prussia. He was a twin, with Prince Richard of Hesse. His father, Frederick Charles, a scion of the House of Hesse, was elected King of Finland in 1918, when Finland declared its independence after the collapse of the Russian Empire. However, the overwhelming Republican victories in the 1919 Finnish parliamentary election effectively ended any ambitions for a Finnish monarchy. Christoph had several brothers, including Prince Philipp and Prince Wolfgang. His two eldest brothers, Friedrich Wilhelm and Maximilian, both died in World War I.

Career and death Prince Christoph 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. His brother Prince Philipp joined Hitler's SA.

According to the historian Hugo Vickers, Prince Christoph became "disenchanted" with the Nazi Party by the time of the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in 1942.

Prince Christoph served in the Luftwaffe Research Office and, in 1942, he joined the staff of a fighter unit, Jagdgeschwader 53. His body and the body of his copilot Wilhelm Gsteu were found two days later and were buried

Princess Christina Margarethe of Hesse (10 January 1933 – 22 November 2011), married Prince Andrew of Yugoslavia (1929–1990) on 2 August 1956 and divorced in London in 1962. They had two children and two granddaughters. She remarried Robert Floris van Eyck (1916–1991) on 3 December 1962 and had two further children and two granddaughters. Princess Dorothea Charlotte Karin of Hesse (24 July 1934 – 24 August 2025) married Prince Friedrich Karl zu Windisch-Grätz (7 July 1917 – 29 May 2002) on 31 March 1959 and had two daughters, six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Prince Karl Adolf Andreas of Hesse (26 March 1937 – 23 March 2022) married Countess Yvonne Margit Valerie Szapáry von Muraszombath, Széchysziget und Szapár (born 4 April 1944 in Budapest) on 26 March 1966 and had two children. Prince Rainer Christoph Friedrich of Hesse (born 18 November 1939), unmarried and without issue. Princess Clarissa Alice of Hesse (born 6 February 1944) married Jean-Claude Derrien (born 12 March 1948) on 20 July 1971 and was divorced in 1976. She has a daughter.

Some years after Christoph's death, his widow married Prince George William of Hanover, a brother of Queen Fredrica of Greece and a grandson of Kaiser Wilhelm II. She had a further three children.

Four years after Christoph's death, his widow's brother, Philip, married the future Queen Elizabeth II. Christoph's surviving children are first cousins of King Charles III.

Ancestry