Gottfried von Bismarck

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, Germany) is a public relations agent in the United States. His elder brother Carl-Eduard Graf von Bismarck-Schönhausen (born 1961) was a member (MP) of the German Bundestag.

Early life and education

Bismarck grew up primarily in his family's ancestral estate near Hamburg. He attended school in Germany and Switzerland and had a brief internship at the New York Stock Exchange before enrolling 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 would escape to the more wild, fashionable parties in London on 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, in Graf von Bismarck's room would disrupt his life. She was found dead from a heroin overdose in Bismarck's rooms at Christ Church, Oxford University, in 1986. Bismarck was charged with drug possession and fined £80 at an Oxford Magistrates Court. The shadow of Channon's death haunted him, and he was said to have "wept like a child" at her funeral. His father, Prince Ferdinand, recalled him to Germany for treatment at a private clinic, it was said he left Oxford so quickly that a family servant had to settle his bills with public houses, tailors and restaurants.

Business career

After completion of his studies at a German university, where he wrote a doctoral thesis on the East German telephone system, Bismarck visited the family estate at Schönhausen, which was lost under communist rule in East Germany. This was a powerful personal experience for him. Later, after having spent some time in Los Angeles, he went to work as an executive for the now defunct Telemonde with the intent to raise capital from the stock market prior to its collapse in 2002. He returned to London soon after and became a promoter of holidays in Uzbekistan. He was a co-founding executive with AIM Partners, a London-based investment firm.

Narcotics incident 2006

In August 2006, Anthony Casey, 41, fell 20 m (60 ft) from Graf von Bismarck's Chelsea flat and died. Bismarck was not arrested and the police said there were no drugs found in his flat. Nevertheless, the event re-awakened the so-called "curse" from the past, and triggered speculation from the tabloid press. An article in London's Daily Mail claimed that the incident occurred during a cocaine-fueled orgy. The coroner's report had found no alcohol in Casey's body, but did find a significant amount of cocaine. The accusation of a 'gay orgy' was officially denied by von Bismarck, though the coroner, Dr. Paul Knapman, told The Guardian that a great deal of sexual paraphernalia was discovered in the flat, including sex toys, lubricant, and a rubber tarpaulin. "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."

Death

On 2 July 2007 Bismarck was found dead in his 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 postmortem, said that Bismarck had been injecting cocaine on an hourly basis on the day before his death, and that Bismarck's 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.