Count Andreas von Bismarck-Schönhausen, father of Baroness Stephanie von und zu Guttenberg, died on July 20 in Salzburg. He was 72 years old.
Count Andreas von Bismarck-Schönhausen was the great-grandson of Otto Prince von Bismark, the Iron Chancellor of the German Empire.
Count Andreas was the great-grandson of Otto Prince von Bismark, the Iron Chancellor of the German Empire. Together with Count Claus von Stauffenberg and other members of the German nobility, Gottfried von Bismarck-Schönhausen, Count Andreas’s father, was among those who tried to remove Hitler from power in 1944 and bring World War II to an end.
Count Andreas’s daughter Stephanie is married to Baron Karl-Theodor von und zu Guttenberg, former Minister of Defense of Germany.
Baron Karl-Theodor’s grandfather, Karl Theodor Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg (1921–1972), narrowly escaped execution during the Nazi regime for refusing to kill Jews, stating that he would rather shoot SS members. Baron Karl-Theodor’s great-great uncle, Karl Ludwig Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg, was tortured and killed by the SS after the failed plot to eliminate Hitler on July 20, 1944 (69 years to the day, before Count Andreas’s passing earlier this month).
Baroness Stephanie is the foundress and former President of the German organization Innocence in Danger, dedicated to protecting children from sexual abuse, Internet and child pornography.
Media reports state that Baroness Stephanie and her family currently reside in Greenwich, Conn. We offer her and all her family our prayers and profound sympathy.
