Editing Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands (section)

==Early Life and Background==
Born Bernhard Friedrich Eberhard Leopold Julius Kurt Carl Gottfried Peter, Graf von Biesterfeld, in Jena, Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, Germany, Bernhard was the elder son of Prince Bernhard of Lippe and Armgard von Cramm. His family’s marriage was initially morganatic, so he held the title Count of Biesterfeld until 1916, when his uncle, Prince Leopold IV of Lippe, elevated him to the rank of Prince with the style Serene Highness. Bernhard studied law at the universities of Lausanne, Munich, and Berlin, and briefly worked for IG Farben in Paris. During the early 1930s, he joined the Nazi Party and served in the Reiter SS Corps, a fact he later denied but was confirmed by a 2023 discovery of his NSDAP membership card (1933–1936). He left these affiliations before marrying Princess Juliana of the Netherlands in 1937, taking Dutch citizenship and the title Prince of the Netherlands.