His intelligence and emotional honesty made Prince Claus, the German-born consort of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands for the past 36 years, a favourite with the Dutch people. Unlike most other European royalty, the prince, who has died aged 76 of Parkinson's disease and pneumonia, was a highly influential figure in his adopted country's foreign development policy. But to get to that position, he had first to overcome the slur of his wartime past.
In the end, many Dutch concluded that Claus gave renewed lustre to a royal family often perceived as distant, stodgy and unglamorous. In recognition of his work, the Dutch government established the Prince Claus Fund, on his 70th birthday in 1996 - "People are not developed, they develop themselves," he said. The fund has given 65 awards to creative people and organisations in the developing world, and supported more than 500 cultural activities in its first five years.
But Holland was not always so welcoming to the prince. In 1965, the Hague parliament only grudgingly approved his engagement to the then 27-year-old Crown Princess Beatrix. In a protest that united MPs and anarchists alike, 300,000 people signed a petition against the proposed marriage, and, during the wedding procession in Amsterdam 11 months later, a smoke bomb exploded close to the couple's golden carriage.
The only son among the seven children of an aristocratic family, Claus was born in Dotzingen, northern Germany, and educated, initially, in Tanzania, where his family moved, when he was two, to manage their sisal plantation. He returned to boarding school in Germany in 1938, shortly after Hitler had appointed himself war minister and the anti-Jewish pogroms had begun. Like many German secondary schoolchildren from aristocratic families, he joined the Jungvolk, or German youth movement, and the Hitler- jugend, the Hitler Youth.
After finishing school in 1944, he served with the German army in Denmark, and the 90th panzer division in Italy, though he did not see combat. In 1945, aged 19, he was captured by US forces near Merano, Italy, and sent to a PoW camp at Ghedi, near Brescia. Later, he was transferred to Britain, where he worked as a driver and interpreter. After the war, he was cleared by a denazification court, and took a law degree in Hamburg.
Claus joined the West German diplomatic corps in 1961, and worked in the Dominican Republic and the Ivory Coast before going to the foreign ministry in Bonn. He first met Beatrix, then the Dutch crown princess, on the Swiss ski slopes in February 1965. Their romance - kept secret until a Dutch news photographer caught them, several months later, walking hand in hand - sparked a storm of protest in the Netherlands, though the match had the approval of Beatrix's mother Queen Juliana and her husband Prince Bernhard, who himself was also German-born. Claus was granted Dutch nationality by a special act of parliament.
Following his marriage in March 1966, Claus immersed himself in the language, customs and people of Holland. He and Beatrix, who ascended the throne in 1980, were constantly engaged with royal duties and travel, but seemed equally determined to raise their three sons outside the public spotlight. A lively intellectual atmosphere characterised their family life. Four years ago, Claus told his eldest son, Crown Prince Willem-Alexander, to specialise in water issues because of the world's looming water shortages.
The turning point for Claus in the affections of the Dutch people began in the 1970s, when he headed the national committee for development strategy, which raised public issues. During this time, there were questions in parliament about what were considered his leftwing tendencies, and, in 1980, he retired from the committee.
A year later, he described himself as a "political hybrid", and said he did not want his strong opinions on social justice issues to precipitate a political scandal, since his actions as prince consort were the government's offi cial responsibility. By 1983, newspaper stories circulated about his depression.
Claus's interest in the problems of poor countries was a lifelong passion. Until his death he was a special adviser to the Dutch minister for development cooperation, a highly unusual civil service posting for a member of royalty. The experience confirmed his beliefs that much western aid to the third world, often given in the form of cash or science and technology, was a concealed version of colonialism and imperialism. He insisted that the inclusion of culture in development policy encouraged self-respect and independence in any country.
Before the onset of Parkinson's disease, he was involved in all aspects of the Prince Claus Fund. One of his wishes was to create an international platform for African creativity, as in the fund's project to help start an opera of the Sahel, a group of countries south of the Sahara desert. Even when the fund gave what could have been, for Claus, a personally controversial prize, like the 1999 principal award to the Qatar-based Al Jazeera television station, he was staunchly supportive.
C laus's main role was as an inspirational thinker, which he did most memorably at the 1998 awards reception for African fashion in the royal palace in Amsterdam. He expressed his admiration for Nelson Mandela's casual dress, and, in what he called "the declaration of Amsterdam," stripped off his tie and tossed it at his wife's feet, calling it "a snake around my neck". He urged the male members of his prestigious audience to do likewise, to free themselves of a "strangling" fashion statement.
This gesture briefly sparked an open-necked fashion craze among normally conservative Dutchmen, but the prince was unable to escape royal decorum and resumed knotting his tie before long. In another fund address, he stopped his speech to say how much he loved his wife.
A modest man who refused all honorary degrees, Prince Claus is survived by Queen Beatrix and their sons, Crown Prince Willem-Alexander, Prince Johan Friso and Prince Constatijn.
· Claus Jonkheer von Amsberg, Prince Claus George Willem Otto Frederik Geert of the Netherlands, royal consort, born September 6 1926; died October 6 2002