Youth and education
Prince Bernhard was born in Jena in Germany on 29 June 1911. The Prince spent his early years at Reckenwalde, the family estate in East Prussia (now Woynovo in Poland). He attended secondary school in Züllichau and Berlin, where he gained his leaving certificate in 1929.
He went on to study law at the commercial college in Lausanne, and at the universities of Munich and Berlin. He was awarded his Referendar Juris degree in Berlin in 1935. After graduating, the Prince became Secretary to the Board of Directors at the Paris office of I.G. Farben. He worked there until his engagement on 8 September 1936 to Princess Juliana. On 27 November of the same year, he became a Dutch citizen.