He was born in the Marmorpalais of Potsdam in the Province of Brandenburg, where his parents resided until his father acceded to the throne as Emperor Wilhelm II in 1888.

He spent his childhood with his siblings at the New Palace, also in Potsdam, and his school days with his brothers at the Prinzenhaus in Plön in his mother's ancestral Schleswig-Holstein.

In 1907, it was reported that Member of the Reichstag Otto Arendt had proposed the elevation of Alsace-Lorraine to a grand duchy within the empire, with Eitel Friedrich as monarch; however, while the Kaiser did express interest, ultimately nothing came of the plan.

[1] Raised at the cadet corps of Plön Castle, Prince Eitel was in the front line from the beginning of World War I and was wounded at Bapaume, where he commanded the Prussian First Foot Guards.

The two men were hiding in a nearby tree line from what they thought was the advancing Russian army and who turned out to be the grenadiers, guardsmen, and officers of Prince Eitel.