[3] Too young to be mobilized when the First World War broke out, Richard and Prince Christoph of Hesse-Kassel spent most of the conflict in Kronberg, where they were educated at the Reform Realgymnasium.

[6] In this unstable context, Richard and Christoph engage as auxiliaries (hilfsdient) to protect the transports passing through Kronberg while awaiting the arrival of the French occupation troops.

[5] From a sentimental point of view, Richard fell in love with Princess Sophie of Greece and Denmark, met around 1927.

[11] Subsequently, Richard became a general (Obergruppenführer) in the Nationalsozialistisches Kraftfahrkorps (NSKK), a special unit of the SA corps, and obtained leadership of the Motorgruppe Hessen in 1935.

[12] HAS following the strengthening of the "decree of the princes", Richard was however informed of his dismissal from the army by the Reichsleiter Martin Bormann in October 1943.

Arrested by the Americans shortly after the capitulation of his country, the prince was interned for sixteen months in the camp of Moosburg, in Bavaria.

[20] After the Second World War, Richard assisted his brother Prince Wolfgang of Hesse for a while in the management of the Hessische Hausstiftung.

[5] In the same years, Richard of Hesse-Kassel joined the spiritual movement of “Moral Rearmament”, founded by the Lutheran pastor Frank Buchman.