He was born in Ludwigslust the second child of the reigning Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Frederick Francis IV and his wife Princess Alexandra of Hanover a daughter of Ernest Augustus, Crown Prince of Hanover and Princess Thyra of Denmark. Following the defeat of the German Empire in World War I his father abdicated on 14 November 1918.
Later the family returned to Mecklenburg and lived in Gelbensande, and from 1921 the settled at Ludwigslust Castle. After finishing school, in the autumn of 1935 he went as a recruit in the cavalry regiment 14 in Ludwigslust, with whom he was drafted in 1939 in the World World War World War II When the war ended, Ludwigslust was first occupied by the British, but soon was transferred to the Soviet occupation, so that Christian Louis initially went with his family to Glücksburg Castle in Schleswig-Holstein. But he soon returned to Ludwigslust to take care of the family property and was taken prisoner by the Soviet military authorities.
After imprisonment he was flown to Moscow, where he was sentenced in the Lubyanka prison to be imprisoned for 25 years.
In 1953 he was released after the intervention of Konrad Adenauer for German POWs in the Soviet Union and came back to Christmas 1953 with his family in Glücksburg.
In 1944 he was dismissed because of a decree as being a member of a former ruling house of the armed forces.
