Gottfried Alexander von Bismarck, the German aristocrat and descendant of the "iron chancellor" who unified Germany, died after massive and "reckless" use of cocaine, an inquest heard today.
The 44-year-old's body contained the highest level of the drug seen by the pathologist conducting his postmortem examination.
Von Bismarck, the great great grandson of Otto von Bismarck, was found dead in his flat in Chelsea, west London, on July 2. He had been injecting cocaine every hour during the day and night before he died, and may also have been using heroin.
The count had a long history of drug-taking and his parties twice ended in death. At Oxford University in 1986, the daughter of a Conservative minister, Sir Paul Channon, overdosed in Von Bismarck's bed, and last year a man plunged 18 metres to the ground from the roof terrace of the count's apartment after what a coroner termed a "gay orgy".
The count's body was found by an estate agent who had been asked to check on him by his father, Prince Ferdinand von Bismarck. He was discovered lying on a low mattress, his arm exposed and blackened. It is thought he had died up to three days earlier.
The last person to see him alive was his friend Paul Hillstead, who visited his flat on June 28 after Von Bismarck repeatedly called him in an agitated state.
Mr Hillstead said Von Bismarck was "as high as a kite" and the pair abandoned plans to see a concert and instead went to a local pub to drink wine.
He left the count sleeping the following morning. Mr Hillstead said Von Bismarck sometimes slept for up to 36 hours after a binge.
The Westminster coroner, Paul Knapman, said: "I think this is a very regrettable story. The reckless behaviour with cocaine has caused his death."
He recorded a verdict of death as a result of a dependence on drugs.
The flamboyant count, whose full name was Gottfried Alexander Leopold Graf von Bismarck-Schonhausen, first came to notoriety while at Oxford for wild parties at which severed pigs' heads were served and guests toasted each other in blood, while he played host dressed in fishnet stockings or lederhosen.
But he came to be haunted by the death of Olivia Channon, who died of respiratory failure caused by an overdose of heroin and drink.
Von Bismarck was never implicated in her death but said in 1991: "There are still people who will not speak to my parents because of it, who said to my mother, 'What a rotten son you have, he has disgraced the name of Bismarck'."