Career
He was parliamentary secretary of state in the Chancellor" General’ s Office in the government of Kurt Georg Kiesinger from 1967 until 1969, as well as the foreign policy spokesman of the Christian Democratic Union/Christlich Soziale Union (Christian Social Union) group in the Bundestag. Guttenberg was perceived as a hardline conservative anticommunist as well as a convinced proponent of European integration. His work was mostly within the field of foreign policy.
Guttenberg owned large estates in Franconia, several hotels as well as the winery Weingut Reichsrat von Buhl in the Palatinate.
Their son Enoch zu Guttenberg became a conductor as well as inherited Weingut Reichsrat von Buhl. In the Bundestag, he was a noted public speaker and was for several years the foreign policy spokesman of the Christian Democratic Union/Christlich Soziale Union (Christian Social Union) group.
Guttenberg was a fierce critic of the Ostpolitik of Willy Brandt. After Brandt"s government had recognized the existence of "a second German state" (the German Democratic Republic), he called it a "dark hour".
While most of the Christian Democratic Union/Christlich Soziale Union (Christian Social Union) group abstained during the vote on the Basic Treaty, 1972, Guttenberg voted against.
In a speech, he stated: "The "German Democratic Republic" must be revealed to the world for what it is: Not a state, but a caricature of a state". He died of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in 1972, aged 51.