Meet my great-grandparents: Elisabeth Countess von Spee and Ferdinand Count von Galen, by Countess Sigrid von Galen

Elisabeth Countess von Spee wrote many letters from the castle in Dinklage. I recently discovered a blog about the place and its people. With the kind of life the von Galen family led the very thought of Clemens August Graf von Galen having had a secret son would have been the scandal of the time but when my father was born it was a desperate time, with the Nazis having all sorts of eugenics and IVF-programmes going on, and my grandfather might have just obeyed the one good God, whose highest command was to 'go forth and multiply'. One must not underestimate in dark times the deep yearning to leave something of one's own creation and fulfilment of hope behind against all odds. My grandfather was a deeply spiritual man and nobody can take that from him. He has tried all he could with all his means and gifts to stand up to fascism and to protect the vulnerable. Many bishops and cardinals, and, yes, popes, had and have secretly children. I only found out about my relation-ship after my father had passed away. I was secretly visited by a delegation, who told me about my father being the secret son of Clemens August Graf von Galen. It took me many years to let that settle into my bones, all the while I had been exposing already for decades the organised child abuse and corruption in the church, which made me stay away from it since 2011, as the assassination attempts increased. I am a woman of faith but the Church has done nothing to protect its children, on the contrary, it is quite murderous and slanderous to silence the truth. My life is devoted to the truth and to stand up for the voiceless and vulnerable, with the name being just the responsibility and burden that comes with it. I was already a person in my own right through my work, and I had to give up the life as I knew it, and had to go into hiding, as the attempts against my life became too much and, just as the Church and the hidden Nazi families had done to my grandfather, when I didn't respond to flattery nor threats they started to threaten and kill my friends. We live in even darker times than my grandfather did in many ways, as the horrors he contemplated like Eugenics, Euthanasia are now happening all over the world legally - the lawlessness being given official authorisation... I only ever wish everybody well and I give thanks to God that I lived to this day the truth to tell! God bless you! Countess Sigrid von Galen This lovely blog about Dinklage features also some history about the Castle and my family.