Christabel Bielenberg
| Born | Christabel Mary Burton 18 June 1909 |
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| Died | 2 November 2003 (aged 94) |
| Language | English, German |
| Nationality | British |
| Genre | Biography |
| Spouse | Peter Bielenberg |
| Relatives | Sam Schulenburg |
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Christabel Bielenberg (18 June 1909 – 2 November 2003) was a British writer who was married to a German lawyer, Peter Bielenberg. She described her experiences living in Germany during the Second World War in two books: The Past is Myself (1968) and The Road Ahead. She was educated at St Margaret's School, Bushey, Hertfordshire.
Christabel Mary Burton was born in Totteridge, Hertfordshire to Anglo-Irish parents. Her mother, Christabel Harmsworth, was the sister of Lords Northcliffe, Harmsworth, and Rothermere. Christabel Mary won a scholarship to Oxford, but decided instead to study music in Germany. While there she met Peter Bielenberg (1911–2001), two years her junior, who was studying law with a view to joining his father's practice in Hamburg.
They married in 1934 and she took German citizenship, which required her to relinquish her British citizenship. The Bielenbergs lived initially in Hamburg, then moved to Berlin and had three sons, Nicholas, Christopher, and John. The heavy Allied bombing raids led Mrs Bielenberg and her children to leave the city, and they eventually settled in the village of Rohrbach, near Furtwangen im Schwarzwald, in the Black Forest.
Both Christabel and Peter Bielenberg were opposed to Nazism and following Hitler's rise to power in 1933, participated in anti-Nazi activities. Peter Bielenberg was a close friend of Adam von Trott zu Solz, who was involved in the Stauffenberg bomb plot against Hitler of 1944, and as a result of his suspect political views and this close association he was arrested, interrogated, and imprisoned in Ravensbrück concentration camp following the failure of the plot. In an effort to secure his release, Christabel Bielenberg asked to be interviewed by the Gestapo in order to convince them of her and her husband's political naivety and innocence. She was successful and he was released to a punishment unit but mistakenly allowed leave before joining it. He managed to slip away and remained in hiding near his family until the fighting ended.
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