Patrick Stuebing and Susan Karolewski they had a childhood very complex, marked both by the poverty material as well as the irresponsibility of its parents.
Separated from a very young age, siblings They met several years later, and they loved each other so much that they finally fell in love.
They had four children and his case became famous in Germanysince the couple, for a long time, fought for their relationship to be recognized as legal, which cost them sanctions and prison sentences.
Finally, after a long time of fighting, the story had a totally unexpected ending.
A violent father, an irresponsible mother and two sudden deaths: this was the brothers’ childhood
Patrick was born in 1977in Leipzig, Germanyas the third of eight children in a very low-income family. After being attacked at the age of 3 by his alcoholic father, who injured him with a knife, he was placed under the protection of social services and was given up for adoption to a family in the city of Potsdam.
Susan, for his part, also was born there, but in 1984. He came into this world exactly the same day his parents signed the divorce.
With a mental disability who accompanies her to this day, grew up in the same violent and abusive home that her brother had managed to escape from some time before, according to what she said. The Sun.
Throughout his life, he received little education, so he never learned to write or read well. His mother, Ana Marie, She was addicted to cigarettes, she never had a job, she was often left alone and received her lovers in her presence.
Regarding the rest of the siblings, some died after being born with different disabilities and one was run over in the street when he was 7 years old.
When he turned 18, Stuebing wanted to know his origin. He remembered almost nothing about that aggressive family from which he had been separated. Therefore, determined, he began to search for his biological parents.
About four years later, he finally managed to find his mother and, through her, his sister Susan.
The year was 2000, a new century began and a new life for the family. Patrick stayed to live with them and with Andre, another of his brothers, who also lived in the home.
However, six months after their reunion, Ana Marie died suddenly, after suffering cardiac arrest. As if that were not enough, that same year Andre died. Consequently, Patrick, then 23 years old, and Susan, 16, were left alone.
The beginnings of the relationship: «We were both attracted to each other and nature took over»
orphans, The bond between them became increasingly closer.. The teenager felt helpless and found refuge in her older brother. They both shared a room, and soon, a bed.
Susan and Patrick began sleeping together. «We would both stay up late at night to talk about our hopes and dreams,» Susan told the magazine in 2007. Daily Mailwho interviewed the couple at their home in Leipzig.
Eventually, the union became physical. As revealed in a subsequent trial, between January and August 2001, The brothers had sexual relations sixteen times.
«I became the head of the family and had to protect my sister. She is very sensitive, but we helped each other during that difficult period and, over time, that relationship became physical,» Patrick informed the British newspaper. «We didn’t even know we were doing anything wrong when we started sleeping together,» he added.
«We didn’t know each other as children. We fell in love as adults and our love is real. We were both attracted to each other and nature took over of us. It was that simple. What else could we do? We follow our instinct and our hearts, Susan explained.
As if that were not enough, during the time of sex, and even though Patrick had had relationships with other women, the brothers did not use prevention methods.
Due to the above, the foreseeable happened. She became pregnant and In October 2001, when he was barely 16 years old, Erik was bornhis first child. Today, at 24 years old, the young man has a disability due to which he can barely walk and speak properly.
At the time of the baby’s birth, a nurse had some suspicions about the situation and notified the police. After a judicial process, Patrick was punished with a year of suspended prison, because, according to the German penal code, sexual relations between close relatives are illegal.
Susan, because she was a minor, was not tried, but she was placed under official care, according to what was reported by The Sun.
The following year, the brothers had another baby, whom they named Sarah, and who was also born with a disability. «Two of our children have disabilities«Stebing said to the Dailyalthough she clarified that, according to her, this «has nothing to do» with them being the result of incest, but rather is due to the fact that there are other people with disabilities in her family.
In a matter of months, they were born two more daughters of the couple: Nancy and Sophia, who did not have any disabilities. Faced with this fact, and despite the fact that Susan always tried to hide her pregnancies with baggy clothing, Justice stood firm and decided to take matters into her own hands.
Thus, in 2004, Patrick was sentenced to 10 months in prison. She was also judged, since she was already of age, although they did not send her to prison due to her disability, but instead left her under the supervision of a social worker.
While the process was happening, Stuebing had a vasectomy, thinking that this would free him from the penalty.
However, he was arrested. That day, a crying Susan told German media that she couldn’t live without him and threatened to commit suicide. However, while her brother was serving his sentence, she did not die or anything serious happened to her, and in fact she began a relationship with another man, with whom she had her last child.
The brothers’ first three children were temporarily placed in foster care with adoptive families. The last baby, on the other hand, always lived with the couple. In the interview with DailyPatrick maintained that they would not have had their last three children if it were not for the fact that they took their first one.
The tireless fight for legality and an unexpected ending
In a third trial in 2005, Karolewski was placed back under the supervision of a social worker, while Stuebing received an additional 14 months sentence of prison.
His lawyer filed an appeal with the German Federal Constitutional Court, but was denied. Far from giving up, he filed a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights, where he also lost the case.
After Stuebing’s release, the brothers lived together again. Susan gushed to German journalists: «I’m so happy Patrick is here and to have him again.»
He, for his part, argued before the Daily Mail: «I don’t want to go back to prison and I know that we will never separate voluntarily. If anyone doubts our love, let them know that they will not separate us.»
Despite having fought for so many years to be together, the brothers would eventually separateand not by a legal measure, as could be expected.
In 2021, in an interview with the Austrian newspaper Kleine Zeitung, Susan reported that she regretted what she had done and that she had distanced herself from her brother.
«It’s okay that incest is punishable. I feel guilty. He was young and somehow longed for love. But I wouldn’t do it again. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone either. «I don’t want to have anything to do with Patrick ever again,» he declared, putting an unexpected end to the story.
