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A German mom-of-two who fled to New Zealand after the collapse of the Berlin wall has finally met her estranged brother for the first time – after discovering that her dad wasn’t her biological father.
In late December 2017, author and motivational speaker Steffi August (53) stood anxiously at Auckland airport waiting for the arrival of her brother Guido Voigt (49). He’d flown across the world from Germany to meet his sister for the first time. She had a huge sign that read ‘United after 50 year mystery. The brother I never knew I had arrives today!’
The heartwarming moment was captured on film by Steffi’s daughter, Sally (33).
Steffi, who also has a son named Max (23), said she always felt as if “something wasn’t right” in her family while growing up. She had a tattered and distant relationship with the man she believed was her father.
She added growing up in East Germany was difficult due to the limited freedom and restriction of movement and claimed that they were being monitored by the secret police known as the Stasi.
After fleeing the communist country in 1988 and emigrating to New Zealand eight years later, Steffi said that she finally discovered the truth about who her real father was while visiting Germany in 2006.
“I always thought when I was a child that things just didn’t seem to add up,” she said.
“I couldn’t understand why I had brown hair when the rest of my family was blonde.
“And I didn’t know why my ‘father’ was so cold towards me all those years and why he simply stopped talking to me after he divorced my mother when I was a kid.
“I was a good girl and yet he didn’t want me in his life. It hurt a lot.”
After tracking him down during her visit to Germany, Steffi confronted him about the way he’d treated her all those years ago – but she wasn’t prepared for what he told her!
“He just spilled everything to me.
“He told me that he wasn’t my father, that he married my mother when I was three weeks old and put his name on my birth certificate because he was so in love with my mom.
“After absorbing the shock and listening to him explain everything, it all fell into place for me, and everything now made sense,” she said.
The new discovery raised a lot of questions for Steffi who then went on a mission to find out who her biological father was.
“I didn’t say anything to my mother, and just returned to New Zealand more lost and confused than ever before.
“I mulled over things for a few months, but I was desperate for answers,” she said.
One of Steffi’s friends recommended that she see a clairvoyant to get the answers she was desperately searching for.
“I was sceptical, but I had nothing to lose. I needed answers.
“As soon as I walked in she looked at me and said, ‘you’re here to find out about your father, aren’t you?’
“I was gobsmacked. She told me I have a half-brother who lives in Germany and described my real father, who she said had a white marine uniform with medals,” Steffi adds.
After her visit to the psychic, Steffi decided to confront her mother, who astonishingly confirmed everything the clairvoyant had said.
“She was shocked by what I knew. My mother never had any intention of telling me the truth.
“She had even prepared some letters and hidden them in a box, to be given to me once she has passed away.
“But she revealed everything. She told me that she had a one-night stand with my biological father which resulted in an unexpected pregnancy.
Claire and her mom then did some research on her biological father and discovered that he had married and had a son but committed suicide in 1991.
She then contacted her father’s ex-wife who passed on her brother, Guido’s, email address.
“A few weeks later, there was an email sitting in my inbox from him. I couldn’t believe it.
“Thankfully, he was as happy as I was that we had discovered each other.
“We emailed, Skyped and spoke on the phone regularly,” she said.
A year and a half after regularly keeping in touch, the two arranged to meet up in Auckland.
“I loved him as soon as we hugged for the first time,” Steffi said.
“He stayed in New Zealand for six weeks and we got along from the very first moment we met.
“I’m just over the moon and have so much love in my heart.”
Sources: Magazine Features
