[3] She won a scholarship to Somerville College, Oxford,[2] but decided instead to study music in Hamburg, Germany,[4] in the hope of becoming a professional opera singer and to learn the German language.

[3] While there she met Peter Heinrich Wilhelm Bielenberg (1911–2001), two years her junior, who was studying law with a view to joining his father's legal practice.

[3] Christabel and Peter Bielenberg were close friends of Adam von Trott zu Solz,[7] who was involved in the 20 July Plot against Hitler in 1944.

[8] Following the failure of the plot and as a result of his suspect political views and this close association with Trott, Bielenberg's husband was arrested, interrogated, and imprisoned in Ravensbrück concentration camp.

[1] Peter managed to pass Christabel a note from inside the camp outlining his response to interrogation, which was that he had no interest in politics and that he knew the conspirators only socially.

"[9] In 1948, the family settled in Tullow, County Carlow, Ireland, buying a dilapidated farm called "Munny House", which they transformed into a commercial success.

[3] Bielenberg wrote her first book, The Past is Myself, which recounted her life in Germany during Hitler's rise to power and throughout the war, and it became a best seller after publication in 1968.

Her sons Nicholas and Christopher married sisters, Charlotte and Angela, respectively, both daughters of the government official and executed German Resistance member Fritz-Dietlof von der Schulenburg.

[10] Bielenberg's experiences during the Second World War were made into the BBC television drama serial Christabel (1988), adapted by Dennis Potter from her memoir.