Overview
- Ulrike Dierkes tells ZDF that she learned at age eleven that her eldest sister was in fact her mother and that their father had raped the girl for years, producing Ulrike.
- Police initially treated the pregnancy as a rape by an unknown person, a villager later named the father, a blood test linked him to the child and he was convicted but later reoffended after release.
- Dierkes founded M.E.L.I.N.A. e.V. in 1996 to counsel people born of incest and has advised survivors nationwide for decades.
- The ZDF 37° episode brings renewed national attention to the long-term social and psychological harms of intrafamilial sexual violence and to systemic silence that shields perpetrators.
- Reporting notes no new prosecutions in this coverage, places the film in broader context of rising rape reports since 2018, and signals potential for more survivors to seek support and public recognition.