The historical portrayal of Grete Trakl is astonishingly one-dimensional. She essentially functions only as a satellite to her brother Georg, the famous poet, and always in a kind of dependent relationship. As his muse and goddess of fate, as the protagonist in countless poems filled with guilt, nightmares, melancholy, and hidden desire, as the seductress whose behavior fueled his drug and alcohol abuse. This first complete biography paints a very different picture. The picture of a musically gifted young woman, deeply traumatized by family intrigues and boarding school upbringing, who married a nobleman from Mecklenburg in order to emancipate herself and develop her talent. This book also includes the genealogy and family history of the Trakls back to the 17th century, a revolutionary account of the “family secrets” and the true relationship between Grete and Georg, and five previously unknown poems by Georg.