In 1960, the Belgian Elisabeth Lippens married Prince Ferdinand von Bismarck, the great-grandson of the founder of the German Empire Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898). They had four children: Carl-Eduard, Gottfried, Gregor and Vanessa.
Elisabeth von Bismarck’s great passion was the butterfly garden on the Bismarck estate in Friedrichsruh, in the north of Germany. For decades she took care of the tropical greenhouse with 800 butterflies of 40 different species.