Non-blood relative of Dracula dies near Berlin

Germany: Count Dracula, one of the last living descendants of Transylvania's infamous resident, has died near Berlin aged 67…

Germany:Count Dracula, one of the last living descendants of Transylvania's infamous resident, has died near Berlin aged 67 - not from a stake through the heart, but from a cancerous brain tumour.

Otto Berbig was born in 1940 and grew up as an orphan in a West German children's home. He trained to be a baker and worked as a nightclub manager when, in 1986, he met the Romanian princess Ekaterina Olympia Kretzulesco.

She ran her own antique shop in West Berlin. Because she was childless, she was believed to be the last blood relative of Prince Vlad Dracula Kretzulesco, the 15th-century prince also known as Vlad "The Impaler" and believed to be the inspiration for Bram Stoker's Dracula.

In 1990, she adopted Otto to continue the family line. Unlike his famous relative or Stoker's character, however, Prince Otto did not impale visitors on spikes.

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Instead, he welcomed guests to his castle outside Berlin for "blood-sucking" blood donor parties in aid of the Red Cross.

Financial difficulties forced him to move out of his castle earlier this year. He died on Saturday from complications following a brain operation and leaves behind a 28-year-old wife and a son who turns one next month. Count Dracula jnr?