Dörte von Westernhagen (born 5 August 1943) is a German writer who wrote a book about her father, Heinz von Westernhagen, an SS functionary and Waffen-SS commander of the Nazi era. Westernhagen was born in Perleberg, now in Prignitz, in 1943. She is descended from a Prussian Junker family, the Westernhagen, and daughter of Heinz von Westernhagen. She studied in Berlin, and earned a doctorate of law. She worked in the administration of Baden-Württemberg, until she decided to write her own story. Her book "Kinder der Täter" (The Perpetrators' Children) made quite a round in Germany when it was published in 1987. The book was immediately recognized as one of the first attempts to get the out of their parents' shadow.