In 1696, Maria Gertrudis, baroness and future countess of Berlepsch, wrote a petition letter from the Madrid court to Johann Wilhelm, elector of the Palatinate-Neuburg, soliciting his protection for her older sister, Anna Elisabeth Wolff von Gudenberg, and her sister's daughter, Catherine von Cramm (1682–1738). The elector was brother to the queen, Maria Anna of Neuburg, married to the Spanish monarch, Carlos II (r. 1690–1700), and whom the countess served. The countess hoped that the elector's favor would ensure her relatives’ future after her brother-in-law's death and ensure their conversion from Protestantism to Catholicism. Converting to Catholicism would allow the countess's family to serve in a Catholic court and thus show their devotion to the Habsburg family, especially Emperor Leopold I. The countess of Berlepsch favored a Catholic court environment where her niece, Catherine von Cramm, could obtain a good education, make social connections, increase her family's capital, and support the career of male and female family members. She thus exemplifies how widowed noblewomen in particular helped their female relatives, facilitating access to restricted environments, such as the female household of a sovereign, to ensure their career and their future.

Catherine's mother, Anna Elisabeth, belonged to an old Protestant family of the lower nobility of the Holy Roman Empire, the Wolff von Gudenberg, who were members of the althessische Ritterschaft, a foundation for knights of the principality of Hessen (Bock 2019, 398–99).