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There is only one!
Indeed, all with the name "Dieseldorff" or "Diesseldorf"
are related and there are not many.
This is the biography of the family-clan "Dieseldorff" or also "von
Diesseldorff".
Early documents about the family-clan "Dieseldorff" mention
the "Ritter von Diesseldorf"
(Knight von Diesseldorff) around 1600 and later begin of 1700 the "Graf Johannes von Diesseldorff",
a count (earl) in Prussia.
The family was serving the Austrian emperor around
1700.
It was the "Heilige Roemische Kaiserreich Deutscher Nationalitaet" or
directly translated
the "Holy Roman Empire of German Nationality".
The copperplate engraving from 1745 shows Johannes Gottfried von Diesseldorff,
"Von der Heiligen Kaiserlichen Majestaet Graf Palatino (oder Pfalzgraf) ernannt
und Prokonsul der Stadt Danzig" which means that he was appointed as the Count (Earl)
Palatine and as the High Consul of the city of Danzig by his holy
majesty.
A count palatine did not only have all the rights of a regular count (or
earl) but
administered also the judiciary and legislative system. As high consul
of the city of Danzig, a big city in Prussia, now Poland and called
"Gedansk", he served as the major. During and after his time,
students of the university joined a scholarship under his name (see
"Diesseldorff stipendium").
Johannes Graf von Diesseldorff died in 1749. Draperies, books and
paintings remember about him.
Although, the family had Jewish connections, the emperor
also appointed the earl as head of church matters "...comes palatii".
The family maintained its Jewish connections and later Moses Lazarus Levy,
a Jewish business man from Leipzig married into the family and changed
his name
from Levy to Dieseldorff. The family flourished from this and it secured
the continuance of the family's genealogy.
The Levy's were always successful business people. They migrated from the Middle
East to Europe around 1500 and 1600 during the 30 year war.
The family was always a
defender of liberty and justice and recognized the importance of unity.
Although the family was strongly involved in the war against Napoleon in 1848
and 1871
(Note: remember at that time Napoleon was not a good guy in the countries he
invaded. He was actually a dictator), they always followed what they believed
in unity, liberty and justice or in German:
“Einheit, Freiheit and Gerechtigkeit”.
The same words were used to describe the ideology of the German republic later.
In the times of war, the Austrian Empire broke and the family finally
lost their title and land but not their pride and vision.
Land, right and title were taken and the "von" was taken from the name.
Over time of translations the German 'sharp s' changed and the name changed
to "Dieseldorff" with one "s". Sometimes you see the name
written one 'f' or other variations such as still two 's' as it appear
in Guatemala.
These variations happened whenever family members emigrated to other
countries and officials neglect the original name spelling and adapt to
customs such as it happened often of immigrants to America.
The family moved from Danzig to Hamburg end of the 1900 century and maintained
a small armada of trader ships transporting goods from and to South America
(Guatemala and Peru).
Over
time they built relationships with the local families in Guatemala and Peru.
The first rail road station in Guatemala was built by "Dieseldorff"
or "Diesseldorf" (both variations of the name appear).
One Dieseldorff, Erwin Paul Dieseldorff, was one of the founders of archeological
studies of the culture of the Mayas. Books and the museum in Coban, Guatemala,
are witnesses of his accomplishments as well as a statue erected in honor of
him in the city of Coban.
In 1880, "Dieseldorff" ("Diesseldorf") remained in Guatemala
and built a Coffee farm which the family still exports.
Because of their continuous relationship with the Jewish society, the family
who remained in Germany had to face difficult times. Rudolph Dieseldorff had
to flee Germany and went to friends in Peru. His mother and her sister did not make it and died in
the concentration camps.
While some family members had a similar terrible destiny, other family members
served actually in the army. 'Hitler's Jewish soldiers' are they called. Under the Nazi rule full and half Jews were pursued
but not one quarter Jews or 1/8 Jews. The family members who were 1/8 Jews Jews were
the ones who served in the army until the war was over. The former chancellor
of Germany, Helmut Schmidt, served as quarter Jew in the military.
The family was in fear, had to hide its origin and tried to save its family
members.
There is a story in which the stepmother of Hermann Gustav Dieseldorff (Chris'
Grandfather) reported him at the SS because he would be a Jew. At that time
Hermann was in the army (as almost everybody was) working as a supply officer
. The SS came and transported him to the interrogation. Hermann was able to
convince them that he is actually not a full Jew and not half Jew. Because the Nazis
did not pursue any Jews with less than 1/2 blood connections, he was sent back home where he had to live with his
step mom until she died.
Nobody really liked her and they all called her the "Der Schrecken"
which means the "The Terrible".
At that time Hermann's half-brother, Rudolph, who was half-Jew, escaped already
to Peru.
Rudi married a wonderful Peruan lady with whom he is still happily married since
over 40 years.
Chris was told about his Jewish heritage when he was about 20 years old. Speaking
Yiddish words at home was never something special. He did even not know it
was Yiddish because it was used leisurely in daily conversations.
When you grow up in Germany you get exposed to the Holocaust and the war on
an extreme basis and on a daily basis. In school, TV newspaper, books, church and discussions or
study groups. It is still omni-present.
"It started in the Grundschule
(Elementary school) when we had to watch movies about this ones a month. When
I was a child I did not realize it very much and lived in my child-world filled
with love, flowers and blue sky's. But when I was older and in Middle school,
the discussion about this started and real photos. Then I started to understand
and felt bad being a German. When we traveled to visit our French relatives
in the Normandy, I felt bad being a German. During our trips, I experienced
French hating us because we are Germans. Our French relatives asked always questions
about the Nazis and Hitler and the Holocaust, like I would know better (I was
born in 1960!). So, I felt bad being a German and was not proud. And as many
post-war German's, we were not proud of our country at all and protested against
any kind of authority. The division of East and West Germany made everything
even worse. What are we? Who are we? Where are we going? So we looked to America,
as the most of the people did because they were proud and had an identity. They
had everything new and lots of it!" remembers Chris.
"It really hit me when I was made aware of my Jewish heritage because then I
was not only the aggressor (as bad German) but also the victim." Chris'
dad showed him once a small Menorah in wood, the family kept proudly over all
these times. It was small enough so it could be hidden everywhere. It survived
over all these times.
The family of Christians Mom came from a different tribe of historic Celtic
descendent.
The "Kronenberg" family is a family who can be found back into 1200
in the "schwaebian" clan of the Waldburgs, a small castle in the south
of Germany. It is not clear where the name came from but it is honored in street
names in the city of Waldburg and in the history heritage of Waldburg..
In Germany, the Waldburg's belonged to the Welfen. The Welfen fought against
the clan of the Staufen. There are lots of stories about the Welfen. Fairy tales
about gnomes, witches and fairies and druids.
In fact when Chris grew up he was exposed to a rich cultural spectacle of catholic
and pagan traditions which are (unfortunately) not well known in the English
speaking world but are completely normal in the South part of Germany. The South
part of Germany lays in Central Europe where the Celts actually originated.
Chris was sent as a young boy of eight years to a Lutheran bordering school.
Later he went to an old and traditional humanitarian school (High School) who
taught Latin, Greek and English with focus on humanitarian topics and science.
Latin was a requirement during the 8 years. He was happy to be able to change
from Greek to science. The school was called "Spoun Gymnasium" and
was in the center of the town "Ravensburg" in the Southern part of
Germany, where he spent some of his youth. It was considered to be an honor
to go this school.
Ravensburg was a small town of about one hundred thousand people. Because the
town was lucky to be saved from the bombings during the second world war most
of the original towers, walls and buildings from around 1200 were still there.
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