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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,
born on November 17, 1668 in Danzig. His hole majesty appointed him to
Count (Earl) Palatine and as the High Consul of the city of Danzig which
is inscribed as
"Von der Heiligen Kaiserlichen Majestaet Graf Palatino (oder Pfalzgraf)
und Prokonsul der Stadt Danzig".
A count palatine did not only have all the rights of a regular count (or
earl) but
administered also the judiciary and legislative system. The emperor also
appointed the earl as head of church matters "...comes palatii" of
the Marienkirche in Danzig which was the most important church in Danzig
at that time.
The Graf von Dieseldorff was the representative of the Polish King in
Danzig. During and after his time,
students of the university joined a scholarship under his name (see
"Diesseldorff stipendium").
High consul Graf von Dieseldorff was elected 6 times as mayor of Danzig,
a big city in Prussia, now Poland and called "Gedansk" from 1722 to
1744. He married 3 times but remained without a male heir.
It is not clear when
Johannes Graf von Dieseldorff actually died but it must have been in
1745 or 1749. Draperies, books and
paintings remember about him. Secured through his enormous riches many
Diesseldorff stipendiums remained after his death.
The 6-pointed star in the family crest resembles the Jewish star of
David. The theory is that the family had Jewish heritage. This was
symbolized with the 6-pointed star. Although The Graf von Dieseldorff
was Christian - as head of a Christian church- it is not clear
when the change in his family from Judaism to Christianity happened. It
is believed that not all family members changed to Christianity.
Now Salomon Lazarus Levy enters the scene. His father was Moses Levy, a
deeply religious Jew.
Salomon Lazarus Levy was a business man from Leipzig born in 1780 in
Hannover. He married Johanna Dorothea Wilhelmine Hoefer, born in Luebek
around 1820.
It is not known what circumstances made him change his name in 1820 to
Johann Heinrich Dieseldorff and change his religion to Christianity but
they must have been severe.
Family resemblances such as face and hand are so striking throughout the
generations that it is believed that Moses Levy, the father of Salomon
Lazarus Levy was actually a cousin of the Graf von Dieseldorff. That
would also explain how Salomon Lazarus Levy living in Leipzig comes to
the quite unusual name Dieseldorff who lived hundreds of miles away in
Danzig and belonged to aristocracy. In addition Salomon Lazarus Levy was
allowed to maintain the two "f" at the end of the name which symbolizes
the aristocratic origin when he acquired the name.
Salomon, now Heinrich, and Johanna moved to Hamburg around 1820. They
had seven children.
In Hamburg, the Dieseldorff family began and maintained
a small armada of trader ships transporting goods from and to South America
(Guatemala and Peru).
Around 1865 Johann Peter Daniel Dieseldorff married Marie Graefin Rethey
(or Rethei) - the countess Rethey (or Rethei). Johann Peter used these
riches to invest in his Guatemalan business and in Guatemalan
infrastructure.
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 Guatemala, the commercial links that had begun in the 1840's between
the German Hanseatic and the Prussian ports of the Baltic provided
agents for further immigration from the German states especially after
1865. Erwin Paul Dieseldorff established in 1900 a coffee empire in the
Alta Verapaz
Because of their continuous relationship with the Jewish society, the family
who remained in Germany had to face difficult times. On one of his trip to
Lima, Peru, Rudolph Dieseldorff, the half brother of Hermann, was told
by family members not to return
to Germany and stay in Lima because it would not be safe In Germany anymore. His mother and her sister did not make it and died in
the concentration camps.
Rudolph remained in Peru ever since and built a flourishing farm and
plant for nuts which provided also oil. He married a wonderful Peruan lady with whom he is still happily married since
over 40 years.
While some family members had a similar terrible destiny, other family
members served actually in the army.
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".
The family - now since generations Christians - were always proud of
their Jewish heritage but kept it for themselves because of the terrible
past.
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. This is still omni-present
in Germany.
"It really hit me when I was made aware of my Jewish heritage because then I
was not only the "bad German" anymore 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 sister of Chris Mom, married a French soldier who she met during the
French occupancy in the Southern part of Germany. When his family traveled to visit
the French relatives
in the Normandy in the 1970's and 1980's, he felt bad being a German. During
these trips, he experienced
French hating them because they were Germans.
He remembers: "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. We were a revolting youth, being against any
kind of authority. This is when the Green Party started and the
Alternative Scene. We would be members of Human Rights Organizations."
The family of Christians Mom came from a different tribe of historic Celtic
descendent.
The 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 Evangelic 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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