Christian von Ehrenfels
Christian von Ehrenfels was born on 20 June 1859 in Rodaun near Vienna and grew up at his father's castle Brunn am Walde in Lower Austria. He joined secondary school in Krems and first studied at the Hochschule für Bodenkultur in Vienna and then changed to the Universität Wien.
Christian Chemnitz
Christian Chemnitz was born in Königsfeld, a small town in the hills to the south of Leipzig. The family was able to trace its origins back to Pritzwalk in Brandenburg where since 1287 they had provided no fewer than sixteen mayors and chief aldermen. The most notable family member in more recent generations was Christian's great uncle, the theologian and reformer Martin Chemnitz (1522-1586). Christian's father was another Martin Chemnitz (1564-1627), a teacher and theologian in Königsfeld where he had been appointed pastor in 1593. Christian's mother, born Dorothea Jentsch, was the daughter Johann Jentsch, mayor and town clerk of nearby Geithain. Christian Chemnitz grew up in poverty since the land was in a state of permanent crisis thanks to the Thirty Years War and the accompanying heightened plague risk and economic dislocation.