both dieter sattler's parents had been born in florence where their own parents spent time as members of the expatriate artistic community. dieter sattler spent several months each year in florence while a small child, but this routine came to an end in 1914, the year war broke out, and in 1915 he started to attend his secondary school in munich. his parents separated in 1921. the children remained with their mother whose conversion to roman catholicism, (after growing up with parents who "had no christian faith") had been a reason for the break-up. he passed his school final exams (abitur) at the city's prestigious wilhelmsgymnasium (secondary school) in 1924. dieter sattler himself would convert to catholicism only in 1932, his decision to do so influenced both by the woman who shortly afterwards became his wife and by his intellectually formidable maternal uncle, dietrich von hildebrand (1889-1977), whose own conversion to catholicism had taken place in 1914.