Personifying the nobility of business

IN THE dining room of a boutique hotel in the Kirribilli area of Sydney last week, I run into Christoph, Henrike and their three children. They have just finished dinner, and I get chatting with the parents. The family is returning to Germany after several years in Australia, where Christoph worked for the German company Knauf before becoming executive director of the German-Australian Chamber of Industry and Commerce in Sydney.

He lets slip that his full name is Christoph von Spesshardt. The association of “von” with the German nobility sends me on a quick Google search, which reveals that he is a baron. His paternal family, whose history goes back to 1265, belongs to a Franconian imperial knighthood that originated in the mountain range which is home to the states of Hesse and Bavaria. His maternal line includes Otto von Bismarck, the Prussian statesman who unified Germany in 1871.

I meet the couple again at breakfast the following day. Confronted with the information that I have unearthed on him, the 47-year-old baron smiles, runs his fingers lightly back over his receding palate, and exclaims disarmingly: “A gift from Bismarck.” The baroness, two years younger, looks on indulgently.