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Johannes Matthaeus Koelz was born on the 31st March 1895 in the village of Muhldorf in Upper Bavaria. The first son of Johann Koelz, a merchant, and his wife Maria, the boy was given two names. Tradition demanded that the first should be his father's, but he was always known by the second - Matthaeus, or Matthe for short.
Little is known about his early life, spent with his four sisters and two younger brothers, Hans (born just under a year after Matthe, and to whom he was particularly close) and Sebastian (born in 1900).
An early childhood photograph shows Hans slightly behind his older brother. Matthe, on the left, is unsmiling and self-contained. Already there is a confident air about the little boy, the self- reliance that would develop into the strong character that was to sustain him in later years.
Matthe went to school in Munich, the nearest big city, and the Koelz family moved there soon after he started attending the Konigliche Luitpold-Kreisoberrealschule. He developed a particular interest in foreign languages, especially French, and in art.
He passed his exams and went to work for the Hofglasmalerei F.X. Zettler where he learned the skills of painting on glass, and business management. It seems clear that at this time he had made plans for his future and was setting the foundations for a career in an area which not only interested him, but in which he had talent.
But nineteen-year-old Matthe Koelz's future was to be determined not by his own plans, but by a cataclysmic event which would destroy the hopes and lives of millions.
©
Koelz Estate
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