I have often thought how nice it would be for us descendants, if our ancestors had put down on paper their own experiences and what they could remember about their families. My father alone has recorded various facts about the family, so he himself wanted at least to make a start, hoping that one of his sons or grandsons would command enough energy and enthusiasm to continue to ‘spin the thread’.
The following does not pretend to be a literary masterpiece. It merely restates what I have remembered now, in my old age, about the lives of my elders as far as I got to know about them from my own experience and from what I was told and from documents. If I were spared long enough, I would wish to also write about the events of my own life.
Beyond the data contained in archives, in copies from the ‘Housebook of the City of Munich’1, in the details from the lives of my father or great grandfather Radspieler and apart from the notes dedicated to various members of the family, I have also reported general events.
In my opinion, mentioning these will be of great interest even now, but certainly more so for the next generation. The searches and writing down of remembered facts have kept me busy for several years. The time spent on them was not regretted. Apart from the pleasure of abandoning myself to biographical composition, inherited from my Franconian side of the family, this labour of love soothed my nerves and seemed to be the fulfilment of a duty. I hope that to the coming generation the lives of their forbears will be a spurn and encouragement.