Brigitte Riesenkampff was born in Tsingtau/China and grew up in Shanghai until the family, like all Germans there, was first interned by the American military authorities after the end of the Second World War and then “repatriated” to Germany. After language training in English and French and a year as an au pair in Paris, she trained as a flight attendant with Lufthansa.

After marrying Georg Riesenkampff, she took care of the family. After his death, she took over the management of the foundation and organised the selection of interns in Tartu (Dorpat), the internships at the various companies and the interns’ stays in Germany. On the side, she was charitably active in Wuppertal for almost fifteen years as a “Rosewood Lady” with the Red Cross.

Matthias Riesenkampff was born in Berlin, graduated from high school in Wuppertal and completed training as a bank clerk. He subsequently trained as a reserve officer with the paratroopers before  studying law in Göttingen, Würzburg and Caen/France. He subsequently completed a Master’s degree at the University of St. Andrews/Scotland.

After working within the financial sector, he switched to the field of foreign and security policy, working for more than a decade in Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. He was a spokesman and elder of the Brotherhood of the Blackheads before leaving the Brotherhood like most other members of the long-established German-Baltic families.  He is an honorary knight of the Order of St John.

Detlev-Nikolai Riesenkampff, a qualified lawyer worked in project and export finance until the end of 2017, most recently at KfW IPEX (a German state-owned investment and development bank).

Since retiring, he has been involved in voluntary work with various non-profit organisations.

He is married with three children.