RITZAU Origins Germany and Denmark
Ritzaus of the world
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Ritzau is originally a German name, but there are significant groups of Ritzaus in Denmark and south eastern Australia, in particular New South Wales, and eight or ten small groups in the US, possibly descended from a smaller number of original immigrants.
Relative to national population the name Ritzau is more common - or less rare! - in Denmark and New South Wales than in Germany. There are around 200 Ritzau listed telephone subscribers in Germany, and between 20 and 30 each in Denmark, the US, and Australia. The world Ritzau populationis perhaps around a thousand.
Danish Ritzaus are documented back to the late 17th century (in a family history published in 1907), Australian to the 1850s, US (so far) mostly to more recent years.
Ritzau roots
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The ancestors of the Danish group, two Australian groups, and one US group, all came from the southern end of the modern state of Lower Saxony in Germany, around Braunschweig (Brunswick) and Hannover (Hanover).
The origin of the Ritzau name probably lies farther east. It has been suggested in the Danish Ritzau family history that Ritzau was originally a place name, probably Retzau in modern Saxony-Anhalt, rather than Ritzow, Ritzerau, or Ritzerow, all near the Baltic coast, on the grounds of its relative proximity to the birthplace of the Danish Ritzau ancestor, Braunschweig.
Retzau is too small to show on map scales smaller than about 1:250,000 (4 miles per inch). It lies on the river Mulde about 14 km SSE of Dessau, which is close to the junction of the rivers Mulde and Elbe, usually shown even on quite modest maps. (There is a local map on http://www.srw.de/eer/umgeb.htmhttp://www.srw.de/eer/umgeb.htm)
Relative to population of individual German states, the highest concentration of Ritzaus is in fact in Saxony-Anhalt (Magdeburg, Dessau, Halle), with Lower Saxony (Hannover, Braunschweig, Oldenburg) taken together with the included small state of Bremen, second.
Although Retzau is close to the border between Saxony-Anhalt and Saxony there are relatively few Ritzaus in Saxony. The name may have been first used, before the 17th century, by an individual or family that had already moved north and west in the direction of Magdeburg and Braunschweig.
Ritzau migrants
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Known original immigrants to Denmark, Australia, and US are
Denmark: Heinrich (or Johan Heinrich) Ritzau b 1639 Braunschweig, Germany (Marianne Ritzau, Michael Hansen, Ken Tessendorff)
New South Wales: Heinrich Ritzau b 1836 Goslar, Germany (Kathy Ryman)
Victoria:August Ritzau, Braunschweig, Germany (Clare Gervasoni http://www.grv.com.au/genealogy/wwwboard/genealogy/messages/12.htmlhttp://www.grv.com.au/genealogy/wwwboard/genealogy/messages/12.html)
California 1: Johann Heinrich Hermann Ritzau b 1833 Hannover/Salzgitter, Germany (Ken Tessendorff)
California 2: Erik Ritzau b 1877 Copenhagen, Denmark
Washington/Oregon: Karl P Ritzau b c1900 Thale/Quedlinburg/Aschersleben, Germany (Donald Hendrix)
Can anyone add to this list, or trace any of these lines back inside Germany?
Australian Ritzaus
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Some records of New South Wales Ritzaus are accessible on line from the NSW Registry. (I have no other information of my own)The two earliest listed NSW male Ritzau births, to father Henry, are brothers Henry 1860 and Augustus 1864The pattern of first names and the rarity of the surname make it possible that the NSW and Victoria Ritzau ancestors Heinrich and August, from the same region of Germany, were related, even brothers.
August Ritzau’s Goslar is historically important and famous for the mining of silver since the tenth century.
Danish Ritzaus
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The Danish Ritzau ancestor was soldier of fortune Heinrich Ritzau, born in Braunschweig about 1639, who served in the Swedish army until 1675 (Battle of Fehrbellin, north west of Berlin) and then joined and served with the Danish royal mounted life guards (Battle of Lund 1676). His son Tobias 1679 was also a soldier (Battle of Hälsingborg 1710) before settling with his family in Køge, south of Copenhagen, where his sons Hans 1720 and Lars 1723, and several of the next two generations, were shoemakers.
Descendants of Hans and Lars form two main branches of the Danish Ritzau family, one through Køge procurator Hans Cornelius Ritzau 1835-1905 (my great-grandfather), the other through Erich Nicolai Ritzau 1833-1903, founder of the Ritzau news agency and original compiler of the 1907 Ritzau family history completed after his death by a professional.
The most conspicuously recurring Ritzau name on the web is inevitably the Ritzau news agency - which can make it a little difficult to search for other Ritzaus.
One apparently aristrocatic German Ritzau is actually Danish California immigrant Erik Ritzau 1877-1936, son of the Ritzau news agency founder Erich Nicolai Ritzau 1833-1903, credited with small parts in five silent films, including two of the greatest: D W Griffith’s “Intolerance” 1916 (“Baron Gunther von Ritzau” and “Count Erich von Stroheim” as the two Pharisees) and Erich von Stroheim’s “Greed” 1924 (“Erich von Ritzau” as Doctor “Painless” Potter, travelling charlatan dentist).