Wood carving, around 1903
Christoph Diehl was born on March 12, 1891, in Sonnenberg, Wiesbaden. The son of a gardener, he began a special hobby at an early age: he created wood carvings. Christoph had great talent, as noted by the American industrialist Thomas Hayward when he met the boy during a trip to Germany in 1906. The entrepreneur quickly took on the support of the fifteen-year-old. He brought him to Baltimore, provided him with work at his company, and financed his attendance at the Maryland Institute, a school for art and design. However, the promising artist career ended abruptly in 1908: Christoph unexpectedly fell ill with typhus and passed away after three weeks of sickness. The wood carving made by Christoph Diehl is today not only a unique keepsake from his life story but also historically significant in the context of migration, representing an important motivation for emigration: the hope for education and self-realization. Education is a fundamental human right; it enables individuals to improve their social, political, cultural, and economic situations.
