Dieseldorff, Erwin Paul (1868–1940)
Dieseldorff, Erwin Paul (1868–1940)
Erwin Paul Dieseldorff (b. 10 June 1868; d. 3 November 1940), German-born coffee planter and merchant in the Alta Verapaz, Guatemala. A member of a wealthy Hamburg family active in trade with Central America, Dieseldorff worked for three years in his uncle's export firm in London before going to Guatemala in 1888 to search for investment opportunities. On the advice of relatives who had preceded him, he engaged in the production and export of coffee. He acquired properties from the Polochic River to the Petén and became the largest private landowner in Guatemala. His coffee business was vertically integrated with plantations that served different complementary functions. Dieseldorff had a lifelong interest in and wrote extensively about the Maya and the medicinal plants of the Alta Verapaz.
See alsoCoffee Industryxml .
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Erwin P. Dieseldorff, Der Kaffeebaum (1908), Kunst und Religion der Mayavölker, 3 vols. (1926–1933), and Las plantas medicinales del Departamento de Alta Verapaz (1940).
Guillermo Náñez Falcón, "Erwin Paul Dieseldorff, German Entrepreneur in the Alta Verapaz of Guatemala, 1889–1937" (Ph.D. diss., Tulane University, 1970).
Additional Bibliography
Kit, Wade A. "Costumbre Conflict and Consensus Kekchi-finquero Discourse in the Alta Verapaz, Guatemala, 1880–1930." Ph.D. diss., Tulane University, 1998.
Guillermo NÁÑez FalcÓn