Christoph Tiedemann was born around 1516 in
Stadthagen, a son of Hans Tiedemann and his wife Geseke. She was a sister of Stadthagen-born Lübeck council secretary and
cathedral dean Johannes Rode, an opponent of the
Reformation. In 1545, Tiedemann was secretary to the
Archbishop of Bremen Christoph von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel. In 1548 he received the Great
Prebendary of the late Johannes Pumpel at the
Lübeck Cathedral, where his brother
Johannes Tiedemann became the cathedral dean in the same year and in 1559 the last Catholic bishop. At the same time he was canon at the Collegiate Monastery in Eutin and canon at the Ratzeburg Cathedral. Before the election of Johannes as bishop in 1559, the two Tiedemann brothers had a double
epitaph made of sandstone with a Latin inscription placed in the chancel of Lübeck Cathedral, which shows them both in
choir dress. He died on 6 October 1561 in
Lübeck. In January 2007, a portrait from 1556 was auctioned at
Sotheby's, which Annette Kranz identified in 2011 without a doubt as a portrait of Christoph Tiedemann on the basis of the coat of arms and age and attributed it to
Hans Kemmer. In contrast to the epitaph, it shows Tiedemann in secular clothing and pose. It is on record that Tiedemann had a daughter Margarete with Anneke Bruneke. In his will of 1561, he considered his housekeeper Katharina Matz and her daughter Margarete. == References ==