Gregor Riethmaier

Gregory Riethmaier (born Gregor Hans Otto Riethmaier, 18 November 1913 – 25 April 2004) was a German–New Zealand photographer.

Early life Riethmaier was born in Munich, Germany, in 1913 (some sources state 1914) into a Roman Catholic family who ran a tavern. His father was killed in action during the First World War. However, as a German national in an Allied country, he was arrested in December 1939 shortly after the outbreak of the Second World War, and was interned with other "enemy aliens" for the duration of the war on Somes Island near Wellington. Under the terms of the Geneva Conventions, he was allowed to continue his studies at Victoria University College while interned. and one on Western and American Samoa (1973). His first book, Rebecca and the Maoris (1964), focused on netballer Rebecca Faulkner Chaplow and her life in the Rotorua Māori community. Contemporary reviewers found the Chaplow book "delightful" and "well designed"; retrospective commentators have adjudged the work as somewhat patronising in its depiction of its Māori subjects.

Personal life In 1949, Riethmaier married Elsie Capper (1920–2009); the couple had three children. He died in Auckland on 25 April 2004, aged 91.