Christoph Neeser

Christoph Neeser (Greek: Χριστόφορος Νέζερ; (1808-1883) was a Bavarian officer who settled in Greece. He arrived in the country in 1833 in the expeditionary corps that accompanied Prince Otto, Greece's first king. In mid-March of the same year, as a lieutenant, he was appointed head of the Athens guard. On 1 April, together with the Bavarian Major Paligan, he received the keys of the Acropolis of Athens from its last Ottoman commandant, Osman Efendi.[1]

He married twice with Greek women and had 26 children. Of his grandchildren, the most notable were actress Marika Nezer and two further who bore his name, a cousin and a brother of Marika. He also wrote a memoir titled The First Years of the Foundation of the Greek Kingdom.