Wulf-Diether Count of Castell-Rüdenhausen was born in Berlin in 1905, and brought up at Seeläsgen Castle on Lake Nieschlitz (today: Przełazy, Poland) in Mark Brandenburg. He got his pilot license when he was just 21, and, while studying law in Munich, taught at Schleißheim flying school.
He started working for German Lufthansa in 1930, and from 1933 to 1936 was assigned to helped build up a flight network in China for Lufthansa's daughter company, Eurasia. At first he flew with a one-engine Junkers W 33 transport plane, and later with a three-engine JU 52. He was also an aviation pioneer in South America from 1939 to 1941. With Deutsche Lufthansa alone he flew around two million kilometres, and from 1949 to 1972 was Managing Director of Riem Airport in Munich. He was married to the actress Luise Ullrich (1910-1985). Wulf-Diether Count of Castell-Rüdenhausen died in 1980 after falling off a ladder.
