I was born in York, England in 1632. My father was from
Bremen in Germany and had moved to England for business.
His family name was Kreutznaer, but English people aren’t
very comfortable with foreign names. Everyone started to call
my father Crusoe instead of Kreutznaer, so eventually our
family name became Crusoe. My fi rst name was Robinson,
which had been my mother’s family name before she married
my father. I had two older brothers, who left home when I was
young. Th e oldest one was a soldier and died in a war, but I
don’t know what happened to my other brother: he left home
and we never heard from him again.