Gustav Konstantin von Alvensleben

He had two sisters and four brothers, including the businessman and politician Werner von Alvensleben and later president of the Deutscher Herrenklub (“German Gentlemen's Club”).

The widow of his deceased brother Joachim was Armgard of Alvensleben, the abbess of the convent at Heiligengrabe and General Manager of the Protestant mission station.

After a brief stay in El Salvador, where he was working on the coffee farms of his older brother Joachim, he moved in the summer of 1904 finally to Vancouver (British Columbia) - with only four dollars in cash.

Alvensleben succeeded in subsequent years, bringing much German and European capital for investment in British Columbia to mobilize and had significantly contributed to this upturn.

The contemporary chroniclers report that Alvensleben created labor peace with "almost socialistic ideas" he restored it by paying fair wages, humane working conditions and fostering good opportunities for residential care and cooperated sensibly with the unions.

Alvensleben embodied in this time the "American Dream": He had by vigor, vision and entrepreneurial risk-taking within a few years advanced from a simple day laborer to become a millionaire in high finance.

He then worked in real estate business and as a stockbroker in Seattle, but without his previous economic successes, he could not operate on the same scale again.