 The posthumous publication of his secret notes and diaries played a role in the "Fischer Controversy" among German historians in the early 1960s.Riezler was born in Munich in 1882 to a prominent Catholic family; his grandfather had co-founded the Bayerische Hypotheken- und Wechselbank (now HypoVereinsbank, UniCredit Group).He studied classics at the University of Munich and was granted his doctorate in economic history with highest honors in 1905.