Born on 23 January 1843, in Welschenburg, Dramburg, Pomerania, Prussia (today Olezno, Poland), son of Philipp Johann Ziemann and Christina Johanna Carolina Köhn. He migrated with his parents and siblings to São Francisco do Sul, SC, aboard the steamship Emma, departing from Hamburg on 31.10.1857 and arriving on 13.01.1858. He married Auguste Wilhelmine Friederike Nass on 20 September 1867 at the Lutheran Church of Joinville. They had seven children, among them Johann Wilhelm Friedrich August Ziemann (1876). He died on 20 April 1881, aged 38, in Joinville, SC.