From his mother's side Emmerich belongs to the family called the Schneiders, and his father was a Weiss. Those two families have been allies for a few generations, but after Koloman, the best known leader of the Schneider family, died, things started to go wrong and they weren't that great friends anymore. Their alliance was fade, but they still kept it.
Emmerich and his twin sister's parents died when they were just 10 years old, and after that they got separated. Emmerich was raised by his grandmother, Raimunde Schneider, because she sensed that Emmerich could master the family's fire ability, which is a somewhat rare thing nowadays amongst them. She also wanted to change his surname from Weiss to Schneider, so that the boy knew which family he truly belonged to.

Raimunde teached him until Emmerich was 16. After that he ran away to find his sister, and to escape the leadership of the Schneider family. He respected and loved them, but he also missed the relatives of his father, the Weisses. He changed his name back to Weiss.
The more he grows, the less he feels like being one of the Schneiders, even though he has their dark hair and fire ability, and all the other Weisses are known from their blond hair (he and his sister are kind of the ugly ducklings of the Weiss family, haha).

He finally abandons the Schneider side of him completely after he is told that the Schneiders had attacked the Weisses - killed some of them and burned their houses - and the horrible fact that his and his sister's parents were actually killed by their grandmother all along. Emmerich is not that vengeful guy, but that is obviously one thing he can never forgive or forget. And he doesn't like it at all if someone ever calls him a Schneider again.

From 2014.

Emmerich & pic © Mempsis