Hans-Joachim "Jochen" Walter Rudolf Siegfried Marseille was born to Charlotte (maiden name: Charlotte Marie Johanna Pauline Gertrud Riemer) and "Hauptmann" Siegfried Georg Martin Marseille, a family with paternal French ancestry, in Berlin-Charlottenburg on 13 December 1919. As a child, he was physically weak, and he nearly died from a serious case of influenza. His father was an Army officer during World War I, and later left the armed forces to join the Berlin police force. Hans-Joachim also had a younger sister, Ingeborg. While on sick leave in Athens at the end of December 1941, he was summoned to Berlin by a telegram from his mother. Upon arriving home, he learned his sister had been killed by a jealous lover while living in Vienna. Hans-Joachim reportedly never recovered emotionally from this blow.