Georg Schreyögg was born in Aitrang, a village in the Alpine foothills near Kempten. He grew up in Mittenwald, however, a small but prosperous transit town southeast of Partenkirchen, along the mountain road towards the Brenner Pass and, beyond that, Lombardy. Mittenwald was (and is) a town with a long craft tradition of wood carving and violin making. Georg was the youngest son of the five recorded children born to Mathäus Schreyögg (1831-?), identified variously as an inn keeper and a master baker, and his wife, born Kreszentia Marie Jörg (1833-1899).