Boehmer is descended from the Prussian Boehmer family, a long dynasty of law scholars and lawyers going back to the late 16th century, ennobled in the 18th century as "von Boehmer". Among his ancestors are Justus Henning Boehmer (1674−1749), professor of law and director at the University of Halle (Saale), and probably the most important expert on Protestant ecclesiastical law of the 17th/18th century, and Johann Samuel Friedrich von Boehmer (1704−1772), professor of law and director at the University of Frankfurt-on-the-Oder and a leading criminal law expert of the 18th century. His uncle Hasso von Boehmer (1904−1945) was a Lieutenant Colonel in the General Staff of the German Army and took part in the assassination attempt against Adolf Hitler by Claus von Stauffenberg on 20 July 1944. Hasso von Boehmer was executed by the Nazi regime in 1945 in Berlin following imprisonment at Ploetzensee Prison.