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FRIEDRICH & MARIE HINSCH, 1887
A BORN WANDERER?
Heinrich Otto Friedrich Hinsch first saw the light of day in 1852. My grand-
mother (his granddaughter) used to say his home was somewhere “up north close to Denmark.” He was born in the Duchy of Holstein, a land of furriers and farmers.
ALL ROADS LEAD TO LEIPZIG
After helping to win the 1870 Franco-Prussian war, Friedrich, now a would-be tailor, left Holstein to journey by train across newly unified Germany before running into a family of Tischlers (joiners) in Prussian Saxony.
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Marrying their only daughter, Marie Lieberoth, at the end of 1878, the birth three months later of their son, Fritz, heralded a permanent move to Leipzig.
Herr Hinsch graduated a Schneider-
meister in 1891, a time in which he and his family (son Fritz was later joined by Nannÿ) experienced one of if not the richest period in Leipzig’s history, where patronage for the arts, construction and not to mention its population boomed in a peaceful and prospering Germany.
FRIEDRICH’S SCHNEIDERSTUBE? 1890
PRIVATMANN HINSCH
Following his son’s marriage, in 1905 the Hinsch’s took early retirement and left Leipzig for neighbouring Machern, where they spent the rest of their lives in the family’s Landhaus on a large estate. Replete with tenants, Herr Hinsch, became the embodiment of a Prussian Junker or lord. Two years later his daughter married the Silesian furrier, Paul Tÿralla.
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HINSCH VILLA, MACHERN BEI LEIPZIG, 1905
Their children (including my grand-
mother) spent much of their formative years at their authoritarian grandparents. So strict were they that Saxony’s family court eventually called them all in for questioning, resulting in the youngsters’ return to their mother in 1922.
Friedrich passed away in 1928, followed in 1932 by Marie. The legacy they left is said to have divided the family thereafter. However, before he died, in 1927 he scribbled something on the back of the photo below to my grandmother. Did the text sum up his motto for life?
THE HINSCH’S WITH MY GRANDMOTHER, 1927
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WANT TO
KNOW MORE?
Friedrich Hinsch’s life story in detail:
- A Cast of Characters: Towards 1871
- The Road to Leipzig: 1871-1878
- Sophie's World: 1879-1899
The rest of his story and the fates of his son-in-law and grandchildren follow.
‘Wandervögel: A Prussian Family’s Passage Through Leipzig’ is a historical study now being researched and written by Friedrich Hinsch’s great great grandson on seven generations of migration.
Timeline:
1
2
3
4 +
5 (blogs).
All text © by the author!
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