Active and Mentally Alert to the End

Rastenburg (Kętrzyn), East Prussia – Photo Credit: wikipedia.org

At the end of World War II Else was the only surviving child of the Scholz family. Else had married the engineer Artur Thieß. He is the one I called Uncle Artur, even though he was my cousin by marriage. He was born in Rastenburg, East Prussia,in 1905. For twenty years he had been active in the technical division of the German Post Office. After the war he was teaching at the institute of engineering within the East German postal system. There his talents found recognition and he quickly advanced to the position of lecturer at the department of engineering and electronics specializing in low-frequency applications in Berlin-Lichtenberg. In 1952 he published a book on low-frequency transmissions. He also frequently served as guest lecturer at the famous Humboldt University. [Knowing my interest in the field of electronics, he now and then sent me textbooks on transistor theory and practice.It was apparently permitted to mail books from the German Democratic Republic to the West, but not in the opposite direction.]

The surviving children of the Thieß marriage were all female: Ingrid, Gerlinde, Antje (see photo below) and Silvia. They were all known to me through my two visits in 1959 and 1962.

Anje Thieß 1962 (third girl) participating in competitive rowing for the German Democratic Republic

In the tender loving care of her daughter Else and son-in-law Artur Thieß,  Aunt Alma passed away on September 10, 1975 at the age of 93. Mentally alert until the very end she reached the oldest age of the entire Friedrich and Emma Klopp family.