October 9, 1906
Jakob and Anna both grew up in Diez an der Lahn.
Jakob's father had been a successful taylor but passed away when Jakob was only 2 years old. He left him with his mother and his three half-sisters from his earlier marriage.
Unfortunately I don't know anything about Anna's family. I don't know if she had any siblings.
I also don't really know how Jakob grew up but he became a painter like his uncle Carl.
Jakob and Anna got married and Anna opened a shop selling household wares. Anna and Jakob lived in a nice house in Diez with the shop on the ground floor and they themselves living upstairs.
Their house was a double house and there was a hairdresser called Karl Jung who lived in the other half of the house with his family. In the evenings they and their other neighbours often sat in front of their house singing and making music together.
Anna had a lot of work with her shop. My grandfather Engelbert gave her one of the first electric irons as a present because before the iron often went cold again before she had done any ironing as she was busy serving her customers.
In winter when there was not much painting to do Jakob helped Anna in her shop.
They lived through the hyperinflation years. When Magdalena and Engelbert were playing with some money and lost it, they feared that their parents would be very angry with them. But with inflation being so high it was such a small amount that it didn't matter.
Diez got flooded from time to time. When the Lahn flooded the old town in spring, the kids were taking an old bathtub and used it as a boat to get around.
Unfortunately Anna got cancer and died early when her youngest son Engelbert was only 16 years old. As she had been in a lot of pain her death was very traumatic for the family.
Their son Hermann's first wife also died very early leaving him with 3 little kids and no mother. His second wife came from Londorf, the village close to Giessen where my grandmother Marie was from. Hermann moved there and Jakob came visiting whenever he could to see his grandkids. My grandmother and her family sometimes saw him walking from the train station to Hermann's house with his grandchildren on his side long before they got to know Engelbert.
Hermann was a train driver and very good with electrical things.
Magdalena stayed in Diez. She had 4 kids and had to work very hard to provide for her family as after the war her marriage had ended in divorce. But she often came to Londorf to visit Engelbert und Hermann and also went on long walks with my mom.
Walter became an accountant and like his sister stayed in the area. He had 2 sons.
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