Maria Philomine Pauline Thiel

1896 – 1990

Maria Thiel was born in Nylstroom and was 6 years old when the family returned to Pretoria and 13 when the family arrived in South West Africa. She completed her schooling in Windhoek and then trained as a photographer and worked for Nink photographers in Windhoek. Many of her photographs were used in newspaper articles at the time.

She married Otto Ferdinand Schimming and after their marriage they farmed on the farm Waldhöhe on the way from Windhoek to Gobabis. The farm Arcadia which her father had bought in 1922 was next to their farm. Through her exceptional drive the Schimmings became successful in their farming venture and she invested in property including several properties in the Republic of South Africa. The Schimmings had three children, Ottokar, Cecilia and Elisabeth. The youngest daughter Elisabeth died tragically in an accident on the farm when she was only 6 years old. Otto Schimming passed away in 1967. Maria later moved to Windhoek where she spent her last years in the Susanna Grau Heim for the elderly where she passed away in 1990 at the age of 94.