Maria Christina Thiel
3 Feb 1850 – 26 March 1869
Background
Maria Christina, the eldest child of Gustav Thiel and his first wife Katarina Großsteinbeck, is mentioned only a few times in Gustav Thiel’s memoirs written by his son Peter Johannes Thiel and in “Unvergessen”, the collection of memorabilia compiled by Luise, the daughter of Peter Johannes Thiel.
Valuable information about her is available in a collection of letters which Dr Jakob Eisler discovered in 1995 in the attic of Katharina’s family, the Großsteinbecks. Dr Eisler published these letters under the title “Deutsche Kolonisten im Heiligen Land”. Fortunately we have an English translation of the 69 letters which Dr Eisler discovered and we plan to add the information on Maria Christina Thiel at a later stage to what is included in the report below.
Maria Christina Thiel with her two brothers Gustav and Samuel Gustav
The Thiel family in 1860. This photograph was copied between PP 80 and 81 in Jakob Eisler’s book Deutsche Kolonisten im Heiligen Landt.
Maria Christina Thiel’s lifespan coincided almost exactly with her father’s sojourn in Palestine. She was born soon after her parents’ arrival and less than a year after her death at the age of 19, the family left for Germany.
Maria Christina Thiel was the eldest child of Gustav Thiel from his marriage to Maria Catharina Groβsteinbeck. She was born in Latrun in Palestine on the arduous journey of Gustav Thiel and his pregnant bride from Barmen station in Germany to Jerusalem in Palestine, two days before they reached their destination.
They were in a company of ten people, including his two unmarried brothers-in-law, Friedrich and Johann Groβsteinbeck. With their newborn baby, Maria, Gustav and his wife stayed behind in Latrun while the rest of the company continued their journey to Jerusalem. His youngest brother-in-law, Johann Groβsteinbeck, returned to assist them three days later. When Maria was five days old, they took leave of the kind people of Latrun who assisted them during their stay in Latrun. They arrived in Jerusalem at four in the afternoon of 8 February 1850. Gustav described his total amazement when seeing Jerusalem for the first time from Gottfried’s Hill.
We have very little information about the short life of Maria Christina Thiel. However, there are a few references to her in the recorded memoirs of Gustav Thiel and in correspondence with the family.
Gustav recalled that when “Mariechen” was nine years old, she attended a “Diakonissen” school where she was taught German and Arabic. At that time, the two eldest boys were taught Arabic and English in a Protestant school.
In a letter to his parents on 23 September 1862 informing them about his wife’s death, he mentions that “Mariechen is unwell today though I think it is just the effect of her mother’s death.”
In a letter written in December 1862 to his parents, brothers, and sisters, Gustav mentions that his attempt to arrange for “Mariechen” to go to a boarding school in Beirut was unsuccessful.
In August 1863, Gustav married Maria Rausch, who arrived from Boppard am Rhein in Germany. In a long letter to her family in Germany written on 13 August 1863, Maria describes how well Gustav’s children received her. She also mentions that Mariechen is almost as tall as she is, although she is still a child at heart and keeps herself busy sewing a new dress after school hours.
There is only one more mention of Mariechen when she was 16 years old when she did not accompany the family on a trip to the Jordan River.
The last mention of her was the sad news on 26 March 1869 that Maria Christina Thiel passed away in the boarding house of Mrs. Thomson in Beirut, where she was attending school. She was only 19 years old.