Our first meeting with Eva was in Bonn, Germany, where she and her husband, Horst Müller, were visiting their son Ingo Müller and their family. Ingo was not home, but his wife, Margrit, made us feel welcome. Although I could not speak German and Eva could not speak English at all, we got along very well. We met again several times in Germany, and she eventually visited us in Stellenbosch with her daughter Silke. One of the many contributions she made to my own knowledge and information on the Thiel family was her finding my grandfather’s grave in a densely overgrown cemetery outside the small village of Lushoto in northern Tanganyika. She described the event in detail in a letter to me, including photos after she visited the site with her son Ingo and his family in 1997.

It was a six-hour journey by car to reach the Usambara mountain region from Dar es Salaam. They stayed in the “Müller’s Lodge” which was built by a German who settled in Tanganyika. From there, they travelled to Lushoto where the search for information about Hermann Gustav Thiel and his grave was undertaken. They started by visiting a Catholic mission high above Soni, the farm that used to belong to Hermann Gustav Thiel. The 80-year-old Priest unfortunately did not know Hermann Thiel as he arrived at the mission after Hermann passed away, and the local inhabitants were all too young to supply any information. The chances of finding any relevant information in the church documents were also remote. Finally, they were able to contact Sister Eileen, the only dentist in Lushoto and vicinity. She could remember the name Thiel but not much more. She, however, supplied the contact details of an 80-year-old nun who was then living in Dortmund, Germany. When Eva-Maria contacted Elisabeth Zschomler, she confirmed that she nursed Hermann Gustav Thiel before he passed away but had no more information except to refer Eva-Maria to Elfi Czurn from the Sudetenland. From her, she got the information that after Hermann Gustav Thiel passed away, his widow, who was his second wife, sold his property at Soni to “Herr Czurn” who rebuilt the house in which our grandfather and grandmother lived.

In her meticulous way, Eva-Maria Müller reported all this information to me and then proceeded to describe the search and discovery of our grandfather’s precious grave in the overgrown cemetery at Lushoto.

From the dentist in Lushoto, Eva-Maria Müller and her son Ingo heard that there was an old cemetery outside Lushoto that was used over a long period for the burial of foreigners. They followed the directions in wet weather and found the entrance to the cemetery. Inside, they found graves from 1830 until 1970 – the youngest being the grave of the founder of the “Müllers Lodge” where they were staying. Most of the graves were, however, from the period 1830 to 1850.

The largest part of the cemetery was totally overgrown with bushes. It was not easy to move through the dense growth, but eventually, Ingo’s wife, Margrit, was proud to find the grave. They saw the corner of a white gravestone and, after closer inspection, could make out the name Thiel on the stone.

They could not uncover the gravestone with their bare hands, so Ingo fetched a Panga from the Pastor nearby, and they went to work removing the dense growth from the grave.

The rain then came down heavily and they returned later to find the marble gravestone cleanly rinsed by the rainwater.

This photo shows the whole group involved in finding and cleaning Hermann Gustav Thiel’s Grave except for Ingo who took the photo. At the back is Ingo and Margrit’s daughter Julia.

The group at the grave is from the left daughter Halina with her friend behind her, followed by Eva Maria, daughter Flora, and Margrit on the right.

We cherish the following photo of Eva-Maria Müller very much as without her initiative, dedication, and the help of her son Ingo and his family, the grave would never have been found.

Eva-Maria Müller at the graveside with the inscription clearly visible:

HERMANN GUSTAV THIEL

BORN 1878

DIED 1948

HIS WAS A FULL LIFE

Several years later in June 2009 Eva-Maria Müller’s daughter Silke visited the grave with her brother Ingo and his family. The grave was again completely overgrown and had to be located and opened up as on the first occasion.