August Grünheit / Friederike Grünheit

August Grünheit was an instmann or deputant, i.e an estate worker without property, in Groß-Steinort. His payment mainly consisted of natural goods. Apparently, he also carried out forestry work. His wife Friederike’s maiden name was actually Czypull. Probably the name was “germanized” on the tombstone, which would make it one of many evidences of the increasingly nationalist climate in Germany and Masuria during the period between the world wars.

August and Friederike had three children together: daughter Amalie Maria, born in 1879, and sons Friedrich Julius and Gustav, who were born in 1882 and 1885. While only her date of birth is known about Amalie Marie, we know from the youngest son Gustav that he was a farm worker like his father and married the maid Maria Gensel in Groß Steinort in 1908. In the following years the two had numerous children together, of which we do not know the names in any case. Perhaps Gustav Grünheit, also a farm worker in Groß Steinort, where he married Bertha Ganski (or Genski or Jenski) in 1934, was one of these grandchildren. In any case, Gustav’s family may have been involved in the formulation of the grave inscription. If the other son of August and Friederike Grünheit, Friedrich Julius, is identical with Friedrich Grünheit, who married Bertha Borowski, he too may have had at least one son.^[1] In 1945 there were two families Grünheit in Groß Steinort. One of them was that of Gustav and his wife Bertha (neé Genski).^[2]