HEINRICH MITTELSTEDT (1870s - )
According to my father this particular Heinrich was 10 or 12 years older than Friedrich Heinrich's next child, therefore born in the mid 1870s.
Heinrich is said to have been a tall person, athletic, and the top gymnast at high school. He wanted to marry the household maid and this created conflict with his father. He also was accused of being a thief. He therefore fled Germany and went to German Africa.
After leaving German Africa Heinrich went to Austria and not much more was heard from him.
In 1986 I spent a day in Vienna, consulted the phone book, and met a Friedrich Mittelstedt (born 1941). Friedrich told me that his grandfather was named Heinrich, lived c.1876 to 1912, went to German East Africa around 1900, and later moved to Vienna where he became a horse riding instructor with the Austrian marines.
The two stories are similar. It's possible, therefore, that Heinrich (c.1876-1912) was the first son of my great grandfather Friedrich Heinrich Mittelstedt, the son who went missing.
With Friedrich Mittelstedt at Vienna Railway Station in August 1986
Friedrich Mittelstedt said that his grandfather Heinrich (c.1876-1912) had two sons Fritz (c.1900- ) and Heinrich (1905-1941). The latter (i.e. Friedrich's father) died in Russia in 1941. Friedrich was born in 1941, was a boyscout leader, and has a son born in 1965, and a sister.
