YEARS 1892 - 1907:

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Otto Hermann Pfaender (KF57) was born in Stuttgart, (then Kingdom of) Wurtemberg, Germany, in 1892. His father was Leonhard Michael Pfänder Jr. (KF52) a master tailor from Hausen am Bach, County of Schwäbisch Hall, (then Kingdom of) Wurtemberg. His mother was Elisabetha, nee Voigt (KF52a), from Leuzendorf in the same county. She was a sewer.

The ancestors of the Pfänder family had been Lutheran refugees from Austria who had left their home due to the ongoing relentless Catholic counter-reformation in the middle of the 17th. century. They had found a new home in the area around Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Bavaria, in the year 1651/52. Otto Hermann Pfaender was a member of the 10th Pfänder generation after the immigration of his Austrian ancestor David Pfänder (KF1) - FAG # 204595831.

After their wedding in Leuzendorf in January 1879, Otto Hermann's parents lived in Leuzendorf for some years and founded a family. They already had 4 children (3 girls and 1 boy) when they moved to Stuttgart, where father Leonhard Michael Pfänder had found a job as an employed tailor. In Stuttgart, Otto, 1 older sister and 2 younger brothers were born, however the young girl passed away 1 year after her birth in 1886.

In the late 1890s the family moved to Esslingen, Wurtemberg, where father Leonhard Michael continued to work as an employed tailor. In the year 1901 the Pfänder family returned to Stuttgart, where the head of the family started his own tailor business.

YEAR 1908:

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In above year Otto must have made up his mind to become a teacher and entered college in the city of Esslingen, Wurtemberg.

YEAR 1909:

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When Otto Hermann Pfaender's father died of cancer of the abdomen in 1909, the 16 year old boy was forced to contribute to the family's income.

YEARS 1911 - 1912:

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After his studies in Esslingen, Otto Pfänder found his first employment at a school in Ottenhausen near Straubenhardt, Wurtemberg.

YEARS 1913 - 1915:

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World War I broke out and Otto entered his military service as a "1 year volunteer" (Einjährig Freiwilliger) on October 1st., 1913. During the war he served in Belgium, France and Poland (what was part of Russia then). Due to his poor physical condition, Otto was however sent home in the summer of 1915 and continued to work as a teacher in the village of Niederhofen near Schwaigern, County of Leonbronn, Wurtemberg. After his physical conditon had improved, Otto had to return to his unit and re-entered the war theater at the western front from November 1915 until his final release in June 1916.

YEARS 1916 - 1919:

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After the war Otto found a new job in the village of Leonbronn, County of Heilbronn, Wurtemberg. Here he met his wife-to-be Luise Maria Bausch. Maria was the 19 year old daughter of a well-reputed hunter, butcher and local inn-owner. The young couple married on the day the Peace Treaty of Versailles was signed by the Allies and the defeated German Reich (June 1919).

YEARS 1920 - 1933:

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After their marriage at Leonbronn's Lutheran church, Otto Hermann Pfaender and his wife Luise Maria, nee Bausch moved to the neighbouring village of Kleingartach, County of Heilbronn, Wurtemberg, where Otto had found a new job as a teacher.

The couple had two sons:

Otto Gottlob (1920 - 1943)

Heinz Georg (1928 - 2015)

YEAR 1934:

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During the mid 1930s the Pfaender family moved to Stuttgart where Otto Pfaender continued to work as a teacher. His new employer was the "Altenburg Schule" in Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt. The Pfaender couple could acquire a small house in the a street named "Altenburg 23" just across the street from the school building.

YEAR 1943:

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In above year Otto Senior and his wife Maria lost their first born son Otto Junior: He fell during the fights near Smolensk, Russia in March 1943, when the German Wehrmacht had been more or less deafeated. Due to the fact that the air raids of the Allies against German cities had already reached southern Germany, Otto Pfaender and his school class were evacuated to the city of Neckartailfingen some dozens of miles further to the south from Stuttgart. Here, the authorities expected less enemy activity in the air since Neckartailfingen did not have important industries.

YEARS 1944 - 1945:

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In 1944 the Pfaender family home in Stuttgart was severly damaged by an allied air mine during one of the heavy air raids on Stuttgart. However no further life was lost. Now Otto Sr. and his wife Maria were completely evacuated to the city of Neckartailfingen, Wurtemberg, as they could no longer live in their destroyed home. They were able to return back home after the end of World War II in 1945.

YEARS 1945 -1968:

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After the war Otto Hermann Pfaender continued to work as a teacher at the Altenburg School until his retirement on Februar 1st, 1954.

YEARS 1969 - 1979:

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Maria Pfaender, nee Bausch, passed away in 1969 and left her husband and son Heinz and the 2 grandchildren behind. In November 1971 Otto Pfaender moved to a retirement home close to his home, where he continued to live the rest of his life. At 5 AM in the morning of April 14, 1979 Otto Hermann died and was buried at Bad Cannstatt's Steigfriedhof, Stuttgart on Thursday, April 19, 1979.

Otto Hermann Pfaender was of Lutheran belief.

(Johannes Evangelium 6. 47: "Wer an mich glaubt, der hat das ewige Leben.")

Lieber Opa, ich denke immer noch oft an Dich! Dein Enkel Peter.

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