Margarete Maria Seydler was born on 2 December 1883 in Ragnit, a town in East Prussia (now Neman, Russia). Her parents were Bernhard Seydler and Martha Hagen, who already had at least one child at the time Margarete was born, a daughter named Elsbeth.

On 21 December 1903, when she was just 20 years old, Margarete married 39-year old Franz Heinrich Georg Ihssen in Königsberg. When the first World War broke out in Europe, he joined the German troops and was fatally wounded. After his death, Margarete inherited her husband’s farm, where she raised horses. She loved spirited horses, and would later pass this love on to her daughter Inge.

One year, Margarete was attending a winter party when one of the horses carrying Margarete and some friends on a passenger sleigh got spooked by a loud noise and took off. All the guests jumped off the sleigh except Margarete and the son of her parents’ neighbours, Max Kleinen. Though the sleigh fell and shattered, the couple was uninjured and they managed to calm the horses and ride them back to the party. Margarete admired Max’s courage and chose to marry him over her many suitors. The couple was married in Bad Reinerz, Germany on 10 May 1919. They had two children together – their son Wolf Dietrich was born on 16 April 1920 and their daughter Inge Maria on 5 April 1921.

The family owned a villa on the Baltic Sea, where they would spend summers. In 1924, the family moved to a 5,000-acre farm in a small village called Kessel (now Kociołek Szlachecki, Poland). The farm had poor soil for farming, so they raised cattle and horses. Margarete did most of the work, while Max worked overseas as the First Officer of the Ostpreussen cargo ship – he was home only once a year for holidays while the children were growing up.

Even though the family owned their land, the Nazis took more and more of it against their will, and by 1934 the family had to let their property go and moved to a smaller farm at the foot of the Gatlgarben mountain in Saamland. This land was better than their previous property, but still not suitable for farming so the family continued to keep horses.

Margarete’s son Wolf was Lance Corporal for 2nd Panserjäger batallion of the Pansergrenadier Division Brandenburg during the Second World War, and wrote to his family in March 1945 telling the family his troop was on the way to Erfurt. It was the last communication the Kleinens ever had from him. The family tried everything they could to find out what happened to Wolf over the following years, but no trace of him was ever found and the boy was declared to be dead as of 31 December 1945.

Later that same year, tragedy struck again. Margarete, along with her daughter and husband’s mother were kidnapped by the Russians. Margarete’s death certificate shows that she died on April 30th, 1945, which is the same date that appears on her mother-in-law Clara’s death certificate. We don’t know exactly what happened, or even if this was the actual date of her death. Inge wrote later in her life that she began a journey back to Galtgarben to collect the two women and ended up between battle lines. We don’t know any further details of these events, but it’s very likely that Inge’s trip back home was to bury her mother and grandmother. Inge was captured by the Russians that same year, and doesn’t mention traveling to the concentration camp with any family members.