Train at the station, Dire Dawa, Ethiopia, 1928

"[i]n den dunklen Wagen folgen die Eingeborenen" ("In the dark cars are following the indigenes"). Two cars of a train at the station. Two men are looking out of the windows of one of the cars, probably Ernst Greb and Hermann Elbers. On the platform to the left a group of Indians, in the middle a group of Europeans. A group of Ethiopians on the right side and leftmost respectively. The photograph was maybe taken by Hermann Bahlburg. -- Hermann Bahlburg (1892-1962) was the leader of the Galla [Oromo] mission of the Hermannsburg mission in Ethiopia from 1927 until his internment in 1941. He was based mostly in Addis Abeba, where he promoted the founding of a German school and church. He was part of the first caravan to Aira and undertook several journeys to the newly established mission stations in Aira and Bedele. From 1941 to 1948 he was interned by the British occupying forces. Afterwards he returned to Germany, where he continued his work as missionary until he was banned by the leadership of the Hermannsburger Missionsanstalt. He was posthumously rehabilitated in 2007. -- Hermann Elbers (1906-1944) was a carpenter and served the Hermannsburg mission in Ethiopia from 1928 to 1935. He married Martha Böttcher in 1933. -- Ernst Greb (1904-1965?) was a carpenter. He served the Hermannsburg mission as lay brother in Ethiopia from 1928 to 1931.