Group portrait in front of the mission house in Aira, Ethiopia, ca.1932

Group portrait in front of the thatched mission house: ca. 34 Ethiopians and 11 children, to the left in the front row Martha Waßmann sen. with her son Dietrich, to the right nurse Martha Waßmann with her niece Martha. In the rearmost row Dietrich Waßmann sen. (with glasses and sun helmet) and an Orthodox priest. Hermann Elbers in a white shirt on the veranda. Hermann Elbers (1906-1944) was a carpenter and served the Hermannsburg mission in Ethiopia from 1928 to 1935. He married Martha Böttcher in 1933. -- Dietrich Waßmann (1897-1954) was a missionary of the Hermannsburg mission in Ethiopia from 1927 on. In 1928 he married Martha, née Asmus. He worked at first at the mission station of Aira, where he established a protestant church and built an infirmary together with his sister Martha Waßmann. In 1935 he had to leave Ethiopia. He returned in 1938 and went back to Aira. In 1942 Waßmann went back to Germany. He returned again to Ethiopia in 1951. -- Martha Waßmann (1903-1987) was a nurse and the sister of Dietrich Waßmann. She began her work for the Hermannsburg mission in Aira in 1929, but due to ill health she soon had to leave for Harar. By the end of 1930 she worked again in Aira. In 1935 she left Ethiopia because of the war.