Friedrick Otto Pappe and family, about 1920

Otto Pappe with his wife, Helene (Hoffman) Pappe is in the back row. Otto's sons, Reiner (left) and Heinz are seated in front. Unknown woman in dark dress in back. Unknown couple in center.

Otto Pappe was born in in 1882 in Hopfgarten, Thuringia, which is located a few kilometers southeast of Stotternheim. His father, Daniel Martin Wilhelm Pappe (1833-1900), was the second cousin of Richard, Albert and Hermann Pappe -- the immigrant ancestors for many Pappes in America.

Otto worked in Leipzig at the Mannborg Harmonium (a type of reed organ) Factory, then went to Berlin where he took over the Straube Harmonium Factory from the founder of the firm, Johann Straube. In Berlin he married Helene Hoffmann, and his three children and three of his grandchildren were born there. In 1923 he moved to Lich in Hessia where he lived to be 90. His son Reinhard (b. 1908) took over after WW2, and the firm lasted until his sudden death in 1972.