Inessa Natalich

Founder and director of the museum «Old German School Waldwinkel.»

Inessa is an epidemiologist by training, but by vocation, she is a rescuer of valuable historical objects.

Inessa’s history teacher provoked her love and interest in her native land when she was still in school. In 1990 she and her husband bought the school, where Inessa’s mother used to teach and was the headteacher.

Only walls remained in the building, but those walls remembered a lot: children had studied here since 1890 — first German, then Soviet.

First, a German map was found on the roof, then — slates, pre-war newspapers… Former pupils started to bring various exhibits to the school: school bags, school certificates, notebooks. So everything turned into a real museum that welcomes about five thousand tourists a year.

But Inessa didn’t stop there. Her family bought the building of an old half-destroyed brewery in the district center and is restoring it.