We continue our hike along the valley path and, at the fork leading to the crematorium, we find, under a huge beech tree, the grave of the painter Carl Hinrichs. Born on November 26, 1903, in Nuremberg, as the son of a photographer and musician from Schwerin, where the incorrect year of birth on the gravestone originates remains unresolved. Until his death on November 8, 1990, in Schwerin, he lived through a historically turbulent time, which is vividly, albeit partly contradictory, described in the booklet "Ut mien‘n Malerleben" based on tape recordings and his own narratives.

Like all people born during the transition from the 18th to the 19th century, Carl Hinrichs was a witness to four socially and historically tumultuous epochs marked by stark contrasts and developments, in which he often suffered greatly. After his father's early death, Carl Hinrichs, the eldest of five children, had to abandon his bookbinding apprenticeship to support his family. Carl eventually moved to Frankfurt am Main to live with an uncle on his mother's side and earned a meager living in his merchandise business. Further chapters of his life included coal mining in the Ruhr area, peat cutting in the Devil's Moor, occasional work in agriculture, and at shipyards in Hamburg. Attempts at quick painting at Hamburg fairgrounds improved his meager earnings somewhat. In 1930, Carl Hinrichs settled in Schwerin after joining the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) shortly before. Already married, he found a modest attic apartment in Münzstraße. As a commission merchant for iron and haberdashery, he traveled by bicycle in Schwerin and the surrounding villages, striving to provide for his family. During these trips through the countryside, he recalled his attempts at the Hamburg fairs with brush, pencil, and scissors. Once again, he picked up the brush and painted the Mecklenburg landscape. Painter Wilhelm Facklam ensured that the paintings were also offered by art dealers in Schwerin, and Ehm Welk even arranged for Hinrichs to study at the Berlin Academy of Arts, where he could expand his knowledge under Heinrich Ehmsen.

Carl Hinrichs' drawing talent was also in demand for the propaganda of the KPD. He created banners, posters, and leaflets for events, as well as backdrops and stage props for meeting venues. He also engaged in agitation activities. Hinrichs' successes in art painting and political propaganda did not rest the Nazis, who accused him of plagiarism. Carl Hinrichs was arrested and had to paint a landscape painting in the cell of the courthouse to demonstrate his skills in landscape painting. Against the backdrop of his life full of worries and challenges, it is thought-provoking when Carl Hinrichs is quoted at the end of the aforementioned book with the words: "Noch eens von vörn. Und ock die Leden tieden mit."

At the end of a life marked by social tensions and various misjudgments, Carl Hinrichs withdrew to his property at Heidekaten near Blowatz on the Baltic Sea coast to devote himself undisturbed solely to his beloved landscape painting. In September 1989, shortly before his death, the city of Schwerin awarded him honorary citizenship.