Teacher in Wuppertal

At the age of forty-eight, Maus finally received his first steady job at Hindenburg High School in Wuppertal-Elberfeld in 1936.

His wife died in 1937. On her deathbed, she made him promise to marry her sister Waltraut, who became a caring mother to his three children.

Moreover, a climate prevailed in Wuppertal in which Maus felt very happy. He had to argue with students, parents and colleagues less than before und was also able to be active in the Confessing Church there. When religion class was no longer taught, Maus offered a group of boys the class at his home. In addition to discussing church history there, Maus also prepared the boys for Waffen-SS recruiters. Together, they drilled the answers to be given in order to avoid enlisting.

Maus had his first run-in with the Gestapo in June of 1943. His friend Lauffs recalled that Maus loudly expressed his anger after an air raid with incendiary bombs on Wuppertal, which also heavily devastated the Elberfeld neighborhood in which Georg Maus lived: This conflagration is the proper symbol of the Third Reich. It came out of the fires of hell, and will perish in flames. This terrible fire is God’s judgment over our supposedly so pious city since we Christians have kept far too silent about all the wickedness. We can thank the Lord for all of this! We can thank Hitler for this! (Loscher, Hahn, Ich habe nicht verleugnet, 31).

A Gestapo man heard this and knocked Maus to the ground. Since, in keeping with a directive, statements hostile to the party were to be noted within forty-eight hours after air raids but not pursued further, the incident did not have any other consequences.

The house in which Maus lived with his family was eventually also completely destroyed during one of the raids. The school at which Maus worked was likewise reduced to rubble. Maus was consequently transferred to Idar-Oberstein.