In 1936 Martin decided to become an independent farmer and leased the farm Jonkersgrab  in the Khomas Hochland together with his brother Godo. Father Erich Rust supported the move with 350 sheep. Godo soon leased a farm in the Rehoboth district and was later able to buy a farm in the Erongo Mountains.

The following  year Martin met Marga Sophie Wilhelmine Mundt in Windhoek, and the two married shortly thereafter  on Onderkaremba. Marga (born 1912 in Sinsen Westphalia) came to Southwest Africa as a nursing sister in 1936. She completed her training at the modern children’s clinic in Essen. How would she have fared in Germany if she hadn’t made this move to Southwest Africa.

The modern children’s clinic in Essen, planned in 1927, construction started in 1929, handed over in 1931.

The children’s clinic after the first bomb attack in 1942, security measures against fire bombs in 1943, almost total destruction in 1944, accommodation for bombed-out people from the area in the remains of the clinic until 1945. Reconstruction 1949 – 50.