Max Pechstein was born on 31st December 1881 as the second child of six (two sons and four daughters). His father, Hermann Franz, worked as a finisher in a textile factory. His mother, Lina Pauline, ironed clothes to earn a living.
Both the entry in the register of births and the birth certificate in the Zwickau City Archives confirm that Max Pechstein was born at number 36 Bahnhofstrasse. As the child of a manual worker, the city granted him stipend. However, he considered the sum to have been meagre, and later in life claimed to have been born in the suburb of Eckersbach to show his disapproval. In fact, this is where the family moved to some time later. He writes about this episode in his memoirs.
The Zwickau census of 1879/80 has no entry. It is therefore likely that the Pechsteins moved to number 36 Bahnhofstrasse in 1881. In 1888, the family were living at number 30 Hermannstrasse, a street that bisects Bahnhofstrasse, but by 1890, they had moved once again, this time to number 53 Spiegelstrasse. The family had several different addresses near the railway station until Pechstein left Zwickau in 1900 to study in Dresden. The family's final move came in 1901, when they took up residence at number 28 Trillerstrasse in Eckersbach.
