Rudolf Höhn is born in Gerlingen on the 16th of August in 1874 as son of the master blacksmith Johann Rudolf Höhn. During his confirmation classes with Reverend Mörike already he gives attention to the thought to go into mission one day. This wish gets renewed when he gets as blacksmith job-related in contact with stone-breakers in Krummbachtal (Krummbach Valley). They make him - by his own account - hook up with the wrong crowd, from where the manager of Gerlingen's Youth Club, Mr. Gottlieb Schweizer, has to get him out.
In 1893 Rudolf Höhn registers in the Basel Mission House. In December 1896 he is sent as an Industry Brother or Handcraft Missionary (nowadays "Technical Missionary") to Balghat at the West Coast of India where he shall become acquainted with the methods of operating a brickyard.
Rudolf Höhn about his decision for the mission: "... the life story of my uncle, the missionary Jakob Heck, acted so in my heart that, affirmed through a busy prayer, I came to the decision to serve the Lord in the mission."
He envolves in India into a brickyard specialist. In India the right roof covering is missing: From time immemorial there were potters and brick makers, but their products didn't hold out against the monsoon rain. But the "mission bricks" were - after the right kilns had been developed - lighter and waterproof. By and by they were sold also to West Africa and Malaysia.
Letters from Rudolf Höhn do not exist, but letters of his Christian brothers from his last days. There's written that "he had been not well since Saturday what causes his Christian brothers to persuade him to stay in the mission". After a few days he dies - on the 21st of May in 1897, only half a year after his arrival in India.