German Missionaries Research Articles

Book review: John G. Flett and Henning Wrogemann, Questions of Context: Reading a Century of German Mission Theology

Book review: John G. Flett and Henning Wrogemann, <i>Questions of Context: Reading a Century of German Mission Theology</i>

‘Together we are strong!’ Infrastructures of community, safety and power on a Christian Mission Compound

ABSTRACT The Mission Compound is a residential enclosure in a small town in the hinterland of south-western Odisha, India that is exclusively inhabited by Christians. Acquired by German missionaries who introduced new forms of religion, administration and togetherness, this land became Christian and fostered the importance of rituals as well as the clergy’s dominance in a formerly self-administered Adivasi-tribal culture. I conceptualise this Compound as a religious infrastructure, encompassing material components – roads, buildings, walls, and gates – as well as the collective memories and meanings with which these are entangled. Examining the residents’ interactions with this infrastructural apparatus offers a window into the everyday dynamics of security and power that they navigate, as well as the processes of Christian identity formation and belonging in which they – and the infrastructure itself – participate. In this sense, the Mission Compound has great material, religious, social and semiotic meaning for the local Christian community.

The History of Togoland Under the British Rule (1914‒1956)

The article is devoted to the history of British Togoland, in particular, the central part of the Volta region (southeast of modern Ghana). The time frame of the study covers the period from the First World War to the incorporation of the Volta region into the Gold Coast. During the pre-colonial period, the region was a zone of active commercial networks, both in the slave trade and in a wide range of goods, which varied according to local and international demand. The ethnic majority living in the region is the Ewe group of peoples. The transition from the German colonial rule (1890–1914) – a short-term, but fundamentally important factor for the history of the region – led to the need of the Bremen missionaries work adaptation to the new conditions, the formation of Ewe’s own synod and political associations. Until 1957, the inhabitants of the central part of the Volta region tried to defend their right to unite the territory of the former German Togoland and maintain contacts with the Germans. The management of Togoland was also complicated by the location of the colonial government’s main office in the Gold Coast: by 1920s the Bremen missionary schools had already been transferred to the Gold Coast Department of Education, and the United Free Church of Scotland had to act as intermediaries between the British colonial government and German missionaries, most of the time remotely.

전간기 독일-일본 관계와 식민지 조선의 독일 선교사

전간기 독일-일본 관계와 식민지 조선의 독일 선교사

The footprints of Three Latvian Female Missionaries in Colonial Contexts

During the era of colonial domination of much of Africa and Asia, many female missionaries from Europe served in these parts of the world. They served as teachers, medical practitioners, and evangelists but were also often seen as supporters of colonial culture. This paper examines the previously unresearched work of three female missionaries from Latvia who were sent by German mission societies to China, India, and Indonesia, respectively. The study uses historical-comparative, content analysis, and hermeneutical methods to interpret the missionaries’ own texts and those written about them. It finds that the missionaries felt compelled to cooperate with colonial forces in order to carry out their ministry, even though colonial policies sometimes restricted what the missionaries could do. They also exhibited effective application of cultural frameworks and use of language skills in serving and collaborating with local populations.

Jeremy Best. Heavenly Fatherland: German Missionary Culture and Globalization in the Age of Empire

Jeremy Best. <i>Heavenly Fatherland: German Missionary Culture and Globalization in the Age of Empire</i>

Walking My Path Together with W. W. Phelps

Walking My Path Together with W. W. Phelps

„I Die, but I Thank You…!“ Leipzig Mission at Akeri 1896, Squeezed between Its African Addressees and German Colonial Military

The following case study clarifies how these three different functions of mission are discursively entangled with one another. Mission as a bridge-builder (between people, cultures, and religions of different origin), as a traitor (cooperating with corrupt colonial and imperial powers), and as a victim (finding misery and death on the mission field). Each of these three terms (bridge-builder, traitor, victim) is, to an extent, applicable to the events that took place during the night of 19–20 October 1896 in Akeri on the slopes of Mount Meru (former German East Africa, today Tanzania). Using the concept of entanglement history, I will analyze the death of two young German missionaries of the Lutheran Leipzig Mission, “caught in the crossfire” between the African community to be outreached and the German colonial military. We will see how various symbolic systems collide in the year 1896 at Akeri. The systems are represented by: (1) German Lutheran missions activities; (2) A German colonial and military expedition; and (3) The resistance of African Maasai societies’ leadership. “Akeri 1896” (I will continue to refer to this event specifically as “Akeri 1896” throughout the article) had become in the following 100 years a complex entanglement of metaphoric meanings. The same event can be a placeholder for victory, for defeat, for disaster, for martyrdom, for Christ-centredness (of the missionaries in their own perception), as well as for evil-centredness (the Africans in their perception of the Western foreigners).

Remembering the Herero-Nama Genocide in Namibia

Remembering the Herero-Nama Genocide in Namibia

Heavenly Fatherland: German Missionary Culture and Globalization in the Age of Empire.By Jeremy Best. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2021. xiv + 322 pages + 5 b/w illustrations + 4 b/w maps. $79.00 hardcover, $75.05 eBook.

Heavenly Fatherland: German Missionary Culture and Globalization in the Age of Empire.<i>By Jeremy Best. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2021. xiv + 322 pages + 5 b/w illustrations + 4 b/w maps. $79.00 hardcover, $75.05 eBook.</i>

Between worlds: German missionaries and the transition from mission to Bantu education in South Africa

No abstract available.

Morphology of Tarutung City

Tarutung is a sub-district town that is the capital of North Tapanuli City, North Sumatra province, Indonesia. Tarutung City is a district that has the smallest area but has the highest population density. This study aims to find patterns of organizational structure Tarutung City space uses the morphological approach of Tarutung City. Method used is a qualitative method with a descriptive analysis approach. This study found that the pattern of a compact city with linear spreading follows the road, on the morphology of the city structure it is oriented towards the center of government, namely the regent's office, and the Regional People's Representative Council office, and on the visual morphology Tarutung City has a special landmark, namely the Cross of Love which is a building to commemorate the event of the spread of Christianity in the Batak lands which was pioneered by a German missionary, namely Dr. I.L. Nommennsen.

The Search for Medieval Music in Africa and Germany, 1891–1961: Scholars, Singers, Missionaries, by Anna Maria Busse Berger

<i>The Search for Medieval Music in Africa and Germany, 1891–1961: Scholars, Singers, Missionaries</i>, by Anna Maria Busse Berger

Heavenly Fatherland: German Missionary Culture and Globalization in the Age of Empire. By Jeremy Best. German and European Studies 38. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2021. xiv + 322 pp. $CDN 75 cloth; $CDN 79 E-pub.

Heavenly Fatherland: German Missionary Culture and Globalization in the Age of Empire. By Jeremy Best. German and European Studies 38. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2021. xiv + 322 pp. CDN 79 E-pub. - Volume 91 Issue 4

Heavenly Fatherland: German Missionary Culture and Globalization in the Age of Empire By Jeremy Best. Toronto and Buffalo: University of Toronto Press, 2021. Pp. 344. Hardback $75.00. ISBN: 978-1487505639.

Heavenly Fatherland: German Missionary Culture and Globalization in the Age of Empire By Jeremy Best. Toronto and Buffalo: University of Toronto Press, 2021. Pp. 344. Hardback $75.00. ISBN: 978-1487505639. - Volume 55 Issue 4

Leipcigas un Lībencellas misijas: Hildegardes Procelas un Lilijas Otīlijas Grīviņas kalpošana

Until the 19th century, women were not considered suitable for mission work. However, when Leipzig mission started its work in India, it came to the realization that to reach Indian women with the Gospel, women missionaries were needed. Soon, other German mission societies that sent missionaries to China, Indonesia and Africa also came to the same conclusion, opening the doors for ministry for the first women from Vidzeme (Livland). Baltic-German Hildegard Prozell, from Jaunmārupe, was sent in 1896 through Leipzig to India and Lilija Otilija Grīviņa, (in German Grihwin, Griwing, Griewing) from Riga, were sent in 1913 through Liebenzell to China. Each of these societies had different theological understandings about mission. Leipzig was based on the traditional Lutheran understanding of ministry and tried to create a universal Lutheran church worldwide, including in the mission fields. Liebenzell was the German branch of China Inland Mission, which was considered a “faith” mission that was more open to co-working with others. This impacted the way the mission societies selected their candidates, prepared them (a few months for Leipzig, 3–4 years for Liebenzell with male and female candidates training together), and sent them on the missions (solid salary for Prozell, not so with Grīviņa). Both missionaries had to learn the local languages and pass language exams. They both served as teachers, did evangelism with local women, and had to be administrators and local health care specialists. Prozell was the first to establish women’s work in Mayavaram, while Grīviņa was the first to take Chinese women to a local evangelism outreach (together with other teaching staff of the Hunan Bible Institute). Prozell, being a Baltic-German, received extensive support from her home church. Since her ministry took place before World War I, there are plenty of publications about her ministry in both Latvian and German newspapers in Riga. Grīviņa came from a humble background, going with almost no support, and as her ministry in China happened during WWI, there were almost no publications about her work. Both women have been equally forgotten in Latvian church history and deserve to be remembered.

Negotiating Otherness? Mission Discourse of Difference among the Swiss and German Schooling Projects in 19th Century Japan

This article explores the personal encounters between the Swiss–German missionaries and their Japanese students through their school projects in the late nineteenth century, as a fresh approach to disclose an entirely new analytical angle to mission education and the production of otherness. By examining the personal encounter of missionaries with their students, it problematizes scholars’ reliance on the concept of otherness as a unidirectional transfer of knowledge from West to non-West. Instead, this study argues, that the process of “othering” should be looked at as a negotiation beyond an East–West hierarchical divide, in which new forms of beliefs and practices for Japanese converts emerged. An analysis of relevant missionary sources reveals that in the period 1885 to 1893 the missionaries’ work with the Japanese students evolved into a seemingly contradictory state. On the one side, the missionaries devoted a great number of resources and time in educating their Japanese subjects into what they perceived to be true Christians. On the other side, they repeatedly expressed deep doubts about their students’ potential to become the type of Christians they envisioned. Focusing on three cases of missionaries’ encounters with Japanese students, this article argues that the attempts and results of negotiating otherness in the Swiss–German mission school projects opened new possibilities for identity formation among Japanese Christians.

The International Missionary Council and Mission Cooperation in Tanzania’s Southern Highlands, 1916–28

AbstractHealthy mission cooperation between Scottish and German missions around the northern end of Lake Malawi was a feature of the period from 1891, when the German missions were establishing themselves in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania. This happy collaboration was shattered by the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, which led to the internment of the German missionaries and the cream of the local church leadership. In this context, the Continuation Committee of the Edinburgh 1910 World Missionary Conference, which took permanent form as the International Missionary Council (IMC) from 1921, played a critical role as broker. It first negotiated a caretaker role for British missions in regard to the “derelict” German missions and later facilitated the return of the German missionaries. While European missionaries held centre stage in the international discussions, on the ground, the decisive role was played by Malawian evangelists and Tanzanian church leaders – a case of mission from the margins. At the same time, the supra‐national understanding of mission championed by the IMC enabled it to exercise a highly influential role in facilitating the mission cooperation that ultimately overcame the division, suspicion, and mistrust that had arisen during the war.

The Search for Medieval Music in Africa and Germany, 1891–1961: Scholars, Singers, Missionaries

The Search for Medieval Music in Africa and Germany, 1891–1961: Scholars, Singers, Missionaries

Perkembangan Pendidikan di Tarutung Masa Kolonial

This study aims to see how the development of education in Tarutung during the Dutch Government. The method used is the Historical research method. The stages in the historical research method consist of four stages (heuristics, verification, interpretation, and historiography). The results of the study concluded that one of the backgrounds of the Dutch Government was to open educational institutions in Tarutung, one of which was so that the Batak people could accept the Dutch presence to control North Tapanuli. The development of education for the Batak people by the Dutch, only followed the renewal movement that had been carried out by the mission. The missionaries have managed to get close to the Batak people. Even the German mission managed to Christianize the Batak people, they helped the Dutch to take control of Tapanuli. In the late 19th to early 20thcenturies, several schools and hospitals were built in Tarutung by the Dutch government. The Batak people are getting to know the outside world more and more. The Batak people also know a lot of letters and know numbers. Many young men have received education, and some continue their education to Batavia.