Ryland - Mission Apologetics - Symposia 2013

19 Pages·2013·0.35 MB·English

by  Ryan Olfert

STORIES AND MISSION APOLOGETICS:
THE RHENISH MISSION FROM WARS AND GENOCIDE TO THE
NAZI REVOLUTION, 1904-1936
GLEN RYLAND
MOUNT ROYAL UNIVERSITY
[email protected]

S
tories of a Herero woman, Uerieta Kaza- Some Germans even met her face-to-face when
hendike (1837-1936), have circulated for a she visited the Rhineland and Westphalia with
century and a half among German Protestants in missionary Carl Hugo Hahn in 1859, a year
the Upper Rhineland and Westphalian region. after her baptism.2 Other than a few elites, no
Known to mission enthusiasts as Johanna other Herero received as much written attention
Gertze, or more often “Black Johanna” from the missionaries as Uerieta did. Why was
(Schwarze Johanna), Uerieta was the first her story of interest to missions-minded Protest-
Herero convert of the Rhenish Mission Society. ants in Germany?
By 1936, her life had spanned the entire period In 1936, missionary Heinrich Vedder again
of the Herero mission she had served since her told her story, this time shaping her into an
youth. Over the years, the mission society African heroine for the Rhenish Mission. In
published multiple versions of her story Vedder’s presentation “Black Johanna” demon-
together with drawings and photos of her.1 strated the mission’s success in the past and
embodied a call for Germans in the new era of

  National Socialism to do their duty toward so-
called inferior peoples. Vedder used Uerieta’s
I am grateful to Dr. Doris L. Bergen, Chancellor Rose story to shape an apologetic for Protestant mis-
and Ray Wolfe Professor of Holocaust Studies, Uni- sions within the new regime.
versity of Toronto, for her insight, guidance, and The Rhenish Mission had been in Southwest
detailed feedback to help gain clarity in the content and Africa since 1842 as the only mission society
claims of this essay.
until 1904. Vedder arrived at the outset of the
1 The first story about Uerieta came in 1861; see Carl
Southwest African-German Wars (1904-1907)
Hugo Hahn, “Die Schwarze Johanne,” Der kleine
and a genocide that went with these wars. He
Missionsfreund, no. 12 (1861): 179-88. Her story
resurfaced in the early twentieth century when the observed firsthand the genocide and served as
Rhenish Mission Inspektor Johannes Spieker chaplain at the concentration camp for the
mentioned her in a report from Africa in 1903 and Herero in Swakopmund. He remained in the
again in 1905, during the Herero-German War and
colony until Germany was defeated and lost its
genocide. Then followed other stories about Uerieta:
colonies during the First World War. In 1922,
Jakob Irle Die Herero: Ein Beitrag zur Landes-, Volks-
he returned from Germany having just
& Missions-kunde (Gütersloh: Bertelsmann, 1906),
238; Hedwig Irle, Unsere Schwarze Landsleute in published his first story of Uerieta, and he
Deutsch Südwest Afrika (Gütersloh: Bertelsmann, remained in the colony through the Second
1911), 127-31; August Kuhl-mann, Auf Adlers Fluglen World War. In 1849, at the outset of the
(Barmen: Missionshaus, 1911), 22-24. In 1998 the apartheid system, Vedder became the Senator
Namibian postal service honored Uerieta by including
her image in a stamp series that honored Namibian

women; see Diane Hubbard, “Urieta (Johanna Maria)
Kazahendike, God’s Peace and Blessing,” in Women
Writing Africa: The Southern Region, eds. M. J. 2 C. H. Hahn, “Die Schwarze Johanne,” Der kleine
Daymond et al. (New York: The Feminist Press, 2003), Missionsfreund (hereafter DKMF), no. 12 (1861): 179-
1:96-98. 88.
Symposia 5 (2013): 17-32.© The Author 2013. Published by University of Toronto. All rights reserved.
18 SYMPOSIA
for the People of Namibia, at which time he Hitler and the Nazi elite turned out to have little
published a third version of Uerieta’s story. use for overseas missions, missionaries tried to
Throughout the first four decades of find a place in the “racial state.”5
Vedder’s career, starting in 1903, the Rhenish Missionary stories, including Vedder’s
Mission was on the defensive and its Schwarze Johanna in 1936, were rooted in these
representatives sought in various ways to prove changing contexts. They reflected political,
its value to the German state and society. religious, and social upheavals, but they also
During the Southwest African Wars, this project represented missionaries’ attempts to intervene
involved defending the mission society and its in events and shape them to fit their purposes in
missionaries against charges of sympathy Africa and at home. Helmut Walser Smith
toward Africans. Missionaries on the ground in traces the “collapse of fellow feeling” through
Southwest Africa also served the aims of the modern period to 1941 and the murder of
empire in direct ways, by aiding in the millions of Jews. A “collapse” was also
destruction of Herero communities and lives. apparent in the actions and words of
After 1918, defending the mission meant missionaries from Southwest Africa, who
fending off criticisms from Germany’s wartime promoted the German cause as they perceived
enemies and trying to maintain a presence in it.6
Africa, even as the mission sold off properties
at home and in territories no longer in German Two Wars
hands.3 With the ascendance of National
The German colonial government in Southwest
Socialism in 1933, currying favor involved
Africa entered what would be its final decade of
depicting overseas missions not as a sign of
rule with a ruthless war that included the mass
Christianity’s fundamental incompatibility with
murder of Herero and Nama (1904-1907).
Nazism but rather as a source of a “properly”
Horst Drechsler characterized the years that
racialist understanding of the world.4 Although
followed the genocide as “the peace of the

  graveyard.”7 A heavy peace also settled over
the Rhenish Mission and its work. At first the
3 On the stalemate of the Rhenish Mission during missionaries had appeared to falter in the face
WWI, see Eduard Kriele, Die Rheinische Mission in
of criticisms at home over their role in the
der Heimat (Barmen: Missionshaus, 1928), 345-72.

On decisions to sell mission properties, see Archiv-
und Museumsstiftung der VEM, Schriftarchiv, Bestand
Rheinische Mission (Archives and Museum foundation 5 According to Wolfgang Wippermann, Michael
of the UEM, hereafter RMG) 18 Protokollen der Burleigh, and Detlev Peukert, racial policies and
Deputationssitzungen (und der Hauptversammlungen) ideology were the distinctive features of the Nazi
1917-1924 (10 April 1922), 629-30. “racial state”; see W. Wippermann and M. Burleigh,
4 This argument for the 1930s is made by Doris L. The Racial State: Germany 1933-1945 (Cambridge:
Bergen, “‘What God has put asunder let no man join Cambridge University Press, 1993); D. J. Peukert, “The
together:’ Overseas Missions and the German Christian Genesis of the "Final Solution" from the Spirit of
View of Race,” Douglas F. Tobler (ed.) Remembrance, Science,” 236. A 2009 German Historical Institute
Repentance, Reconciliation 11 (New York: University conference was devoted to this claim: see Mark
Press of America, 1998), 5-17. Overseas missions had Roseman, Devin Pendas, and Richard Wetzell (eds.)
developed racist ways of thinking, notably racial Beyond the Racial State (New York: Cambridge
specificity and divisionism, which Protestant mission University Press, forthcoming 2013).
leaders saw as “important lessons for race relations” 6Helmut Walser Smith, Continuities of German
that “could be transferred on to Jews.” This use of History: Nation, Religion, and Race across the Long
overseas missions went beyond the German Christian Nineteenth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Movement and its members’ efforts to fuse Christianity Press, 2008).
and Nazism. Protestants who never joined the German 7 Horst Drechsler, “The Peace of the Graveyard,” Let
Christians or who left the movement in 1934 also us die fighting: The Struggle of the Herero and Nama
appealed to the racist practices and ideas found in against German Imperialism, 1884- 1915 (London:
overseas missions. Zed Press, 1980), 231-47.
RYLAND / STORIES AND MISSION APOLOGETICS 19

colony, but they found their bearings amid the There is an ironic pastoral tone to Kuhl-
wretchedness of the concentration camps, or mann’s narrative of this process.13 Prior to the
what the Germans called Konzentrationslager.8 Herero surrender, he called the Herero “a
These camps operated from January 1905 until fleeing flock,” reminiscent of the biblical
the civilian colonial government abolished them language describing the disciples who
in 1908.9 The captured Herero, mainly women abandoned Jesus in Gethsemane. Once they
and those unable to work as forced laborers, surrendered, they became “the gathered,”
were consigned to three main concentration reminiscent of ekklesia, the biblical word for
camps at Swakopmund, Karibib, and Shark “church” with a literal meaning of “the called-
Island.10 The military ran the camps with out ones.” The incarcerated Herero, whether in
assistance from some civilians, including one of the concentration camps or in a work
missionaries. camp, he referred to as “our prisoners of war”
The Rhenish Mission threw its energies into and his “little congregation.” Kuhlmann also
the process of rounding up Herero survivors, described collection by other missionaries,
setting up four collecting stations in early 1905 including Johannes Olpp and Willy Diehl, who
at Omburo, Otjosazu, Otjihaenena, and later at found “great joy” in handing over Herero “ring
Otjozongombe. A directive from Berlin on 14 leaders” to the German authorities. He ap-
January 1905 and missionary descriptions make preciated the “free hand” the governor afforded
clear the central role missionaries played.11 missionaries in setting up collection stations.
Rhenish missionary August Kuhlmann provided His reports and later descriptions indicate that
a few details in his book, Auf Adlers Flügeln. missionaries believed their “surprising success”
By his account, the Herero would send a with collection resulted from a “trust” relation-
messenger to a missionary, who assured them ship that existed between them and the Herero,
the missionary had come to bring peace. The a boast Rhenish missionaries and mission
messenger would leave and return with his leaders repeated each time they recounted the
entire community. Confined to an area bounded history of this period.
by thick bush and guarded by the military, the There are problems with this claim of trust.
Herero then awaited transportation to one of the Kuhlmann noted that he carried a rifle with him
concentration camps. In this way, missionaries in the collection process, an acknowledgment
gathered most of the 15,000 Herero prisoners that missionaries were militarized for this task.14
who went to the concentration camps.12 Photos taken of surrendering Herero coupled

  with missionaries’ description of their condition
at the time of capitulation indicate the Herero
8 Nils Ole Oermann, Mission, Church and State

Relations in South West Africa under German Rule
(1884-1915) (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 1998), 109-12.
9 As of late 1905, an estimated 8,800 Herero prisoners Herero and that he had collected an estimated 5000
worked as forced laborers in military and civilian Herero. Statistical discrepancies reflect two factors:
projects spread across the colony; Jan-Bart Gewald, death tolls in the collection process and concentration
Herero Heroes: A Socio-Political History of the camps, and the children, who did not go to
Herero of Namibia, 1890-1923 (Oxford: James Currey, concentration camps but were placed under the care of
1999), 195. missionaries August Kuhlmann and Friedrich Meier, in
10 Ibid., 185-91. Otjimbingwe and Windhoek respectively. See
11 According to correspondence between General von Kuhlmann, 80-85; cf. Gewald, 194.
Trotha and the Rhenish Mission, 18 February 1904, 13 Ibid., 75-89.
cited in August Kuhlmann, Auf Adlers Flügeln 14 Kuhlmann informed General von Trotha that he had
(Barmen: Missionshaus, 1911), 78-79. collected, disarmed, and deprived of cattle 300 Herero
12 The numbers given of imprisoned Herero vary survivors. He asked what to do with them, suggesting
considerably. Kuhlmann ran the collection camp at he transfer them to the Karibib concentration camp;
Omburo, just north of Otjimbingwe. He estimated that Kuhlmann to von Trotha, 9 February 1905, reprinted in
the Rhenish Mission rounded up as many as 20,000 Kuhlmann, Auf Adlers Flügeln, 74-78.
20 SYMPOSIA
had little choice but to give in.15 These sites alongside concentration camps, which in effect
show the complicity, or more accurately, the was an invitation for missionaries to take part in
crucial and central role that missionaries had in the military operation against the Herero.
this stage of the genocide. Their involvement The Rhenish missionaries received Rohr-
marked the start of the destruction of the Herero bach’s call favorably. In fact, they already
through incarceration. intended to expand. In April 1904, they had
As for the Herero mission, after 1904 discussed plans for a station at Swakopmund
Rhenish missionaries no longer targeted a and announced they were in search of a second
nomadic people through isolated stations; site.19 They pledged to supporters that they
instead they focused on a concentrated would continue the work and expressed the
population held captive by military force.16 view that the Herero uprising would end to the
With the subsequent growth of the German mission’s advantage: “Once the rebellion has
settler population and its administrative been put down, our task will be to set our eyes
demands, African interests fell under on a new order for the mission there and to
missionary jurisdiction of the missionaries, who pursue in all seriousness the Christianizing of
took the role of representing the African all that remains of the Herero people.”20 When
population by serving as native commissioners the government announced plans for a second
in local advisory councils.17 concentration camp at Karibib, the Rhenish
In these ways, the Rhenish Mission gained Mission told its supporters that it too was ready
legitimacy in Germany for its work in to establish an adjacent mission station.21 In
Southwest Africa. The German administration these camps, missionaries would serve as
welcomed and encouraged the new missionary chaplains, medics, and pastors to a literal
roles. Just days before the Battle of Waterberg captive audience of Africans.
and the start of the genocide in August 1904, By focusing its expansion on locations for
Paul Rohrbach (1869-1956), a Protestant concentration camps, the Rhenish Mission had
theologian turned colonial official, met with endorsed the military campaign against the Her-
missionaries and urged them to extend their ero.22 Barmen assigned missionaries to Oka-
work.18 He proposed new mission stations handja, Karibib, and Swakopmund, the
locations where the German military planned

concentration camps.23 General Lothar von
15 For a concise statement of the atrocities during the

Herero genocide, see Jürgen Zimmerer, “War, Con-
centration Camps and Genocide in South-West Africa: 19 Berichte der Missionsgesellschaft zu Barmen
The First German Genocide,” in Genocide in German (hereafter BRMG) (July 1904): 262.
South-West Africa: The Colonial War of 1904-1908 20 Kollektenblatt, no. 2 (1904): 4.
and its Aftermath, eds. Jürgen Zimmerer and Joachim 21 On the Deputation deliberation over Rohrbach’s
Zeller), trans. by E. J. Neather (Pontypool: Merlin advice to expand the mission once the Herero were put
Press, 2003), 41-63. down, see RMG 14 Protokollen 1896-1905 (9 Sept.
16 Oermann, 113. 1904): 428, par. 13. The Deputation rejected
17 On the structural changes within the colony and the Rohrbach’s idea of large land purchases; RMG 14
mission work, see Oermann, 167-170. Protokollen 1896-1905 (10 Oct. 1904): 431, par. 11;
18 On Rohrbach’s colonial theology, see Paul BRMG (August 1904): 301.
Rohrbach, Im Lande Jahwes und Jesu. Wanderungen 22 It did not restore stations emptied by the disruption
und Wand-lungen vom Hermon bis zur Wüste Juda of Herero communities; RMG 14, Protokollen 1896-
(Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr, 1901); P. Rohrbach, Der 1905 (13 June 1904): 415-16, par 10. In July, the
deutsche Gedanke in der Welt (Düsseldorf: Karl Robert Deputation requested a report of the exact damages to
Langwiesche, 1912). On Rohrbach’s expansionist stations, see RMG 14 Protokollen 1896-1905 (7 July
ideology, see Woodruff D. Smith, The Ideological 1904): 419, par 16.
Origins of Nazi Imperialism (Oxford: Oxford 23 Swakopmund was not a new location for the Rhenish
University Press, 1986), 160-65; cf. Walser Smith, Mission; missionaries had tried earlier but failed. In
Continuities, 193-97, 204-06. 1904, the port town appeared ripe for mission work.
RYLAND / STORIES AND MISSION APOLOGETICS 21

Trotha had little use for the Rhenish In order to sustain expansion in Southwest
missionaries, and when he arrived in the colony, Africa, the Rhenish Mission had to
he made it clear that Protestant missionaries communicate that its work was vital to Berlin’s
were not welcome in the German military.24 As imperial aims and German greatness. Their
a result, initially only Vedder’s assignment in efforts produced an outpouring of support in
Swakopmund came to pass.25 1904, but mission leaders worried that support
By the end of 1904, as the German military might subside.28 In 1905, they projected a
starved and murdered Herero in the desert, the deficit of about Mk 200,000 and expected the
Rhenish Mission stood poised for growth. A debt to grow.29 The Deputation appealed to the
public relations campaign back home com- Protestant church and its associations in regions
plemented efforts on the ground in the colony. where the mission society had influence but no
Growth meant a need to raise funds and network.30 It also created a new publication,
publicize successes. The Deputation sent Home Flugblätter der Rheinischen Mission (leaflets of
Inspector Johannes Spieker to Southwest Africa the Rhenish Mission), for supporters to give to
to help restore the Herero mission and write neighbors and friends.31 Increased publication
reports suitable for readers at home.26 Spieker’s also meant an expansion of the mission
reports dominated the Rhenish Mission news society’s story-telling capacities.
from Southwest Africa until later in 1906.27

Vedder served as chaplain to the concentration camp, outline how missionaries were taking part in the war
hospital, and military, as well as pastor for the German effort; Altena, 467-68, footnote 579; for the
colonists. He was not trained for pastoral work and Deputation’s request, see RMG 14 Protokollen 1896-
found that role least to his liking. At his request, he was 1905 (13 June 1904): 415-16, par 10; cf. RMG 14
relieved of the pastoral duties in 1906; RMG 14 Protokollen 1896-1905 (13 June 1904): 415-16, par 10;
Protokollen 1896-1905 (25-29 Aug. 1906); Vedder to (7 July 1904): 419, par 9; cf. Johannes Olpp, Die
Spiecker, 8 June 1906, RMG 1.660a, 628; cf. J. Kulturbedeutung der evangel[ischen] Rh[einischen]
Baumann, Mission und Ökumene in Südwestafrika: Mission für Südwest Africa (Swakopmund, 1914).
Dargestellt am Lebenswerk von Hermann Heinrich 28 A debate in 1904 in German on the role of
Vedder (Leiden: Brill, 1965), 22-32; Oermann, 124. missionaries in the conflict had raised concerns in
24 Oermann, 100. Barmen about possible financial repercussions.
25 On assignments for the new missionaries, namely Specifically, the Deputation feared Berlin might
Friedrich Meier and J. Heinrich Brockmann, see withhold the license for the quarterly house-to-house
Altena, 442-43, 464. In early 1905, the new civilian collection, which could bring upward of Mk 100,000.
governor, Friedrich von Lindequist, lifted the ban on This was no small sum, given that the average cost per
Protestant missionaries. Meier was then assigned to a missionary in the field in 1904 was Mk 5000; RMG 14,
concentration camp in Windhoek, where most of the Protokollen 1896-1905 (27 April 1904): 401-402, par.
500 prisoners were women and children. August Elger 4.
was posted at Karibib. ELCIN V.37, Chronicken 29 RMG 128, “Rundschreiben an die Missions-Hilfs-
Windhuk 1905; cf. Gewald, 196. Wilhelm Eich was Ges,” p. 7. The deficit in 1905 was Mk 125,387; in
put in charge of the Herero mission, while Kuhlmann 1906 it increased to Mk 188,783, and by 1914 it
was to care for the children in Otjimbingue; RMG 14 reached Mk 256,178; see Walter Spieker, Die
Protokollen 1896-1905 (13 June 1904): 415-16, par. Rheinische Missions-gesellschaft in ihren volks-und
10; cf. RMG 14 Protokollen 1896-1905 (10 Oct. 1904): kolonialwirtschaftlichen Funktionen (Gütersloh:
431, par. 11. Bertelsmann, 1922), 80.
26 RMG 14 Protokollen 1896-1905 (10 Oct. 1904): 431, 30 RMG 14, Protokollen 1896-1905 (9 May 1904): 410,
par 11. par. 6.
27 The Deputation asked Missionary Carl Friedrich 31Flugblätter der Rheinischen Mission ran from 1904
Wandres to write about the situation in Southwest until 1919. The first edition identified the Herero
Africa for a German newspaper in South Africa, but uprising and noted that Germans were well aware of
the daily rejected his article. The Deputation also the trouble, “von dem wir aus allen Zeitungen hören”;
appointed Johannes Olpp to prepare a memorandum for Flugblätter 1 (1904): 3; cf. RMG 14, Protokollen
distribution in the colony and in Germany that would 1896-1905 (27 April 1904): 401-02, par. 4.
22 SYMPOSIA
The mission society also increased funding presence in the colony, people at home
for “propaganda.” Costs hovered between three responded. A steady increase of donations led
and eight percent of the budget before 1908, the mission society to increase its quarterly
and grew to fourteen percent by 1914.32 The print-run of Kollektenblätter to 90,000 copies
Flugblätter were a key component of the public with hopes to further offset the cost of
apologetic for mission work: articles appealed expansion.36 The years between the colonial
for support while defending the missionary. In wars and the First World War were a time to
1905, the Flugblätter reminded readers that the recover and rebuild the mission work, in part by
Herero mission was a “link in the chain” of 180 strengthening ties to the German imperial
missionaries; 110 stations; 400 schools; 22,000 project.
students; and over 100,000 converts of the The gains the Rhenish Mission made in that
Rhenish Mission, itself “a rather important link” decade, however, dissipated during First World
in the overall Protestant German missionary War. Missionaries and their supporters had
movement. The “noble workforce” of that shared the elation at the outbreak of war, and all
cause, the Flugblätter announced, consisted of sixty-five missionary candidates at the Barmen
7500 men and 4000 women.33 Supporting one Mission Seminary were among the thirteen
link in the chain would help secure the whole. million German soldiers in the war effort.37
Missionary heroics became the focus of When Germany lost its colonies, the tie between
mission literature, upholding the image of a the mission society and imperial aims was also
loyal, courageous missionary as a true lost, and the South African military regime
representative of Germany. Spieker pronounced deported three of its missionaries from South-
the missionaries “natural peace mediators … west Africa, including Heinrich Vedder.38
between the white compatriots and the colored The situation at the mission head office in
natives in the colonies, because they love them Barmen, Germany, was also dire. The mission
both.”34 The missionaries, he claimed, enabled a house was left nearly empty as the war drained
solution to the colonial war by collecting much of the vitality from the Rhenish Mission.
survivors, which, he added was possible Germany became preoccupied with the battle
because of the “very great trust” between the field, and the mission field seemed even more
missionary and the Herero.35 Spieker’s reports distant.39 As Roger Chickering reminds us, “the
neglected the brutality of the gathering process,

the conditions in the collection stations, and the
deadly nature of the concentration camps.
36 For statistics on public donations, see
Instead, he presented the missionary as the glue
Kollektenblätter, no. 1 (1907): 1-2. For donations from
to restore a fragmented colony.
the local mission groups, see the internal study of
As the Rhenish Mission carried out its thirty-two regional mission societies that showed an
promise to recreate a strong missionary increase of fifty-two percent in contributions from
1904 to 1909; “Rund-schreiben an die Missions-Hilfs-

Ges.” RMG 128, 59; Walter Spieker, 80.
37 Roger Chickering, Imperial Germany and the Great
32 Walter Spieker, 81. War, 1914-1918 (Cambridge: Cambridge University
33 Flugblätter, no. 2 (1905). Press, 1998), 195; Leo Grebel and Wilhelm Winkler,
34 Ibid., 2. The Cost of the World War to Germany and to Austria-
35 Spieker presented missionary roles in rounding up Hungary (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1940),
Herero and bringing them to concentration camps as 76. On elation among mission supporters at home, see
“saving” the surviving Herero. He boasted that Willy a September war sermon citing a poem that “the
Diehl had collected 3561 Herero at Otjihaënena – 1028 German character shall one day restore the world” (Am
men, 1299 women, and 1234 children – and August deutschen Wesen soll dereinst die Welt genesen),
Kuhlmann had achieved a similar feat in Omburo; J. EMW (Sept. 1914): 257-63; cf. Menzel, 258-59;
Spiecker, “Von der Friedensarbeit der rheinischen Kriele, 342-43.
Mission in Otjihaenena (Deutsch-Südwest-Afrika),” 38 BRMG (1916): 5; cf. Kriele 344-47.
Kollektenblätter, no. 3 (1906): 2-3. 39 Chickering, 96-99.
RYLAND / STORIES AND MISSION APOLOGETICS 23

war was about dying,” and any effort to give a of need, because of the blessing that
heroic meaning to the vast number of deaths through [missionary] work has been
could not suppress the rising despondency.40 returned to the Protestant churches of the
From the Rhenish Mission, twenty-eight can- Rhineland and Westphalia, and because
didates and forty-one missionary sons died, as the Lord of the Church has given the
well as seven sons of the Home Inspectors and mission as the most important task to his
two sons of the mission Director, Johannes congregations.47
Spieker.41
The plea worked, although it brought a new
The financial strain of the war brought
kind of supporter.48 By the late 1920s the
further changes to the Rhenish Mission.42 The
Rhenish Mission was working more closely
mission society had faced its worst shortfall in
with the church synods than ever before.49
1917 after having lost contact with most of its
mission fields.43 Missionaries in Southwest
Courting the National Socialists
Africa had relied on credit from South Africa
and these debts came due.44 The Deputation Amid war and genocide, the Rhenish Mission
explored two options: either amalgamate with had cast its lot with the colonial project. The
the Bethel Mission Society that operated in East loss of Germany’s colonies and defeat in 1918
Africa, or reduce the size of the assets and fields put an end to that partnership and brought new
belonging to the Rhenish Mission.45 A union in challenges. This time the mission responded by
the post-war years would help centralize costs, turning back to its base in the Protestant
but it might also increase the overall financial churches of the Rhineland and Westphalia.
burden in an uncertain time. The Rhenish There it found renewed support, especially
Mission opted to sell property and turn over funding, not only from the local mission
some mission fields to non-German mission networks and individual pastors that had been
societies, which was not popular with the its mainstay almost a century earlier, but from
mission supporters who were in effect the church councils and bureaucratic structures.
principal investors in the Rhenish Mission. The rise of National Socialism and Adolf
Spiecker pleaded with the local mission Hitler’s appointment as Chancellor in 1933
associations to step in and help alleviate a tempted the mission society with yet another
shortfall of a half million Marks.46 By 1922, the potential partner: the Nazi movement. Its
situation had not improved, and the Rhenish energy and popularity appeared to many church
Mission made an appeal to church presbyteries: people, including missionaries and spokesmen
for overseas missions, to be evidence of
Our congregations have a grave and
German renewal. In the hope of participating in
sacred duty to help the mission in its time
the national revival, some mission leaders

  offered their services. Their strongest card,
based on experience with Africans, and
40 Chickering, 100. particularly the Herero, was missionary notions
41 Kriele, 343; cf. BRMG (1916): 1. of race.
42 Chickering, 103-08.
Heinrich Drießler, Home Inspector for the
43 Walter Spieker, 80; cf. Kriele, 338-41; Julius
Rhenish Mission from 1928 to 1934 with re-
Richter, Geschichte der evangelischen Mission in
sponsibility for Southwest Africa, played a key
Afrika (Güter-sloh: Bertelsmann, 1922). On post-war
debt, see BRMG (1917): 139-42; Menzel, 261-62, 272- role in this regard; by retelling the missionary
87; Kriele, 355-64, 372, 374.

44 Kriele, 360-62; cf. Oermann, 218.
45 See Menzel, Die Bethel Mission: Aus 100 Jahren
Missionsgeschichte (Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener, 47 RMG 128, 5-6.
1986). 48 Ibid., 44-53; until the 1920s, financial support came
46 “Rundschreiben an die Missions-Hilfs-Ges,” RMG primarily from local mission unions and individuals.
128, 7; cf. Menzel, 260-61. 49 Ibid., 54-55.
24 SYMPOSIA
stories, he created an appeal for more mission annual report of the mission that year thanked
work within the Nazi regime. On 1 April 1933, God for preserving German “self-
Drießler joined the National Socialist Party and determination” during the years of democracy,
the national synod of the German Christian hinting that some credit for this steadfastness
movement (Deutsche Christen). He befriended should go to missionaries who had “helped”
Joachim Hossenfelder, the Bishop of Branden- Germans find “inner renewal” and restored
burg, who called the German Christians “the national hope in 1933.56
Stormtroopers of Jesus Christ,”50 and became a Drießler’s descriptions of Africans appeared
member of the Inspectoratskollegen, a group of in the midst of this euphoria. He attempted to
missionary leaders noted for their “National link missionary notions of race to the Nazi
Socialist orientation.”51 From key positions racist agenda. His depictions of Africans sought
within the Protestant church, the German to show that the missionary movement had long
Christians aimed to purge Christianity of all been a leader in defining and upholding racial
vestiges of its Jewish roots by erecting differences.57 Since his duties included an
institutions for de-judaization of Christianity.52 eleven-month field inspection to South- and
They also sought a Reichskirche that would Southwest Africa in 1931, he wrote seventeen
unite all German Christians – Protestants and reports and a monograph titled Die Rheinische
Catholics – under the cross and swastika.53 Mission in Südwestafrica (the Rhenish Mission
Drießler was not alone in his enthusiasm and in Southwest Africa).58 He retold familiar
optimism in 1933.54 The mission seminarians missionary narratives, and of the six groups of
joined the Stormtroopers en masse.55 The people in Southwest Africa that he discussed,
the Herero were prominent.59 He contrasted

them with the missionaries who appeared as
diligent and dedicated agents of German
50 On Hossenfelder, see Ernst Klee, Das Personnel-
ethnological and religious activity. Missionaries
lexikon zum Dritten Reich (Frankfurt am Main:
had labored to learn the Herero language and
Fischer, 2005), 271; Bergen, Twisted Cross: The
collect cultural products, including their fables,
German Christian Movement in the Third Reich
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, myths, and proverbs.60 The Herero, by contrast,
1996), 18, 65. had suffered under a fractured and despotic
51 Berhhard Seiger, “Nationalsozialistische leadership that perpetuated “pride,” “self-
Gesinnung.” Reformationskirche der Gemeinde Köln- righteousness,” and “distrust” of the whites and
Bayenthal, 1905 bis 2005, 62ff. The Inspektorkollegen
included notable leaders of the mission movement,
among them Ludwig Weichert (Berlin Mission

Society) and Reinke (North German Mission Society);
see Hartmut Lehmann, “Missionaries without Empire:
German Protestant Missionary Efforts in the Interwar the SA until 1936; ibid., 25. The Rhenish Mission had
Period (1919-1939),” Brian Stanley (ed.), Missions, internal conflict over this issue, evident in
Nationalism, and the End of Empire (Grand Rapids, correspondence between Warneck and Delius, 1 and 15
MI: Eerdmans, 2003), 35-53. January 1940, RMG 1.287.
52 Bergen, Twisted Cross, 148-71. 56 Jahres Berichte der Rheinischen Mission (1933): 3.
53 Bergen, “Catholics, Protestants, and Dreams of 57 Ibid., 29-39.
Confessional Union,” Twisted Cross, 102-18. 58 Heinrich Dreißler, Die Rheinische Mission in
54 In his authorized history of the Rhenish Mission, Südwestafrica (Gütersloh: Bertelsmann, 1932); cf. H.
Gustav Menzel portrays Drießler and others who sup- Dreißler’s report in BRMG (1932): 4, 34; Allgemeine
ported the NSDAP as unrepresentative and isolated; Missions-Zeitschrift (1932): 96ff, 113ff.
Menzel, 306, also see footnote 545, 429. 59 Drießler’s sources were a three-volume ethnological
55 On Barmen seminarians and the SA, see a 1940 work by the Rhenish Missionary Peter Heinrich
private report by E. Delius, “Bemerkungen zur Brincker (1936-1904), Die Stämme Südwestafrikas I.
Geschichte der Rheinischen Mission in den Jahren Nach der Geschichte; II. Nach Sitten und Gebräuchen;
1929 bis 1939,” RMG 1.287; cf. Menzel, 304-06. III. Nach Sprachen.
According to Delius, some seminarians did not leave 60 Drießler, 55-56.
RYLAND / STORIES AND MISSION APOLOGETICS 25

led them into degenerate acts of “theft, harlotry, improve the Africans was not through the
idleness, and barbarity.”61 cultural tools of arts and literature, he insisted,
Drießler summarized for German readers in but through labor.67 Unlike missionaries,
1933 the missionaries’ explanation for the fate Drießler claimed, settlers and traders had an
of the Herero.62 Although missionaries had opposite “civilizing” aim: to indebt Africans
persisted in their effort to civilize them through and deprive them of their cattle wealth, land,
education and agriculture, the Herero, Drießler and freedom.68 He maintained that only the
concluded, remained a stubborn people until the missionaries had understood that an essential
wars of 1904-1907 broke them. Death, he racial hierarchy existed in Southwest Africa: the
claimed, was the ultimate evangelist and bearer Nama were suited for domestic work, the
of “Good News” to the obstinate African: “Only Herero for farm labor, and the Ovambo for the
when death comes does the material world seem mines. Similar to the Nazi hierarchy of
worthless, and they begin to turn their hearts European people, Drießler argued that each
fully to the grace of God.”63 Africans who had African group had its place according to the
faced death yet survived and yielded to God’s level of “civilization” achieved and maintained
grace began a slow progression toward through the missionaries’ efforts.69
civilization; they became a model for their Drießler spoke for those mission leaders
people.64 The lesson from Southwest Africa was who wanted a restored German colonialism
clear: violence could produce spiritual life when under the banner of National Socialism.70 He
missionaries guided the process.65 Drießler’s asked if it was time for Germans to become
book was no mere recounting of mission active once again in southern Africa. His reply
history: it was an assertion that extreme was unequivocal; Germany had a responsibility
violence was necessary to renew the spiritual in Africa to both the African and German
life of a people. communities.71 After all, he argued, the Rhenish
Drießler also contrasted the missionaries Mission’s work in Africa concerned Germans at
with settlers and traders to reinforce how home as much as Africans abroad: missionaries’
missionaries understood and upheld racial part in establishing German colonies, main-
distinctions. Missionaries, he claimed, had taining peace, and taming the heathen proved
focused on elevating “the African” to become a
civilized Christian people.66 The way to

61 Ibid., 70.
62 During the “wars of liberation” against the Nama missionaries to pacify the remaining Herero, which led
(1863-1870), Drießler maintained, missionaries had him into his conclusion about the civilizing mission
sought to help the Herero become a “free, independent and praise for the impact the Rhenish had on the
people.” But freedom and unity had not enabled the Herero; ibid., 146-55; 217-26.
Herero to progress because they failed to leave 67 One example of the “civilizing” work of the
“heathendom” and embrace the “great invisible power missionaries was in education, where the youth “must
of Christianity.” According to Drießler, when be educated through work” and moral education, ibid.,
missionary colonists made visible the intangible power 311, 314.
of the Gospel by creating an agricultural community as 68 Ibid., 191-97.
a model for Africans, the Herero misread diligence and 69 Drießler summed up his book by identifying the
hard work as “clawing at the dirt all day long,” which distinct labor value of each group, for which he
had no appeal for their idle character; ibid. credited the missionaries, ibid., 299-304.
63 Ibid. 70 Drießler published two parallel articles in 1932, “Die
64 Ibid., 175. Zukunft der Rheinischen Mission in Südafrika” and
65 Ibid. “Hauptprobleme der Rheinischen Mission in Süd-
66 After describing the Herero-German War and how westafrika,” Allgemeine Missionszeitung (1932), 96-
the Herero were defeated, Drießler noted that the 104, 113-125.
German colonial government looked to the 71 Ibid., 96-97.
26 SYMPOSIA
they were a vital resource for restoring an unabashed apologetic for the role of
Germany’s national integrity.72 Germans in Africa and the value of missionary
work to Germany.
The Making of a Heroine: Those who remember Vedder recall his
Heinrich Vedder and Uerieta Kazahendike many stories, among which were three
narratives about Uerieta Kazahendike, Schwarze
Among missionaries who penned narratives
Johanna.75 His 1936 version of Schwarze Jo-
about Southwest Africa in the first half of the
hanna entered German society concurrent with
twentieth century, Heinrich Vedder was the
a radicalization under the Nazi regime of
most prolific. Like Drießler, Vedder was
notions of race. But racial ideas mattered to
convinced the mission field had something
Vedder throughout his life. He started out as a
valuable to offer in the new era of racialist
young missionary critical of the German
thinking. Although based in Africa, he kept a
treatment of Herero prisoners during the
close watch on political and religious
developments in Germany.73 Only mis- Herero-German war and became a supporter of
National Socialism in 1933. After World War
sionaries, he insisted, possessed the knowledge
II, he served as Senator for Namibian “natives”
of the various African people needed to rule
in the South African Senate and was an
them. Vedder placed himself within this
advocate of apartheid.76
tradition by collecting African oral history,
fables, and stories to construct narratives about
African “tribes.”74 In the process, he provided

his outside publications for other mission societies,
local religious journals, academic journals, newspapers
72 Drießler builds his argument first by pointing out the in Germany and South Africa, government publications
need to connect the mission work and German settler as a senator for Southwest Africa, and his numerous
churches closer: “Diese Verbindung von Missionsamt articles in the Afrikanischer Heimatkalendar, to which
und Pfarramt ist, missionarisch gesehen, eine große he was a life-long contributor; see Baumann, Mission
Not,” ibid. Missionaries would then gain more support und Ökumene (Leiden: Brill, 1965), 73-147.
from the German settlers, and in return, they would 75 For Vedder on Uerieta, see “Die alte Johanna,”
help preserve German nationalism among the settlers, DKMF, no. 8 (1921): 57-62; Die Schwarze Johanna.
ibid., 116-18. Lebens- und Zeitbild der 99 Jährigen Johanna Gertze,
73 In 1927, the Rhenish Mission assigned Vedder to der Erst-lingsfrucht vom Missionsfelde des
assemble “spiritual nourishment” for readers of Hererolandes, Parts I & II (Barmen: Missionshause,
German in Southwest Africa. Germans at home were to 1936); Uerieta. Eine Schwarze Frau, (Barmen:
provide material. Vedder’s boxes of clippings and Rheinische Missionsgesell-schaft, 1949); and his
notes, housed in the National Archives of Namibia in autobiography, Kurze Geschichten aus einem langen
Windhoek, indicate he also collected and disseminated Leben (Barmen: Rheinische Missions-gesellschaft,
political information. See BRMG no. 1, 5, 6 & 8 1953). On Vedder as a story teller, see J.
(1927): 15, 61, 89, 121; cf. NAN, Holding A-579, Trümmpelmann, “Dr. Vedder, der Erzähler und
boxes 1-7. Historiker Südwestafrikas,” Festschrift: Dr. h.c.
74 Vedder’s extensive publications include his mono- Heinrich Vedder. Ein Leben für Südwestafrika, W.
graph, Das alte Südwestafrika: Südwestafrikas Gesch- Drascher and H. J. Rust (eds.) (Windhoek: S.W.A.
ichte bis zum Tode Mahareros 1890 (Berlin: Martin Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft, 1961), 111-36.
Warneck, 1934) that went unchallenged until after Na- 76 On Vedder’s role as Senator and support for
mibian independence. Also notable are H. Vedder Die apartheid, see Martin Eberhardt, Zwischen
Bergdama. 2 vols. (Hamburg: Friederichsen, 1923), H. Nationalsozialismus und Apartheid: Die Deutsche
Vedder, C. H. Hahn, and L. Fourie, The Native Tribes Bevölkerungsgruppe Süd-westafrikas, 1915-1965,
of South West Africa (London: Cass, 1966), and H. (Berlin: Lit, 2007), 459-64, 493-497; cf. H. Vedder,
Vedder, Kurze Geschichten aus einem langen Leben Einfuhrung in die Geschichte Südwestafrikas
(Wuppertal: Rheinische Missionsgesellschaft, 1953). (Windhoek: Meinert, 1953), 101; J. Baumann, “Ein
The United Evangelical Mission Archive in Wuppertal Lebensbild Dr. Vedders,” in W. Drascher and H. J.
has a record of Vedder’s publications through the Rust, (eds.) Südwestafrica: Festschrift für Dr. h.c.
Rhenish Mission, but the list does not include many of Heinrich Vedder, 11-22; Klaus Gockel, Mission und