Alois Kayser

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Alois Kayser (born March 29, 1877 in Lupstein , Alsace ; † October 21, 1944 in Tarik , Truk , Micronesia ) was an Alsatian missionary in Nauru .

Life

He came to the island in 1904 and settled in Ibwenape, a piece of land in what is now Meneng . Thanks to Alois Kayser, the spread of the Catholic faith on Nauru took a great boost. He was in competition with the Protestant missionary on Nauru, Philip Delaporte .

Kayser was sent to Nauru to support the previously unsuccessful Catholic priest Friedrich Gründl . After the outbreak of World War I , he was expelled from Nauru. In 1921 he returned to the island with a French passport, where he was initially on his own. He was called the "Hermit of Nauru". It was not until 1928 that he received help from the Australian Sacred Heart missionary, Father Thomas O'Brien . Under him, nuns came to the island again in 1936. They were daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (FNDS) . Even today, her fellow sisters, who now come from the Republic of Kiribati , serve not only the Catholic parish, but all who turn to them for advice and help.

In 1943 he and his younger brother Pierre Clivaz were allowed to accompany the Nauru people who were deported by the Japanese to Truk (now Chuuk ) in Micronesia . Kayser died there in Japanese captivity on October 21, 1944, after having been imprisoned six weeks earlier, like Clivaz, on charges of espionage .

In addition to his missionary work, Alois Kayser also published a Nauruan grammar and worked on a Nauruan dictionary , which is lost. The Kayser College named after him still remembers his work on Nauru today .

Works

  • "Book It Dedaro" (1915); Mission Catholic, Nauru
  • "Nuwawit testament obuä me Nuwawit testament etimeduw" (1915); Biblical story by Dr. J. Schuster, translated into Nauruan by Kayser; Westfälische Vereindruckerei, Münster
  • "The natives of Nauru (South Seas). A critical study" (1917/1918); Anthropos XII / XII: 313/337
  • "Games and Sports on Naoero" (1921–1924); Anthropos XIV / XVII: 681/711 and XVIII / XIX: 297/328
  • "Catechism Nea Panän Nuwawit Kereri Nea Catholic. E gadauw eow itürin" (1925); William Brooks & Co., Sydney
  • "The Pandanus on Nauru" (1934); Anthropos XXIX: 775/791
  • "Book It Detaro" (1934); Halstead Printing, Sydney
  • "The Fishery on Nauru" (1936); Announcements from the Anthropological Society in Vienna. LXVI: 92/149
  • "Nauru Grammar" (1936); Relaunched by the German Embassy in Canberra in 1993. ISBN 064612854X

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Kayser, Alois
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German missionary in Nauru
DATE OF BIRTH March 29, 1877
PLACE OF BIRTH Lupstein
DATE OF DEATH October 21, 1944
Place of death Tarik , Truk