Carl Sylvius Völkner
Carl Sylvius Völkner (* 1819 (?) In Kassel ; † March 2, 1865 in Opotiki ) was a Protestant missionary of German descent in New Zealand .
Völkner was born in Kassel, possibly in 1819. He was one of the missionaries sent to New Zealand by the North German Mission . He arrived in New Zealand in August 1849. In 1852 he offered his services to the Church Missionary Society (CMS).
He married Emma Lanfear, the sister of a CMS missionary. Völkner was ordained a priest in 1861 and in the same year took over the management of the mission station of the CMS in Opotiki . Here worked among the Māori of Iwi Te Whakatohea , who built a church and a school for him. In 1864 and again in January 1865 he went to Auckland .
He was warned by some Te Whakatohea not to return to Opotiki because the villagers had converted to the Pai Marire religion. He ignored the warning and returned with missionary Thomas Grace on March 1, 1865. Both were captured and Völkner was hanged by his own Whakatohea congregation. He was then taken down and beheaded.
Kereopa Te Rau , a “prophet” of the Pai Marire, entered the church of Opotiki with Völkner's head and celebrated a “service” with his head on the pulpit, tearing out the dead man's eyes and swallowing them with the words, one of the Eyes is Parliament, the other the Queen and British law.
The New Zealand colonial government then carried out a military action in which the Ta Whakatohea finally surrendered, 20 of the chiefs involved were captured and five of them were later executed. This incident became known as the Völkner Incident .
The Anglican Church in Opotiki is named after Völkner as "St Stephen the Martyr", as is the Te Paepae o Aotea , also known as "Volkner Rocks".
literature
- Peter Wells: Journey to a Hanging. Vintage, Glenfield, Auckland, New Zealand 2014, ISBN 978-1-77553-390-0 .
- AC Lyall: Whakatohea of Opotiki . AH & AW Reed, 1979.
- Chapter 5: The Völkner and Fulloon Slayings. In: The Ngati Awa Raupatu Report. Waitangi Tribunal, 1999.
- Evelyn Stokes: Völkner, Carl Sylvius . In: Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand , as of October 30, 2012
Web links
- Literature by and about Carl Sylvius Völkner in the bibliographic database WorldCat
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e Völkner, Carl Sylvius. In: Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand. October 30, 2012, accessed August 16, 2015 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Völkner, Carl Sylvius |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Völkner, Carl; Volkner, Carl; Volkner, Carl Sylvius |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German missionary in New Zealand |
| DATE OF BIRTH | uncertain: 1819 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | kassel |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 2, 1865 |
| Place of death | Opotiki |