David Zeisberger

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David Zeisberger at the age of 40

David Zeisberger (born March 2, 1721 in Zauchtenthal , today Suchdol nad Odrou , † November 17, 1808 in Goshen , Ohio ) was a German missionary and linguist from the Moravian Congregation . The Moravian missionaries came to North America from Germany in 1735. They preached non-resistance and non-violence, and made a remarkable change in many converted Indians . They were called Moravian Indians and lived in villages with names like Salem, Bethlehem or huts of grace. There they raised horses and cattle, cultivated orchards, tilled their fields, and gathered daily for worship.

Life

Childhood and youth

Zeisberger's birthplace in Zauchtenthal
Ludwig Graf von Zinzendorf, detail from a painting by Balthasar Denner

Zeisberger parents David and Rosina Zeisberger were staunch supporters of the Brethren ( Jednota Bratská ) and had in 1726 together with her five year old son and other believers to flee because of religious persecution in Germany. They first found refuge in Lusatia on the property of Count Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf , a supporter of the Pietist movement.

As early as 1722, Count Zinzendorf began accepting religious refugees from Moravia , descendants of the old Bohemian-Moravian brothers. They founded the Herrnhut settlement , from which the church-independent congregation arose. In August 1727 the Moravian Brethren was founded , which was particularly active in the field of mission. In 1735, Count Zinzendorf bought land for missionary work in the British colony of Georgia in North America.

David's parents were among the first twenty brothers to travel to Georgia. They left their son David in Germany so that he could finish his schooling. David's extraordinary talent for languages ​​was particularly evident in Latin . At the age of fifteen, Zinzendorf transferred him to the Dutch branch in Herrendyk der Herrenhuter. In 1738 he was allowed and paid for the passage to Georgia to his family.

In America

In Georgia, he visited his parents in the Moravian Church in Savannah . He preached at the Creek in Georgia and quickly learned their language. That was the beginning of his 62-year missionary work among the Indians in the eastern part of today's USA. In 1739 he moved to Pennsylvania and helped found the settlements of Nazareth and Bethlehem on December 24, 1741. Together with his parents, he first lived in Bethlehem in Pennsylvania and learned the Iroquois language . At the invitation of Hendrick Theyanoguin , he visited the Mohawk in their villages on the Hudson River in 1745 . During his missionary work he was arrested by the English as a French spy and jailed in Albany for seven weeks. After his release, he traveled again to the Great Council of the Iroquois in the main village of the Onondaga and relocated the Schekomeko mission to the Susquehanna River further west of their tribal area. In the following years, his missionary work took him to various places in Pennsylvania and Ohio , where the members of the Indians expelled from the east coast of many tribes lived.

A Moravian brother baptizes three Munsee-Delaware

Although the Moravian brothers had contact with numerous tribes, the conversion of Lenni Lenape was apparently their most important mission goal. They followed this tribe westward from Pennsylvania via Ohio and Indiana to Kansas . In 1772 David Zeisberger founded the Gnadenhütten in Ohio on the Tuscarawas River for converted Lenni Lenape .

On the eve of the American War of Independence , there were more and more conflicts between Indians and white settlers, in which the mission stations were also drawn. Zeisberger's relations with the British authorities deteriorated noticeably during the War of Independence because he sided with the Indians and stood up for their rights. In 1781 he was arrested and sent to Detroit Jail . During this time, on March 8, 1782, 96 Christian Indians were killed by American soldiers of the Pennsylvania militia in the so-called Gnadenhütten massacre .

After his release in 1782, the expansion of the whites, as well as conflicts with other tribes, forced the relocation of the mission stations to Michigan and Ontario . Zeisberger later returned to spend the rest of his life with converted Indians in Goshen at mercy huts on the Muskingum River in Ohio. There he died at the age of 87.

plant

In his 62-year service, David Zeisberger has converted and taught countless Indians to Christianity. He was therefore called an apostle of the Indians . Equally noteworthy is his achievement as a researcher of the North American Indian languages and as a writer. His work was published in 1776: Essay of a Delaware Indian and English Spellingbook (German description of a Delaware Indian and English spelling ). He had written the book for Christian Indians on the Muskingum River, which was reprinted in an expanded form in 1806. He also published a grammar and dictionary of the Onondaga language and in 1803 a summary of sacred songs and sermons for children in the Delaware language . Zeisberger's translation of Samuel Lieberkühn's Gospel Harmony was published posthumously in 1823 . At the same time an English-German dictionary of the Indian languages ​​of the Onondaga and Lenni Lenape and their grammar appeared, in which parts of the New Testament were also translated. Like other members of the Brethren, he left numerous diaries detailing the life and culture of the Indians.

Fonts

  • David Zeisberger: The Moravian mission diaries of David Zeisberger . Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park, Pennsylvania 2005.
  • David Zeisberger: Moravian Indian Mission in the American Revolution . Akademie Verlag, Berlin 1995.
  • David Zeisberger: Grammar of the language of the Lenni Lenape or Delaware Indians . AMS Press, New York 1980.
  • David Zeisberger: Grammar of the language of the Lenni Lenape or Delaware Indians. Translated from the German manuscript of the author by Peter Stephen du Ponceau. With a preface and notes by the translator. The Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. James Kay Jr., Philadelphia 1827. Online at archive.org .

Translations into Delaware

  • Elekup Nihillalquonk woak Pemauchsohalquonk Jesus Christ. The history of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ: comprehending all that the four evangelists have recorded concerning him: all their relations being brought together in one narration, so that no circumstance is omitted, but that inestimable history is continued in one series, in the very words of scripture. Translated into Delaware by David Zeisberger. Daniel Fanshaw, New York 1821. Online at archive.org .
    • Translation of the work of Samuel Lieberkühn : The story of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ drawn from the four evangelists. Published and to be found in the bookstore of the Evangelical Brethren, by CE Senft. Gnadau 1820. Online at archive.org .
  • Abraham Luckenbach (Ed.): A collection of hymns for the use of the Delaware Christian Indians of the missions of the United Brethren of North America. Translated by David Zeisberger. J. & W. Held, Bethlehem 1847. Online at archive.org .

Remembrance day

November 17th in the Evangelical Name Calendar .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Johannes Mathesius Society - David Zeisberger
  2. ^ A b Friedrich Ratzel:  Zeisberger, David . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 45, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1900, p. 1 f.
  3. ↑ David Zeisberger in the Ecumenical Lexicon of Saints
personal data
SURNAME Zeisberger, David
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Missionary, clergyman, interpreter
DATE OF BIRTH March 2, 1721
PLACE OF BIRTH Suchdol nad Odrou , Zauchtenthal in Bohemia
DATE OF DEATH November 17, 1808
Place of death Goshen , Ohio , USA