Dietrich Waßmann

Dietrich Heinrich Waßmann (born October 28, 1897 in Großenheidorn , † January 7, 1954 in Addis Ababa , Ethiopia ) was an Africa missionary for the Hermannsburg Mission .

Life

As the son of a Schaumburg-Lippe Leineweber family, Waßmann had the desire to become a missionary as a child. From 1916 on he was a participant in the war and, after a short nursing training at the Stephansstift in Hanover, began the theological training in the mission seminar in Hermannsburg , Celle district in 1920 . After the end of his training in 1927, he was appointed to the mission among the Oromo (formerly called Galla) in Ethiopia together with the missionary Hermann Bahlburg , who was in charge of this project, and two craft missionaries . The Gallamission had already been a goal pursued in vain under Pastor Ludwig Harms (1808–1868), the founder of the Hermannsburg Mission.

In 1928 the missionaries reached the western province of Wollega via Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia . In Aira, Gimbi district , Waßmann and his staff built a mission station and gathered a congregation. The domestic work, itself a true pioneering task, was secured under the most difficult of conditions from the capital Addis Ababa, where Bahlburg was active.

With intensive Bible instruction and preaching, Wassmann strived for his goal. He learned native languages ​​and dealt with their structure as well as with the manners and customs of the Oromov people. "It is thanks to Waßmann that he became an Oromo to the Oromo, learned their language and lived closely with them". ( Karl Mühlek )

Waßmann was also involved in building a second inland station in Beddellee about halfway between Addis Ababa and Aira. In 1935 the Italian-Ethiopian war began . In 1936 Waßmann had to leave the domestic stations with his family and German employees, was able to return in 1938 and work again in Aira from 1939 to 1941. On April 19, 1941, he had Aira leave after his Ethiopian employees Dafaa Djammoo first Lutheran Oromo pastor ordained had, and came during the war as part of the International Committee of the Red Cross ICRC -led so-called. "Repatriation action" back to Germany. At the age of 53, Waßmann and his colleagues were able to return to Ethiopia in early 1951. There, under the leadership of Pastor Dafaa Jammoo, the evangelical congregations in western Wollega, which had emerged from the work of the Hermannsburg and the Swedish Evangelical Mission, had come together to form a community of evangelical congregations in the Gimbi administrative district. When the all-Ethiopian Mekane Yesus Church (Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus, EECMY) was established five years after Waßmann's death in 1959, the congregations became part of the newly founded church as the West Wollega Synod. They formed the synod with the largest number of members in the church. In 2013 the Church as a whole had over 6 million members. Today's Evangelical Lutheran Mission in Lower Saxony , which u. a. emerged from the Hermannsburg Mission, sees its task in supporting the newly established churches overseas.

In 1951, Wassmann received permission from the Ethiopian government to return to the country in order to resume his work there, but since the government granted permission for further theological collaborators to enter, Wassmann was forced to go to Addis Ababa and stay there for a longer period of time to stop. He died there on January 7, 1954 as a result of an attack of malaria and typhus .

Fonts

• The Oromovolk on our Abyssinian mission field. Hermannsburg 1935
• Pioneering service among the Galla in western Abyssinia. Hermannsburg 1938
• Ashana, the son of the sorceress. Hermannsburg 1947
• The goat boy from Aira. Hermannsburg 1947
• Breakthrough of the Gospel in Galla Land. Hermannsburg 1948

literature

• Wilhelm Schmidt: The origin of the idea of ​​God. Vol. VII: The religions of the pastoral peoples. Münster 1946, p. 792 ff.
• Hermann Bahlburg: Departure from home to Gallaland , no year (Hermannsburg 1949).
• Ernst Bauerochse: God's pioneers in Ethiopia , in: Jahrbuch des Ev.-luth. Missionswerkes in Niedersachsen, Hermannsburg 1994, pp. 33–40.
• Ernst Bauerochse: The work of the Hermannsburg Mission among the Oromo and other peoples in Ethiopia. In: Land, Agriculture and Society. Volume 14, Issue 2 (1998), ISSN  0176-2389 , pp. 45-82.
• Ernst Bauerochse: The work in Ethiopia. In: Ernst-August Lüdemann: Vision: Church worldwide . Hermannsburg 2000, pp. 585-709, ISBN 3 87546 120 7 ; in English: Ernst Bauerochse: A Vision Finds Fulfillment . Zurich, ISBN 978-3-03735-939-6 , and Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-8258-9880-9 .
• Ernst Bauerochse: Your destination was Oromoland. The beginnings of the Hermannsburg Mission in Ethiopia . Münster 2006, ISBN 3-8258-9567-X .

Web links

• Website of the Evangelical Lutheran Mission in Lower Saxony (ELM)