Ferdinand Genähr

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ferdinand Traugott Karl Genähr (born July 17, 1823 in the town of Ebersdorf , Polish Dzikowice near Sprottau in Lower Silesia; † August 6, 1864 in Hoau, Guangdong Province ) was the first missionary of the Rhenish Mission Society in China . His Chinese name is Ye Naqing 葉 納 清.

Ferdinand Genaehr, missionary (born 1823 in Ebersdorf in Silesia - died 1864 in Hoan in China)

Life

Ferdinand Genähr, who came from Lower Silesia, came from a threshing family. His father, Georg Genähr, was a tailor. The father lived opposite the local church, so Ferdinand found a firm Protestant faith in his youth. The relationship to a formerly lower aristocratic farming family called Buchler (Buchwald), who also twice appointed the mayor of Sprottau in the 16th century, consolidated his organizational and social skills. Ferdinand Genähr first learned the trade of a bookbinder in Sprottau. Then he was an overseer in a boys' department in Düsselthal. Here he learned how to raise children. In 1843 he joined the Rhenish Mission in Barmen . Here he was trained in the missionary seminar. Was then sent to southern China in 1846 to support the missionary Karl Gützlaff, often referred to as the "Apostle of China" . He had recognized that the gospel in China could only be successfully spread by local people, and accordingly sent converted Chinese to all provinces as popular preachers. To take care of them, Gützlaff requested young missionaries to act as “superintendents” from the mission seminars in Basel and Barmen. To show gratitude for the financial support from his Silesian hometown Ebersdorf / Dzikowice , F. Genähr sent rarities from China. These were exhibited in a small "Chinese" museum in the Genähr house. After 1945 the museum is lost, in what is now Poland it is not known.

After some time, when Genähr understood the Chinese language , he realized that a large part of the so-called Chinese folk preachers were just after the money and cheated on the Europeans. He then withdrew from Gützlaff's work and founded a small evangelist school himself in Taiping , which he later moved to Hoau in the province of Guangdong (Canton) and for which he wrote several textbooks and tracts in Chinese. In addition, he went to the Chinese cities and villages as a doctor and preacher, healed and preached, had the older evangelists preach and won the trust of the local people in large circles.

From 1849 he was supported by the missionary Rudolf Krone . Their wives, Wuerttemberg pastors' daughters, took care of the Chinese women and founded schools for girls. During the Second Opium War from 1856 to 1860, the missionaries had to continue their work under restrictions in Hong Kong .

After resuming her work in Hoau, Ms. Krone fell seriously ill and the couple drove back to Europe. After her recovery after two years, Krone died in November 1863 on her return journey to China. While Genähr was waiting for a replacement in order to be able to take home leave himself, cholera broke out in Hoau. He took in and nursed a seriously ill woman, but the entire missionary family became infected, and Genähr and two of his sons died. One surviving son, Immanuel Gottlieb Genähr, also became a missionary for the Rhenish Mission in China. He translated the Russian writer Lev Tolstoy into Chinese.

Works

  • Chinese song book
  • Life of Jesus in Chinese verses
  • Translation of the Biblical Stories by Franz Ludwig Zahn
  • Doctrine of Faith in 1000 questions and answers

as well as numerous translations of German treatises

Educational institutions with his name

Ferdinand Genähr House - 禮賢 會 彭 學 高 紀念 中學

  • Hong Kong, Rhenish Church Pang Hok Ko Memorial College [1] , Li Xianhui Peng Xuegao Memorial Middle School, e-mail: school@rhenishcollege.edu.hk

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ludwig von Rohden:  Genähr, Ferdinand . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 8, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1878, p. 558 f. ( online )
personal data
SURNAME Right, Ferdinand
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ye Naqing 葉 納 清
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German evangelical missionary in China
DATE OF BIRTH July 17, 1823
PLACE OF BIRTH Ebersdorf near Sprottau in Lower Silesia
DATE OF DEATH August 6, 1864
Place of death Hoau, Guangdong Province