Georg Maria Stenz

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George Maria Stenz.jpg
signature
Grave in Techny

Georg Maria Stenz SVD ( Chinese  薛 田 资 , Pinyin Xuē Tiánzī , born November 22, 1869 in Horhausen (Westerwald) ; † April 23, 1928 in Techny ) was a Catholic missionary in Shandong from 1893 to 1927. He was involved in two major incidents involving violence against Catholic missionaries in Shandong, the Juye Incident and the Jietou Incident. The Juye Incident (1897) was an attack on Stenz's mission station in the village of Zhang Jia, in which two German missionaries were killed. Stenz, who was likely the target of the attack, was able to hide and escaped unharmed. The incident was used by the German Reich to justify the occupation of Qingdao . In the incident in Jietou, Stenz and a group of Chinese Christians were ill-treated and held for three days (November 8-11, 1898) in the village of Jietou ( Chinese  街头 镇 , Pinyin Jiētóu zhèn ), which led to German military intervention and claims for damages .

Life

education

The son of the primary school teacher Jacob Stenz and his wife Maria (née Dasbach) was the eldest of 4 children, of which only he and his sister Maria (* 1878) lived into adulthood. He attended elementary school in Horhausen, where his father was a teacher from 1875 to 1880. From 1880 to autumn 1881 he received private lessons from a chaplain in Horhausen, possibly for health reasons. In autumn 1881 he entered the second year (quinta) of a secondary school (grammar school) in Montabaur , where he lived in a residence (Konvikt) of the Diocese of Limburg. In February 1887 he applied for admission to the Steyler missionaries, where he continued his education from April 25, 1887 in the secondary school of missionaries ( Styler Lyceum ). After two years he graduated from the Styler Lyceum (Abitur). Since the degree from the Styler Lyceum was not recognized by the German state, he received the Abitur at the Montabaur secondary school in 1889 as an external student. He became a novice and studied theology in the St. Gabriel Missionary House of the Missionaries of the Divine Word in Maria Enzersdorf . He made his temporary vows on November 21, 1891 in St. Gabriel and was ordained a priest on June 25, 1893 in the same place. He was sent on a mission to China on September 17, 1893, along with Joseph Hesser (1867–1920) and Josef Schneider (1867–1896), who had been ordained priests with him. The three traveled to Genoa via Cologne, Basel, Lucerne and Milan. On September 25, 1893, the three missionaries boarded the steamship Bayern of the shipping company Norddeutscher Lloyd in Genoa. After traveling through Naples, Port Said, Suez, Aden and Colombo, they arrived in Hong Kong on October 25th. After a few days in Hong Kong, Stenz traveled with the Bayern to Shanghai, where he arrived on October 29, 1893.

missionary

After his arrival in Shandong, Georg Stenz stayed at the headquarters of the Steyler missionaries in Shandong to learn Chinese. At that time, the headquarters was in the city of Puoli (郭 里镇), about 30 km southeast of the city of Jining. He stayed there until the beginning of 1895, when he was sent to the mission station in Jiaxiang (嘉祥 镇), a town about 25 km west of Jining, as an assistant to Franz-Xavier Nies. In the fall of 1896, Stenz was promoted to rector and took up residence in the village of Zhang Jia (张家庄). His immediate superior was Richard Henle. About a year after Stenz arrived in Zhang Jia Village on November 1, 1897, he was the target of an attack, the Juye incident that killed Nies and Henle, who were visiting Stenz in Zhang Jia Village at the time. In the fall of 1898, Stenz was relocated and given responsibility for the mission in the Rizhao and Zhucheng Areas. Stenz traveled by sea from Qingdao to Rizhao on November 1, 1898, and made a tour of the area. Seven days later, on November 8th, he arrived in Jiechuang near Jietou Village, about 35 km northwest of Rizhao. There he was detained and ill-treated in the Jietou incident until the Rhizhao judge intervened and released him around noon on November 11th. After the incident, Stenz was treated at a hospital in Qingdao. In the spring of 1899, Stenz took part in a German punitive expedition sent from Qingdao to Rizhao to avenge an attack on three Germans (a lieutenant, a mining engineer and an interpreter). On June 16, 1899, a German newspaper ( Kölnische Volkszeitung ) published a story that depicted life in the German colony of Qingdao in a negative light. B. German soldiers for lack of discipline, drunkenness, possible harassment of Chinese girls and violent abuse of the local Chinese population. Although the article was published anonymously, Stenz was suspected of being an author and subsequently moved from Qingdao to Jining in early 1900 and banned from writing by Bishop Johann Baptist von Anzer . On April 25, 1900, Stenz left Jining to travel to Europe for medical treatment and recovery. However, he may have been sent away because he strained the relationship between the mission and the German authorities in Qingdao. During his stay in Europe, Stenz participated in a drive to remove the Vicar Apostolic of South Shandong, Johann Baptist von Anzer, from office. Anzer came to Rome to defend himself but died on November 24, 1903 before his case could be resolved. Stenz returned to Shandong on May 20, 1904. After his return, he participated in several mission training activities for more than 20 years.

death

He suffered a stroke on March 17, 1927, which made him unable to speak. On May 3 of the same year, he traveled to the United States via Shanghai to recover. In Techny he suffered a second stroke on April 21, 1928, which made him unconscious. He died without regaining consciousness on April 23rd. He is buried in the cemetery of the Steyler missionaries in Techny.

Attitude to Chinese

In his writings he calls the Chinese the yellow pigtailed man and claims that the Chinese in general show what he, as a European , regards as very unsympathetic character traits . In particular, he describes them as mischievous and, with few exceptions, incapable of real friendships ( dignified friendships ) as well as with anger , cruelty , cowardice , pride , ingratitude and superstition . He also describes the Chinese as filthy , but excuses this as a result of poverty.

Opinions about Georg Maria Stenz

Joseph Esherick characterizes Stenz as a particularly disgusting missionary with a strikingly unattractive character who thoroughly typified the militancy of the SVD mission .

Fonts (selection)

literature

  • Stephan Puhl: Georg M. Stenz SVD, (1869–1928). Missionary to China in the Empire and the Republic . Nettetal 1994, ISBN 3-8050-0350-1 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Klaus Mühlhahn : Rule and Resistance in the "Model Colony" Kiautschou. Interactions between China and Germany, 1897–1914 . Munich 2000, ISBN 3-486-56465-X .
  2. ↑ https://archive.org/details/inderheimatdesk00stengoog/page/n5/mode/2up
  3. ↑ Joseph W. Esherick: The origins of the Boxer uprising . Berkeley 1987, ISBN 0-520-06459-3 .
personal data
SURNAME Stenz, Georg Maria
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Stenz, Georg; Stenz, Georg M .; Stenz, GM
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German religious and missionary
DATE OF BIRTH November 22, 1869
PLACE OF BIRTH Horhausen (Westerwald)
DATE OF DEATH April 23, 1928
Place of death Techny