Heinrich Bohner

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Heinrich Bohner (born November 24, 1842 in Feil ; † March 21, 1905 in Speyer ) worked as a Protestant missionary in Africa for almost 35 years. First on the Gold Coast in what is now Ghana , then in the German colony of Cameroon .

Family and youth

The family came from the north of the then Bavarian Rhine Palatinate, from Feil near the Ebernburg . His father was Philipp Heinrich Bohnert (1804–1874); the mother Barbara (1814-1853), b. Blätz. Heinrich Bohner, who was handicapped by a lame leg, learned the trade of shoemaker like his father.

He married Frieda Krieg (1851–1875). With her he had two daughters. About one and a half years after Frieda's death on the Gold Coast, he married her sister Johanna, called Hanna (1853–1935). The ten out of thirteen children who survived early childhood from this connection grew up “at home” either in the Basel boys' house of the mission society or with relatives.

His eldest son Theodor set a monument for him with the biography The Shoemaker of God in 1934. The second son Hermann , also trained as a missionary, was successful as a Japanologist. Other sons who were active as authors were Gottlob (1888–1963) and Alfred (1894–1954). All four graduated.

Missionary activity

In 1863 he applied for admission to the Protestant Basel Mission Society , which sent him to the British colony on the Gold Coast after a three-month training course . First he taught the locals the shoemaker's trade. At the same time he learned their languages ​​and developed into a street preacher . He was ordained a pastor in 1875 and was particularly active against slavery and the slave trade, for example by helping freed slaves to build a new life.

As a clergyman, he published language studies and writings on West African folk life, including the novel In the Land of Fetish . In 1886 Bohner moved to the newly formed German colony of Cameroon. There he was President of the Basel Mission for twelve years, for which he set up over 100 outstations and schools.

After his return to Germany in 1899, first to Lörrach, then to Speyer, in the last phase of his life, not only in the Palatinate, as a traveling preacher for the German Colonial Society, he also preached the imperialist ideology that justified the global expansion of the European powers.

Around 1900 his wife wrote some “edifying” writings to promote the concept of mission.

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personal data
SURNAME Bohner, Heinrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German shoemaker and missionary
DATE OF BIRTH November 24, 1842
PLACE OF BIRTH Haggle
DATE OF DEATH March 21, 1905
Place of death Speyer