Heinrich Schröder (missionary)

Heinrich Schröder (born October 1, 1850 in Reinstorf , today the Uelzen district , † June 6, 1883 in eHlobane in what was then the colony of Natal in what is now South Africa ) was a German missionary . He worked for the Hermannsburg Mission and is considered a Protestant martyr .

Life

Training and beginning missionary work

Heinrich Schröder initially worked as a farmhand on the Hermannsburg missionary farm. At a mission festival in 1869 he was asked to become a missionary himself.

From December 31, 1873 he studied at the missionary seminary. He got engaged to Isa Elise Lütkemüller.

He was ordained on Ascension Day in 1880 and then sent to Natal. There he worked again in agriculture. He also helped Pastor Volker with great commitment and in spite of considerable adversity in the reconstruction of the Ekulengeni Mission building, which had been destroyed in the war between the British and the Zulu in 1879 .

On August 16, 1880, Schröder traveled with Volker and his son Johannes by car to Hlobane-Berg to cut wood for the roof. On Friday morning they started their work in the bush. They had to stand in the water while they chopped and sawed among wet branches, bushes and creepers. Her clothes were appropriately soaked. Thorns tore their clothes and cut their hands and faces.

The second trip was later described as an epic adventure. Rainy days turned into a howling blizzard and the missionaries spent an oppressive night in which they were trapped under their car, completely frozen and soaked, terrified by the breaking and falling of branches as a result of the snow load. Another day of cold rain drove them out to seek refuge in a Zulu kraal, where they lay down and slept in a warm hut.

On Sunday morning they began looking for their cattle, trudging through melting snow almost half a meter high. After a certain distance they saw two cattle grazing in the snow, but their hope faded when they saw how the animals were trembling and how thin they were. 50 paces further she was shocked by the sight of twelve cattle huddled together, frozen to death at this point. Even half-frozen and languid, they had no choice but to march back to the mission station. Schröder's boots began to crumble on the descent from the mountain. On the Black Umfolozi the river was chest high and over ten meters wide. Undressing and committing to God, they set out to cross. In the middle of the stream, Schröder almost lost contact with the ground, but finally fought his way through. Grateful that nothing worse had happened to him than wet clothes and a runny nose, the young missionary marched on for another 1½ hours to reach the mission station. Such were the physical hardships the missionaries had to face as a result of their faith.

Own mission station and violent death

After learning the Zulu language in his spare time , Heinrich Schröder was commissioned in August 1882 to set up his own station in eHlobane on the Tshoba River not far from the Hlobane Mountain. His diary begins on Wednesday, August 16. At first he was hospitable. Within nine months he and a few Zulu employees planted a garden and an orchard and, with their help, built a small country house and stables for cattle, pigs and poultry. In the lamplight, he also made a desk for himself on lonely evenings, as well as a sewing table and a stool for his fiancée, who, after leaving by ship in May 1883, was to arrive in June to marry him. His last entry in his diary is dated Friday, April 27, 1883. His notes are considered moving evidence of deprivation, loneliness, hardship, misery and unswerving power of faith.

On May 13, 1883, Schröder wrote to Germany that his employees had left him alone ten weeks ago and that all the other "indigenous peoples" had fled because a war had broken out between two parties of the Zulu, namely between the supporters of the former King Cetshwayo and the followers of his brother Hamu. Schröder complained: "It is difficult to start over here in these rebellious times." Both sides viewed him as an enemy, as they assumed he belonged to the other party. They gave him to understand that he would be left alone as long as he also kept calm. Some warriors began to steal from Schröder or to force items from him. He put the equivalent of the losses incurred at 100 thalers. The fact that he found the courage to stay was due to the intercession of many friends, whom he asked for further prayers for him. He described his work as harder than anyone else's.

He also reported that when he worked hard for six weeks, he only fed on coffee and dry bread and asked God for a little meat at Pentecost . On the previous Thursday, two wild peacocks settled about 300 paces from the house. Considering them sent by God, he took aim and killed one of them. The bird weighed almost 6 kg and was so fat that Schröder was able to separate enough fat for later. He wrote that whenever he was short of meat, God provided for him.

On May 29, 1883, his superior and neighboring missionary Friedrich Wilhelm ("Fritz") Weber visited him. Schröder was busy covering his house and seemed to be in a good mood.

Finally, on the evening of June 6, 1883, a group of AbaQulusi, led by Mapela, who was viewed as the horror of the region, broke through his door while he was at the table reading the Bible . The men killed Heinrich Schröder with several stitches and mutilated him in the process.

Afterlife

After Heinrich Schröder's death, the group looted his house and stole his few possessions. But the blood-soaked Bible stayed where it had fallen.

On June 8, 1883, alarmed by Zulu, Fritz Weber hurried over from the Enyati mission station and one day later sent his report on what he had seen to Hermannsburg. Although he found the sight terrible, Fritz Weber said that Schröder had triumphed after all. The dead man's expression was peaceful and not distorted. He wrestled with the enemy like a hero and could now rejoice in heaven. Weber judged that Schröder, although he could not yet start his missionary work, could be regarded as the first martyr of the Christian mission in Natal. He hammered together a wooden box and buried Schröder next to the country house, placing a mound of stones on his grave.

50 years later, the Hermannsburg Lutheran Mission Society marked the grave with a cross and protected it with a concrete slab and a wrought iron grille. The front of the cross bears the words:

HERE REST IN GOD

MISSIONARY H. SCHRÖDER

GEB. OCTOBER 1, 1850 IN REINSTORF

GEST. ON 6 JUNE 1883 ON EHLOBANE - ZULULAND

YOU HAVE REDEEMED ME, LORD YOU TRUE GOD Ps. 31.6

On the back there is the same inscription, but with the Bible passage:

KUTAZELA UZE UFE NGOKUNlKA UMOELE WOKUPILA

The Bible soaked in Heinrich Schröder's blood, which remained in his house after the fatal attack, is now in the Hermannsburg Mission Museum .

Remembrance day

June 6 in the Evangelical Name Calendar .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Schröder, Heinrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German missionary and martyr
DATE OF BIRTH	October 1, 1850
PLACE OF BIRTH	Reinstorf (Lüder)
DATE OF DEATH	June 6, 1883
Place of death	eHlobane