Johann Ernst Gründler

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Johann Ernst Gründler

Johann Ernst Gründler (born April 7, 1677 in Weißensee , † March 19, 1720 in Trankebar , Danish- India ) was a German Protestant missionary and employee and successor of Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg in Trankebar in southern India.

Live and act

Gründler was a son of the council treasurer and attended the Latin school in his hometown. This was followed by attending grammar school in Quedlinburg and Weißenfels and studying theology in Leipzig and Wittenberg . From 1701 he became a teacher in August Hermann Francke's institutes in Halle , where he also continued his studies. Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg's mission reports influenced him to the point that he wanted to go to South India as a missionary. He was accepted by the Danish-Halle Mission in Copenhagen and traveled with Johann Georg Bövingh and Polycarp Jordan via Holland to India. After traveling for months, he arrived on July 20, 1709 in the southern Indian Danish colony of Trankebar. There he became a close collaborator, representative and successor of Ziegenbalgs and co-founder of the oldest evangelical mission and church in India. First he learned Portuguese and then the native Tamil language by setting up a mission station in the neighboring village of Poreiar in 1710 . He taught school and was active in pastoral ministry. He translated part of Philipp Jacob Spen's catechism into Portuguese, ran the first printing company in South India and was a corresponding member of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge in London. He dealt with the medical literature of the Tamils, translated some of it into German and wrote the Malabar Medicus ... to the Medicis in Europe for useful information . Gründler suffered like many other people from the tropical climate and died after almost ten years of service and after a trip on site. The funeral speech was given by his successor Benjamin Schultze .

Memorial plaque in the town church St. Peter & Paul in Weißensee / Thuringia

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Arno Lehmann:  Gründler, Johann Ernst. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 7, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1966, ISBN 3-428-00188-5 , p. 189 f. ( Digitized version ).
  2. ↑ Viktor Hantzsch :  Gründler, Johann Ernst . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 49, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1904, p. 595 f.
personal data
SURNAME Gründler, Johann Ernst
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German missionary
DATE OF BIRTH April 7, 1677
PLACE OF BIRTH Weissensee
DATE OF DEATH March 19, 1720
Place of death Drinkable bar