Johann Weig

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Mission house of the Divine Word Missionaries in St. Augustine

Johann Weig (born September 4, 1867 in Pleystein ; † July 13, 1948 in Tsingtao ) was a Steyler missionary , founder of the mission in Japan and the author of numerous writings that related to missionary work as well as general cultural-historical topics. His writings have appeared in German, English and Chinese.

Origin and education

Johann Weig was the son of the mason Josef Weig, his mother Anna, née Anzer, was a sister of Bishop Anzer , who was also a member of the Steyler missionaries. After attending elementary school in Pleystein, he was accepted into the Missionshaus Steyl in 1878, in 1883 he passed the school leaving examination and then studied philosophy. In 1886 he began his novitiate , in 1888 he was sent to Rome to study, where he became a doctor of medicine on March 21, 1891. theol. received his doctorate. On April 5, 1891, he was ordained a priest in the St. Gabriel Mission House near Vienna, and then on April 9, 1891, he celebrated the Primacy in Pleystein.

Activity as a priest and missionary

In November 1891 he traveled to the Chinese mission station in Puoli , where he first studied Chinese. He then became a seminary leader and was a missionary in the Tenghsien, Lincheng, and Ihsien areas from 1895 to 1900 . After two years in the USA and Europe, he worked as a pastor in Tsingtao from 1903 to 1907 . On September 8, 1907, he traveled with two other religious to Yokohama, Japan . The establishment of colleges in which German, English, French, Latin and Greek was taught was started from two bases in Akita and Niigata (Weig himself spoke German, French, English, Japanese and Chinese). In 1908 further foundings were made in the provinces of Toyama , Ishikawa and Fukui . Under his direction, a catechist school was opened in Niigata, a dormitory in Kanazawa and a housekeeping school with boarding school in Akita (in 1980 there were 2,000 pupils taught in a kindergarten, two middle schools and a junior college).

When the founder of the Steyler Mission, Arnold Janssen , died on January 15, 1909 , Father Weig was elected General Council and Secretary General of the Steyler Missionaries on November 13, 1909, and in 1910 he was appointed General Visitator. In this capacity he visited the mission stations in New Guinea , the Philippines and China until 1913 . After a ten-year stay in Europe, he returned to China in October 1922 and took over the Tsingtao parish there. Due to illness, he later had to resign from this position and ran a small mission station in Tsingtao-Tungchen-Nord until his death.

Scientific work

Some of his works were related to the history of the order. A German-Chinese phrasebook was published several times. His work is mentioned in several works on cultural history.

Works (selection)

  • Chronicle of the Steyler Mission in Tsingtao 1923–1947, Volume I. Richard Hartwich (Ed.). Steyler Verlag, St. Augustin 1980, ISBN 978-3-87787-128-7 .
  • The Chinese surnames according to the booklet Bei dja sing and appendix, containing information about famous personalities in Chinese history. Mission print shop, Tsingtau 1931.
  • The Chinese festival calendar. Mission print shop, Tsingtau 1928.
  • German-Chinese phrasebook with dictionary. Mission print shop, Tsingtau 1928.
  • Chinese New Year and its celebration. Verlag Haupt, Tsingtau 1910.
  • Some personalities from the oldest history of China. Verlag Haupt, Tsingtau 1907.
  • How the Chinese die and are buried. Verlag Haupt, Tsingtau 1906.

literature

  • Siegfried Poblotzki : History of the rule, the city and the parish Pleystein. Pp. 1065-1066. Verlag Stadt Pleystein, Pleystein 1980.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Johann Weig (1867–1948) , accessed on March 24, 2020.
  2. ↑ Chun-Shik Kim: German cultural imperialism in China: German colonial schools in Kiautschou (China) 1898-1914. Franz Steiner Verlag, 2004, ISBN 3-515-08570-X , pp. 94 and 178.
  3. ^ Wei Qiao, Karl-Heinz Pohl, Dorothea Wippermann (eds.): Bridge between cultures: Festschrift for Chiao Wei on the 75th birthday. LIT Verlag, Münster 2003.
  4. ↑ Albert Monshan Wu From Christ to Confucius: German Missionaries, Chinese Christians, and the Globalization of Christianity, 1860-1950. A bold and original study of German missionaries in China, who catalyzed a revolution in thinking among European Christians about the nature of Christianity itself. P. 209. Yale University Press, 2016.
personal data
SURNAME Weig, Johann
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Weig SVD, Johann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German religious and missionary
DATE OF BIRTH September 4, 1867
PLACE OF BIRTH Pleystein
DATE OF DEATH July 13, 1948
Place of death Tsingtao