Paul Gaebler

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Paul Gäbler around 1965.

Paul Hermann Julius Theodor Gäbler (born December 25, 1901 in Tiruvallur in Tamil Nadu , † October 3, 1972 in Göttingen ) was a Protestant theologian . He worked as a missionary in Tamil Nadu and as a pastor in Oesselse and Niedernjesa as well as a lecturer in missiology at the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen and published as an author theological literature on missiology.

Life

Origin and education

Paul Gäbler in 1925.

Paul Hermann Julius Gäbler was born in 1901 as the son of pastor and missionary Gustav Hermann Gäbler (1867–1918) and his wife Else née Thomä (1878–1943). Hermann Gäbler worked as a missionary in Tamil Nadu on behalf of the Leipzig Mission from 1891 to 1916 . Paul Gäbler lived the first years of his life from 1901 to 1905 in the mission house in Tiruvallur that his father built and was the first missionary to move into himself. He lived in Tranquebar from 1906 to 1908 after his father was transferred there.

Since his stepsister Elisabeth Johanna Gäbler (1895-1897) and his stepmother Hedwig Gäbler nee Buckan (1872-1897) from their father's first marriage in India and his sister Hanna Elisabeth Gäbler (* / † 1905) had died of tropical diseases , was previously Paul Gäbler sent his parents, together with his brothers Ernst Johannes Gäbler (1903–1995) and Ernst Heinrich Gerhardt Gäbler (1907–1974), to his grandmother and his mother's sisters in Braunschweig in 1908 , while his stepbrother Johannes Karl Hans Gäbler (1897–1974) 1980) from Hermann Gäbler's first marriage, grew up with grandparents in Germany.

Paul Gäbler attended the community school and then from Michaelis in 1911 to the Michaelis high school graduation in 1920 the Wilhelm-Gymnasium . He then studied Protestant theology at the University of Leipzig from 1920 to 1924 and passed the examination for the first theological exam (pro candidatura et licentia concionandi) in 1924. As vicar he taught from Easter 1924 to Easter 1925 as a house candidate and teacher at the Evangelical Lutheran Missionary Seminar in Leipzig . At the same time, at the suggestion of Hans Haas at the University of Leipzig, he began with the preparatory work for his dissertation on Sadhu Sundar Singh . At Easter 1925 he traveled to England and Sweden for three months to study languages. In October 1925 he passed the examination for the second theological exam (pro ministerio) before the Saxon state consistory in Dresden .

Scheer was on 18 October 1925 in the St. Thomas Church in Leipzig ordained and in the October 25 Nikolai church for missionary service in India seconded. In November he left for Tamil Nadu via Sri Lanka . As the first young missionary after the First World War , he traveled to his future work area in Tamil Nadu. He set foot on Indian soil on December 15, 1925.

The Leipzig Mission until 1950

Mission stations in Tamil Nadu
Mission stations of the Leipzig Mission in Tamil Nadu in 1914. Please enlarge to original size at the right sign.

In 1706 the Germans Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg and Heinrich Plütschau were the first Lutheran missionaries to bring the Evangelical Lutheran faith to Tamil Nadu. In the Indian coastal town of Tranquebar , which was occupied by Danes , they began the Lutheran missionary work in the service of the Danish-Halle Mission . Due to the work of Lutheran missionaries from the Danish-Halle Mission , the Leipzig Mission and the Swedish mission organization "Church of Sweden Mission (CSM)", which was created in partnership with this work, numerous grew in the vicinity of Lutheran mission stations, especially in the center of Tamil Nadu, within 213 years Parishes and church institutions. On January 14, 1919, the resulting Lutheran parishes in Tamil Nadu declared their independence at the Synod of Tanjore opposite the "Leipzig Mission" and the "Church of Sweden Mission" and founded the Tamil Evangelical Lutheran Church (TELC). They put their newly founded church in 1921 under the direction of their first Swedish and later Indian bishops of Tranquebar .

With this, the two mission organizations "Leipziger Mission" and "Church of Sweden Mission" lost their competence and responsibility for the church congregations they founded and now rededicated. Until 1950, the two mission agencies in the TELC area only had the management and administration of the church institutions they had set up in Tamil Nadu (for example mission stations, schools, boarding schools and hospitals). In 1950 the TELC also took over the management and administration of these church institutions. The only task left for the two mission societies was to pay the subsidies for the TELC and a voting right with which they could only accompany TELC decisions in an advisory capacity.

After the outbreak of World War I , the German missionaries were interned by the English colonial rulers and brought back to Germany in 1918. This also included Paul Gäbler's father Hermann Gäbler, who had worked for 25 years as a missionary and finally as a senior (church) of the Leipzig Mission in Tamil Nadu. From 1914 until Paul Gäbler was posted in 1925, there were no missionaries from the Leipzig Mission in Tamil Nadu. Like the other German mission organizations, the Leipziger Missionswerk had subsidized the payment of salaries to the Lutheran congregations and church institutions in Tamil Nadu until 1914. From 1914 on, the German mission organizations were unable to transfer money to India due to the decline in donations and salary payments in Germany, the war-related money export bans, post-war inflation in Germany and the global economic crisis . Other Lutheran mission organizations had to take over the outstanding payments from the German mission organizations. The American "United Lutheran Church of America (ULKA)" paid more than 100,000 US dollars annually and the Swedish "Church of Sweden Mission" paid a total of around 1,300,000 US dollars in the 8 years 1914 to 1922 alone, but had to Subsidies from the various German mission organizations for the TELC and the salaries of newly sent German missionaries will continue to take over for many years until the Second World War ended the work of the German missionaries in India and until the TELC would at some point completely finance their expenses, which is not foreseeable even in 1981 was.

Paul Gäbler missionary of the Leipzig Mission Office 1925–1940

The distribution of tasks between the newly founded church TELC on the one hand and the "Leipziger Mission" and the "Church of Sweden Mission" on the other hand found Gäbler in Tamil Nadu when he began his work as a missionary. The years 1925 to 1926 were dedicated to learning the Tamul language , first in Kodaikanal , then in Madras . At the end of 1926 and the end of 1927, he took the two mandatory Tamul language exams in Madras. On February 10, 1928, in Mayavaram , he married Elisabeth Paul, a daughter of Carl Paul , who had been the mission director of the Leipzig Mission and who died shortly before the wedding. From 1928 to 1931 he worked in the mission stations of Coimbatore , Kodaikanal and in the Purasawalkam district of Madras; he ran these mission stations independently. He was an employee of the YMCA . He directed the girls' boarding school and youth camps in Purasawalkam. He taught religion at Fabrizius High School; there he supervised all religious instruction, since it was a high school of the Leipzig Mission. At the same time he was a student pastor and university lecturer of the German language at the University of Madras . In recognition of his work as a university lecturer, he was appointed a member of a study committee at the University of Madras in 1929. At that time the Leipzig Mission had too few Christian teachers for its schools in India; therefore the Leipzig Mission was faced with the fundamental question: “More evangelism , less school” or “The schools are evangelism”. Gäbler recommended few universities with Christian boarding schools. The view that “schools are evangelism” prevailed in the Leipzig mission; the previous schools were continued and the training of Christian teachers was intensified.

By 1930, Gäbler worked on and published German translations of two English-language books by the American author Stanley Jones:

  • The Christ of the Indian Road (1925). German translation: The Christ of the Indian Highway. Following Jesus in India by Paul Gäbler (1928).
  • Christ at the Round Table (1928). German translation: Christ at the round table. Open debates under Jesus' eyes in India by Paul Gäbler (1930).

Eli Stanley Jones (1884–1973) was a Methodist and an American theologian and missionary who was particularly well-known in India. He worked as a missionary in India since 1907 and interrupted missionary work in 1925 to write the books The Christ of the Indian Road and Christ at the Round Table , which made him famous worldwide. Through his tolerance of Indian religions and his support for the Indian struggle for freedom, he found access to the Indian elite. He was friends with Mohandas K. Gandhi and the Nehru Gandhi family . In India he founded the Christian ashram movement . His books were bestsellers, the book The Christ of the Indian Road had a circulation of over a million copies worldwide. Gäbler was appointed by Stanley Jones to be the only German translator of the two works The Christ of the Indian Road and Christ at the Round Table ; these books were only allowed to be sold in German translation in continental European countries and not exported to Great Britain, Ireland, the United States of America or other English-speaking countries.

From 14 to 31 December 1930 undertook Gaebler on behalf of the Mission Council of the Leipzig Mission a trip to the Lutheran Malayagemeinden on the Malay Peninsula in Malaysia , which were settled in famine years of Tamil Christians from Tamil Nadu and since then as " behind Indian diaspora communities " to the workspace belonged to the Leipzig Mission. There he visited a number of churches in Kuala Lumpur and Penang . The mission director Carl Heinrich Ihmels wrote: “The rear Indian diaspora was visited by missionary Gäbler during the Christmas season. He took with him the impression that the pastors are doing good work in the congregations, but that the service of the Leipzig Mission there could and should be significantly expanded. So we seriously considered the plan of stationing a missionary on the Malay Peninsula. Unfortunately, we had to refrain from doing this for financial reasons. "

From 1931 to 1933 Gäbler worked in Pattukkottai , a small town south of Tanjore . No missionary society was active in this area, which at that time comprised 300,000 people. Here he was responsible for evangelistic work among Hindus .

Gäbler was fluent in German, English, French, Tamil, Latin, Hebrew and Greek. Together with Bishop David Bexell and Pastor E. Hoard, he created the third edition of the basic Tamil-English dictionary, which appeared in 1933. The German missionary Johann Phillip Fabricius created the first edition of this dictionary in 1779. The dictionary Tamil and English bears the name Johann Philip Fabricius in all editions and is a work of the century in each subsequent edition:

  • Bexell, David (Bishop) with Rev. Paul Gäbler, Rev. E. Hoard: A dictionary Tamil and English based on Johann Philip Fabricius's “Malabar - English Dictionary”. Tranquebar: Evangelical Lutheran Mission Publishing House, 1933, Third Edition.

Home leave 1933 to 1935

In March 1933, Gäbler took his family home on vacation in Germany. There he undertook extensive travel activities in the service of the Leipzig Mission Association until the beginning of 1934. At the same time he wrote his dissertation Sadhu Sundar Singh , which he completed in March 1935. On May 2, 1935, he received his doctorate at the theological faculty of the University of Leipzig . Gäbler summarized the results of his research on Sadhu Sundar Singh in 1962 as follows:

Sadhu Sundar Singh 1888-1929
Sadhu Sundar Singh.
Sadhu Sundar Singh.
  • “Born in 1888 in Rampur not far from Ludhiana in Punjab as a Sikh, Sundar Singh was converted through a vision of Christ on December 18, 1903 and baptized on September 3, 1905 and was henceforth a Christian sadhu (wandering monk) and evangelist. Apart from a six-month Bible course (1910), he had no theological training. His travels and hikes led him all over northern India and in 1918 also to southern India and Ceylon. In 1918/19 he visited Malaya, Japan and China, in 1920 Great Britain and Australia, in 1922 Palestine and Western Europe, including Germany. He was particularly drawn to Tibet; on his last migration there he was lost in 1929. Sundar Singh was a mystic, shaped by prayer and meditation, which in later years often resulted in visions. His message, which was later recorded in six writings, is primarily about the Christian's personal life, prayer and sanctification, carrying the cross and willingness to suffer. On the other hand, questions of community life, generally the aspect of the church, were alien to him. With his missionary testimony he made a deep impression in both East and West. Nonetheless, all sorts of contradictions and exaggerations in his reports, as well as some representations that did not stand up to later examination, together with his manifold descriptions of wonderful experiences during his travels led to the »Sadhus controversy«, which Sundar Singh rejected (Pfister), but also defender (healer , Appasamy) found. If one wants to live up to Sundar Singh, one must in no way forget that as the simple son of an Indian village he remained stuck in the mythical world for his entire life, and that it is undoubtedly not uncommon for real experiences to be mixed up in his memory with what he had merely seen in ecstasy . "

Director of the seminary for religious teachers in Trichinopoly from 1935 to 1936

In 1935 Gäbler traveled to India for the second time. This was only possible because the Swedish Mission Society had agreed to the Leipzig Mission to advance Gäbler's salary and to pay him in Tamil Nadu. It has been extremely difficult for the Leipzig Mission to receive donations and to transfer the donated funds to Tamil Nadu for years because of the global economic crisis and the foreign exchange freeze. For its part, the Leipzig Mission agreed to fix Gäbler's salary for later repayment to the Swedish Mission Society in a German bank.

On June 13, 1935, Gäbler and his family arrived in Colombo. The steamer Scharnhorst they were traveling on had left Genoa on May 21, 1935. Gäbler was the only German Protestant missionary on board. He therefore held all ship services. A passenger, an emeritus Anglican clergyman, died near Aden . After the funeral service, the coffin was given to the waves.

Gäbler and his family traveled by train from Colombo to Trichinopoly . Even then, the city was one of the centers of the Tamul Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tamil Nadu (TELC) and the seat of its management and treasury administration. The TELC was founded on January 14, 1919 and comprised the former mission area of ​​the Leipzig Mission and later also the Swedish Mission. In 1935 there was a theological-pedagogical seminar for elementary school teachers, an elementary school for girls with 221 pupils, a girls' home with 100 children, a bible work for women and the women's home “Dayalastallam” combined with a weaving mill.

The new seminar building for the theological-pedagogical seminar for elementary school teachers and the new student apartments were inaugurated on July 9, 1935 by Gäbler and the thirteen students. In addition, the foundation stone was laid for the new Tranquebar Hall, which later served as a chapel and as a classroom for the religious teacher seminar after its completion. Gäbler worked here from 1935 to 1936 as director of the seminary for religious teachers, which was also attended by students from the mission areas of the Swedish Mission. Together with the pastor Gnanamanikam he trained religious teachers here. At the same time he was in charge of the so-called Coleroon Mission . It was about a transfer of almost 2,000 Catholics from the area around the Kollidam River to the Tamul Evangelical Lutheran Church. He was also responsible for the evangelistic work in Trichy-Tanjore district and for the courses of forming the Kowilpillais that the task of worship in the Lutheran communities of Tamil Nadu lector perceive.

In April 1936, twelve of the thirteen seminarians passed their exams. Then Gäbler had to give up the leadership of the religious teacher seminar because he was assigned to the Pattukkottai mission station. His tasks were now the administration of the church lands near Andimadam and the missionary work along the river Coleroon (today: Kollidam).

The Coleroon Mission 1935–1940

At that time there was a time of strong new beginnings in Indian society. There was a Dravidian movement in southern India that feared Brahmin dominance in the looming free India. There was also a political women's movement that fought with the Dalits under the leadership of Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar against the principle of "untouchability". The self-respect movement became particularly important for the Tamil Church . The atheist and partly Marxist supporters of this movement exerted a strong influence on members of the Roman Catholic Church in the districts of Thanjavur and Tiruchirappalli . Since the time of the Catholic missionary Roberto de Nobili in India (1605 to 1656), this maintained separate church buildings for the various castes. In 1934, thousands in Tamil Nadu decided to convert to the Lutheran Church. The separation of the boxes had almost stopped here. Already in 1910 there were common seats in the dining rooms of the Protestant boarding schools.

In the lowlands of the Coleroon River between Trichinopoly and Tanjore, members of numerous small Catholic parishes asked to join the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tamil Nadu. Together with other employees, Gäbler followed up on the motives of the petitioners, clarified legal issues and provided evangelical instruction. Along the pilgrimage route by the sea to Kameshwaram (Kamaswaram), he and two Tamul evangelists visited 158 villages for five months, including those in which Christian missionaries have never been active. By 1938, 3,000 Indian Christians were admitted to the Lutheran Church in Tamil Nadu.

In 1938, Gäbler assessed the result of the Coleroon mission as follows:

  • “The rapid growth within the Coleroon Mission has come to a certain end numerically after the 3,000 mark has been exceeded, at least in the two pastorates of Lalgudi and Sengaraiyur; in the Tirukkattuppalli Pastorate, on the other hand, the movement continues on a smaller scale. Looking back over the four years that I have been involved in this work, one can see considerable progress. To be sure, some of the hopes that were entertained at the beginning have proven to be unrealizable. Above all, this includes the dream that the Coleroon mission would be able to finance itself financially in a relatively short time. You probably expected too much from the Kovilpillais. But on the other hand, the work has withstood all the violent storms. Seen as a whole, the viewer is presented with a very pleasant picture. The addiction to litigation has almost completely disappeared, drunkenness is relentlessly fighting, attendance at church services is improving, the congregations are becoming increasingly familiar with the Bible and the catechism, and they are learning to separate the spiritual and the secular. So one can hope that Christians will continue to increase in spiritual discipline and knowledge and remain faithful to the end. "

Senior of the Leipzig mission organization 1936–1940

The return of Senior D. Frölich to Germany made it necessary to reorganize the management in India. Gäbler, who had been a member of the Mission Council of the Leipzig Mission for a number of years, was appointed by the Leipzig Mission College in April 1936 as a senior and thus President of the Leipzig Mission in Tamil Nadu. As a result, he was also head of the religious teacher seminar in Trichinopoly and chairman of the mission council. He took up office on April 18 and presided over the Mission Council for the first time on April 22. The official business associated with the senior office took up all of his hours and most of his strength.

After the outbreak of World War II , the German men who lived in India were interned by the English colonial government . However, together with most of the missionaries, Gäbler was released again towards the end of 1939. At the beginning of 1940 he and his family moved to Kumbakonam . In his freedom of movement, however, he was very restricted by the British colonial government.

Since Gäbler had been entitled to English citizenship since he was born in India, he would not have been interned with his family if he had taken English citizenship and, as an English citizen, would have been able to live freely with his family in India or England in the future. Having met England while studying languages ​​in 1925, he could imagine what life in England would mean for him and his family. But as an Englishman he would not have been able to represent the German Leipzig mission in India, and as an Englishman he would hardly have been tolerated by the Indians in view of the Indian freedom movement of Mahatma Gandhi , which he himself had experienced. In addition, his father-in-law, Carl Paul , had a reputation as a professor and mission director in Germany. So he decided to give up his English citizenship.

The most important decision that he had to make as a senior at the Leipzig Mission after the outbreak of World War II before leaving for final internment was the decision as to who would be responsible for the church organizations (e.g. mission stations) after the German missionaries were taken prisoner of war Schools, boarding schools and hospitals) in Tamil Nadu.

The Leipzig Mission expressed the opinion that it was still too early to fulfill the request of the TELC to take over the leadership of the church organizations; therefore the "Church of Sweden Mission" should undertake this task during the Second World War. For his part, Gäbler hoped that after the end of the Second World War he would take up his previous position as a senior in the Leipzig Mission again. Therefore he handed over the responsibility for the church organizations in Tamil Nadu to the "Church of Sweden Mission" active in South India.

Interned in Satara and returned to Germany 1940–1946

In May 1940, Gäbler was interned by the British colonial government with his family in Satara near Bombay . During the six years of imprisonment he researched the Sanskrit language and Sanskrit literature. On November 27, 1946, he and his family boarded the English troop transport Johan van Oldenbarnevelt and was repatriated to Germany.

The full independence of TELC

Gäbler would very much have liked to continue working as the senior officer in charge of the Leipzig Mission in Tamil Nadu, but the Tamil Evangelical Lutheran Church (TELC) did not want a senior from the Leipzig Mission to obstruct their way to full independence. That is why she did not lobby the English colonial authorities to ensure that Gäbler should stay in India and continue working. The TELC strived for full independence and in 1950 also took full responsibility for the church institutions in Tamil Nadu. All church and missionary activities were subordinated to the Church Council of the TELC. Subsequently, the Leipzig Mission and the Church of Sweden Mission (CSM) only had an advisory voice in the decisions of the now independent Tamil Evangelical Lutheran Church (TELC) and their own hope that the money they transferred would really be used for the projects they wanted would be used. The way to self-employment was difficult for TELC. This is shown by the statement made by William Jesudoss in 1981:

“The TELC is not self-sufficient, but continues to be supported by the Swedish Church Mission and the Evangelical Lutheran Mission in Lower Saxony , although it is completely autonomous. The first plan for financial self-sufficiency was drawn up as early as 1916, when the church council decided to reduce foreign financial aid by Rs. 500 / - annually until 1958 no longer any subsidies at all. But instead of decreasing, foreign aid has ultimately increased since then. "

Arrival in Hamburg and denazification 1946–1947

The Johan van Oldenbarnevelt docked in Hamburg on December 26, 1946 . The former missionaries were to the cold winter at temperatures around -20 ° C in open vehicles from the port internment camp Neuengamme at the former Neuengamme concentration camp brought. Here the newly arrived inmates were interrogated and checked for membership in the NSDAP / AO and for espionage activities. Gäbler describes the interrogation during the denazification as follows (German translation of the English wording): “It was funny then. I came with my wife. She had to enter personally with our Ulrike, who was fourteen or fifteen years old. Then the first thing the officer asked our daughter was: 'Were you in the Hitler Youth?' And she asked my wife, 'What is HJ, mom? I don't know anything about HJ 'that was the Hitler Youth organization . But then they changed their minds and realized that we had been in internment camps in India since 1939, that we had nothing to do with the whole thing. And then there was no trouble; and we got through it quickly. ”On January 3, 1947, Gäbler and his family were denazified and released by the English with censorship 5.

Pastor for Oesselse and Ingeln 1947–1950

Paul Gäbler in 1950 after the service in Oesselse in front of the sacristy door.
Paul Gäbler in 1950 in Oesselse on the way from the church to the rectory.

Gäbler drove with his family in the overcrowded train from Hamburg to the destroyed city center of Hanover . His family was divided into three groups there and stayed with three friends as guests for six weeks. Then, with the help of regional bishop Hanns Lilje, who had known and valued him for almost 20 years, Gäbler was accepted as pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran regional church of Hanover ; he was given the free pastoral position for Oesselse and Ingeln . On February 7, 1947, he and his family moved to the unheated parish service apartment in the snow-covered parsonage in Oesselse. Everything was missing there: winter clothes, food, furniture, wood for heating. But the church council felled a huge oak tree in the parish forest and provided the family with everything they needed.

Gäbler work in Ingeln and Oesselse consisted in these three years following the Second World War on the one hand in diaconal support of German refugees from the former German eastern territories and in their integration into the Lutheran church and the pastoral care of both the refugees and the returnees and of the bereaved relatives of the fallen who had to come to terms with their traumatic war experiences.

Pastor for Niedernjesa and Stockhausen 1950–1971

Paul Gäbler on April 9, 1972.

Gäbler took over the pastoral position for Niedernjesa and Stockhausen near Göttingen from September 1, 1950 to January 31, 1971 . As in his previous parish, pastoral care and diaconal work became important tasks here too. The Ev.-luth. Landeskirche Hannover decreed that each parish of the regional church was assigned a "partner parish" in the GDR. The parish of Niedernjesa and Stockhausen received the partnership for the parish of Leubsdorf in Saxony . There was a lively exchange of letters, which was supplemented by numerous parcels to the poor in Leubsdorf and decades later led to visiting trips and personal friendships.

Since the construction maintenance of the churches and the rectory had been neglected for decades, Gäbler and the church council provided for the new roofing of the rectory in Niedernjesa in 1951, in 1952 for the construction of a sewage treatment plant in the rectory, 1954 for the new roofing of the church tower in Stockhausen , 1965 for the replacement the coal stoves through oil stoves in the rectory, 1969 for the renovation of the parish room in the rectory and 1970 for external work on the St. Laurentius Church in Niedernjesa.

A special highlight was the centenary of the St. Laurentius Church in Niedernjesa, designed in 1855 by the architect Otto Praël, on June 26, 1955. During the festive service in the church, the golden confirmation was celebrated for the golden confirmands, which took place in the years 1887 to 1905 had been confirmed. In the afternoon, Gäbler organized the centenary of the St. Laurentius Church under the Luther linden tree, in which all local associations participated. The Luther linden tree was planted in 1867 for the 350th anniversary of the announcement of Luther's 95 theses. It was broken up by the storm in 1972 and replaced on May 20, 1973.

The training of vicars was part of Gäbler's job. Within the Ev.-luth. Regional church of Hanover, he was chairman of the church council and member of the district church council, the synod and numerous ecumenical specialist committees. He was also a translator for the World Council of Churches and took part on their behalf at the 3rd General Assembly of the World Council of Churches in New Delhi in 1961 .

Lecturer in missiology at the Göttingen Theological Faculty from 1957 to 1972

After Gäbler became known in Germany for his extensive lecturing activities and his numerous scientific publications, the Georg-August University of Göttingen assigned him a teaching position for missiology at the theological faculty from 1957 to 1972. Martin Tamcke , Professor of Ecumenical Theology and Oriental Church and Mission History at the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, assesses the missiologist Gäbler as follows:

“Among those who in the recent history of the theological faculty of the Georg-August University in Göttingen have made particular contributions to India studies for theology, Paul Gäbler now occupies a prominent position, because he is entirely involved in his research on India was intended. "

Paul Gäbler in 1963 in his study in Niedernjesa.

As a lecturer in missiology, Paul Gäbler published lexicon articles on his subject areas in The Religion Past and Present , the Evangelical Church Lexicon , the journals Evangelical Theology and Ökumenische Rundschau and in the World Church Lexicon.

He wrote book reviews on his subject areas in the years given in: Ährenlese (1968), Evangelischer Buchberater (1958 annually to 1972), Evangelical Mission Journal (1949–1951, 1972), Lutheran Missionary Yearbook (1955–1956, 1959–61), The Ecumenical Review (1959), Theologische Literaturzeitung (1964–1965), Ökumenische Rundschau (1953).

Retired 1971–1972

On February 1, 1971, he retired, but he continued to teach mission studies and his publications in the Evangelical Mission Journal and Evangelical Book Advisor . He spent the last year and a half in his retirement home in Göttingen-Geismar. On October 3, 1972, he died in Göttingen as a result of a stroke . He was buried in Niedernjesa on Saturday, October 7, 1972. The funeral took place in St. Laurentius Church, where he had served as pastor for twenty years.

Memberships

Fonts (selection)

Translations

  • E. Stanley Jones: The Christ of the Indian Highway. Following Jesus in India. Translation of the English book The Christ of the Indian Road. by Paul Gäbler. Furche Verlag 1st edition November 1928, 5th edition May 1929, 9th edition March 1930. 10th edition autumn 1930.
  • E. Stanley Jones: Christ at the Round Table. Open discussions under Jesus' eyes in India. Translation of the English book At the round table. by Paul Gäbler. Furche Verlag. The first edition was published in 1930 and was sold out on the first day of sale due to pre-orders. 3rd edition without year.

literature

  • Else Gäbler: From the past and present of the Leipzig Mission. Issue 5: As an ambassador on the Indian highway. Verlag für Evangelisch-Lutherische Mission, Leipzig 1936.
  • Paul D. Fleisch: One Hundred Years of Lutheran Mission . Leipzig 1936.
  • Niels-Peter Moritzen: God's tool in the world: Leipzig Mission 1836-1936-1986 . Verlag der Ev.-Luth. Mission, Erlangen 1986.
  • Niels-Peter Moritzen: The last 50 years - review and outlook. In: 150 Years of Leipzig Mission God's Tool for the World. Documentation. Verlag der Ev.-Luth. Mission, Erlangen 1987. Pages 64-88. This article covers the years 1937 to 1987.
  • Paul von Tucher: German Missions in British India. Nationalism: Case and Crisis in Missions. 1980, self-published by Paul H. von Tucher.
  • Hugald Grafe (ed.): Evangelical Church in India. Information and insights. Verlag der Ev.-luth. Mission Erlangen. Erlangen 1981.
  • Hugald Grafe: The History of Christianity in Tamilnadu from 1800 to 1975. Erlangen 1990. (Erlanger Monographs from Mission and Ecumenism; 9).
  • CS Mohanavelu: German Tamilology. German contributions to Tamil language, literature and culture during the period 1706–1945. Madras 1993.
  • Andreas Nehring: Orientalism and Mission: The Representation of Tamil Society and Religion by Leipzig Missionaries 1840-1940. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2003. pp. 295-299.
  • Martin Tamcke : India studies at the theological faculty in Göttingen: The missiologist Paul Gäbler (1901–1972). In: Inge Mager (Hrsg.): Handing down - exploring - passing on. Festschrift for Hans Otte on his 65th birthday. Yearbook of the Society for Church History in Lower Saxony, Volume 113, Hannover 2015, pp. 329–341.
  • Ulrich Gäbler : A missionary life. Hermann Gäbler and the Leipzig Mission in South India (1891-1916) . Evangelical Publishing House Leipzig 2018.

Obituaries

Archives

Archive holdings from the Evangelical Lutheran Missionswerk Leipzig

Since the spring of 2006, the majority of the archives of the Evangelical Lutheran Missionswerk Leipzig have been on permanent loan in the archive of the Francke Foundations in Halle. The holdings of the archive, which were created before the conversion of the Leipzig Mission into the Evangelical Lutheran Missionswerk Leipzig on July 1, 1993, were given to Halle. These include the personnel files of the deceased missionaries, mission teachers and nurses from the Leipzig Mission - including the detailed documentation of their work (approx. 100 running meters). Personnel files of missionaries who are still alive as well as a reference library for employees remain in the Leipzig Mission House. Other collections can also be found there. The holdings on Paul Gäbler can be found at II.31.19. and II.31.8.3., and there are other scattered files.

Regional church archive Hanover and parish archives

  • Landeskirchliches Archiv Hannover, see: Hans Otte (editor): Overview of the holdings of the Landeskirchliches Archiv Hannover (1983) and see here .
  • Parish archives of the Ev.-luth. Parish of Oesselse and the Ev.-luth. Parish of Niedernjesa.

Evangelical Luth. Mission (Leipzig Mission) to Erlangen e. V.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hermann Gäbler as a missionary of the Leipzig Mission.
  2. ^ Paul Gäbler: Once and now in Tranquebar . 1. On childhood paths. (Memories of the childhood in Tranquebar 1906 to 1908.) In: Evangelical-Lutheran Missionsblatt of May 1, 1927 pp. 102-105. Ev.-luth. Mission Leipzig 1927.
  3. ^ Paul Gäbler: To India! A farewell greeting. In: Evangelical Lutheran Mission Gazette of December 1, 1925, pp. 185–1987. Ev.-luth. Mission Leipzig 1925.
  4. ^ Paul Gäbler: On the way to India. In: Evangelical Lutheran Mission Gazette of January 1, 1926, pp. 7–9. - Paul Gäbler: In the Indian Ocean. In: Evangelical Lutheran Mission Gazette of February 1, 1926, pages 32–36. - Paul Gäbler: My first impressions in India. In: Evangelical Lutheran Mission Gazette from April 1, 1926, pages 71–75. Ev.-luth. Mission Leipzig 1926.
  5. ↑ Source: Hugald Grafe (Ed.): Evangelical Church in India. Information and insights. Verlag der Ev.-luth. Mission Erlangen. Erlangen 1981. Page 183.
  6. ^ Kurt Schmidt-Clausen: From the Lutheran World Convention to the Lutheran World Federation . History of the Lutheran World Convention (1923–1947). Pp. 80-81.
  7. ^ Paul Gäbler: At the Tamul language school in Kodaikanal . In: Evangelical Lutheran Mission Gazette of August 1, 1926, pp. 156–161. Ev.-luth. Mission Leipzig 1926.
  8. ^ Biography of Carl Paul from the Leipziger Missionswerk
  9. ^ Paul Gäbler: Our girls. In: Evangelical Lutheran Mission Gazette from November 1, 1931, pages 341–345. Ev.-luth. Mission Leipzig 1931.
  10. ^ Paul Gäbler: A youth leisure time in Tranquebar . In: Evangelical Lutheran Mission Gazette from April 1, 1928, pages 85-89. Ev.-luth. Mission Leipzig 1928.
  11. ^ Paul Gäbler: Meine Jungens (teaching at the Fabrizius High School) In: Evangelical Lutheran Mission Gazette from October 1, 1930, pp. 295–299. Ev.-luth. Mission Leipzig 1930.
  12. ^ E. Stanley Jones (English WP)
  13. ^ Paul D. Fleisch: Hundred Years of Lutheran Mission. Leipzig 1936. Pages 233–235 and 286. - Evangelical Lutheran Mission Gazette No. 6 from June 1931, page 185.
  14. ↑ Evangelical Lutheran Mission Gazette No. 7 from July 1931, page 211.
  15. ↑ Else Gäbler, the mother of Paul Gäbler, described his work in Pattukkottai as follows: Else Gäbler: As an ambassador on the Indian highway. Verlag für Evangelisch-Lutherische Mission, Leipzig 1936.
  16. ^ Paul Gäbler: On the Indian country road. To start again in Pattukkottai (1st part). In: Evangelical Lutheran Mission Gazette from May 1, 1932, pages 138–147. Ev.-luth. Mission Leipzig 1932. - Paul Gäbler: On the Indian highway. To start again in Pattukkottai (2nd part). In: Evangelical Lutheran Mission Gazette from June 1, 1932, pages 166–171. Ev.-luth. Mission Leipzig 1932.
  17. ^ Paul Gäbler: On new missionary territory in South India. In: The German Evangelical Heidenmission, Yearbook 1935 of the United German Mission Conferences, Hamburg, pp. 65–71.
  18. ↑ The fourth edition was published in 1972 and can be viewed on the Internet .
  19. ↑ Sadhu Sundar Singh. Dissertation at the University of Leipzig, Leipzig 1937.
  20. ↑ The current discussion of this dissertation can be found here: Martin Tamcke: India Studies at the Theological Faculty in Göttingen: The mission scientist Paul Gäbler (1901–1972). In: Inge Mager (Hrsg.): Handing down - exploring - passing on. Festschrift for Hans Otte on his 65th birthday. Yearbook of the Society for Church History in Lower Saxony, Volume 113, Hannover 2015, pp. 329–341.
  21. ↑ http://www.gaebler.info/2014/06/sundar-singh/ Paul Gäbler: Sundar Singh.
  22. ↑ At Tiruchirappalli the Kaveri divides into two arms, of which the northern arm is called Kollidam (Coleroon) and the southern one keeps the name Kaveri.
  23. ↑ Coleroon Mission. In: Paul Gäbler: Our Indian missionary work in 1938. Our missionary work in India and Africa. Ev.-luth. Mission Leipzig. Leipzig 1938/1939. Pages 1 to 13. Here: last page.
  24. ^ Paul Gäbler: Trichinopoly mission station. In: Leaves for Mission. A people's mission sheet of the Leipzig Mission, published by the Saxon Main Mission Association and the Mission Conference in Saxony. of February 1, 1939, pages 1-2. Dresden 1939.
  25. ^ Paul Gäbler: Gandhi in Madras . In: Evangelical-Lutheran Missionsblatt 84th year, No. 4 from April 1929, pages 96-98.
  26. ↑ Niels-Peter Moritzen: The last 50 years - review and outlook. In: 150 Years of Leipzig Mission God's Tool for the World. Documentation. Verlag der Ev.-Luth. Mission, Erlangen 1987. Pages 74-75.
  27. ^ Hugald Grafe (ed.): Evangelical Church in India. Information and insights. Verlag der Ev.-luth. Mission Erlangen. Erlangen 1981. Page 191.
  28. ↑ http://gaebler.info/politik/tucher-18.htm#NEUENGAMME Paul von Tucher: German Missions in British India. Nationalism: Case and Crisis in Missions. Self-published by Paul H. von Tucher 1980. Here: Chapter XVIII NEWENGAMME AND RELEASE.
  29. ↑ Paul Gäbler's questionnaire dated December 28, 1946 on successful denazification in the Neuengamme Concentration Camp.
  30. ^ Paul Gäbler gave the interview on November 9, 1970 in English; German translation by Michael Gäbler. Source: Paul von Tucher: German Missions in British India. Nationalism: Case and Crisis in Missions. Self-published by Paul H. von Tucher 1980. Pages 492–493 and 689.
  31. ↑ Source: Paul von Tucher: German Missions in British India. Nationalism: Case and Crisis in Missions. Self-published by Paul H. von Tucher 1980. Page 497.
  32. ^ Paul Gäbler: The documents in the tower head of Stockhausen. In: Göttinger Tageblatt No. 235 from 9./10. October 1954. Paul Gäbler: The tower peers into the country in a new beauty. In: Göttinger Tageblatt No. 288 of 11./12. December 1954.
  33. ↑ Working group village chronicle of the village of Niedernjesa (ed.): Our village. Niedernjesa yesterday and today. Selbstverlag, 1992, pp. 147–157.
  34. ^ Paul Gäbler: Reunion with India. In: The Mission of the Church into the World. Handout for mission in preaching and teaching. V, 2 of May 2, 1962, pp. 17-20.
  35. ↑ Martin Tamcke, p. 335.
  36. ↑ Martin Tamcke : India Studies at the Theological Faculty in Göttingen: The mission scientist Paul Gäbler (1901–1972). In: Inge Mager (Hrsg.): Handing down - exploring - passing on. Festschrift for Hans Otte on his 65th birthday. Yearbook of the Society for Church History in Lower Saxony, Volume 113, Hannover 2015, pp. 329–341.
  37. ^ Owning library: Breklum, Center for Mission and Ecumenism - Northern Church worldwide. Signature: Mi Bio 30.
  38. ↑ Else Gäbler was the mother of Paul Gäbler. She was the wife of the missionary Hermann Gäbler and lived with him in Tamil Nadu for 16 years. As an insider, she describes Paul Gäbler's missionary work in Pattukkottai.
  39. ^ Finding aids on the holdings of the Evangelical Lutheran Missionswerk Leipzig eV in the archive of the Francke Foundations (name register is at the end). (PDF; 509 kB)
personal data
SURNAME Gäbler, Paul
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gäbler, Paul Hermann Julius Theodor (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Protestant theologian, pastor, missionary, missiologist and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH December 25, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH Tiruvallur , Tamil Nadu
DATE OF DEATH 3rd October 1972
Place of death Goettingen