Joseph Gotthardt (16 December 1880 – 3 August 1963) was a

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

missionary and later

Bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

and

Archbishop In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdi ...

South-West Africa South West Africa was a territory under South African administration from 1915 to 1990. Renamed ''Namibia'' by the United Nations in 1968, it became independent under this name on 21 March 1990. South West Africa bordered Angola ( a Portu ...

(today

Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the no ...

). He was the first to set up missions in the

Kavango Region Kavango (before 1998: Okavango) was one of the thirteen regions of Namibia until it was split into the Kavango East and Kavango West Regions in 2013. Its capital was Rundu. In the north, Kavango bordered the Cuando Cubango Province of Angola, an ...

and in

Ovamboland Ovamboland, also referred to as Owamboland, was a Bantustan and later a non-geographic ethnic-based second-tier authority, the Representative Authority of the Ovambos, in South West Africa (present-day Namibia). The apartheid government stat ...

, became the first

Vicar Apostolic A vicar (; Latin: ''vicarius'') is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious" in the sense of "at second hand"). Linguistically, ''vicar'' is cognate with the English pre ...

Windhoek Windhoek (; ; ) is the capital and largest city of Namibia. It is located in central Namibia in the Khomas Highland plateau area, at around above sea level, almost exactly at the country's geographical centre. The population of Windhoek, which ...

Early life and missionary work

Gotthardt was born in Thalheim in the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

Westerwald The Westerwald (; literally 'Western forest') is a low mountain range on the right bank of the river Rhine in the States of Germany, German federal states of Rhineland-Palatinate, Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia. It is a part of the Rhenish Ma ...

. He attended the ''Oblate Congregation'' in the Limburg Province in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

from 1900 to 1905 and graduated as priest. He worked as Junior Lecturer directly after being ordained until 1907 and was then sent to

Grootfontein Grootfontein (, named after the nearby hot springs) is a city with 26,839 inhabitants in the Otjozondjupa Region of central Namibia. It is one of the three towns in the Otavi Triangle, situated on the B8 road (Namibia), B8 national road that lead ...

German South-West Africa German South West Africa () was a colony of the German Empire from 1884 until 1915, though Germany did not officially recognise its loss of this territory until the 1919 Treaty of Versailles. German rule over this territory was punctuated by ...

. Soon after his arrival he in Namibia he led the sixth and seventh mission journeys to the

Kavango region Kavango (before 1998: Okavango) was one of the thirteen regions of Namibia until it was split into the Kavango East and Kavango West Regions in 2013. Its capital was Rundu. In the north, Kavango bordered the Cuando Cubango Province of Angola, an ...

—a difficult assignment considering that the leader of the indigenous population, ''Hompa'' (King) Nyangana of the Va

Gciriku Gciriku is a traditional Kavango people, Kavango kingdom in what is today Namibia. Its people speak the Gciriku language. The Gciriku (Rugciriku: ''vaGciriku'') are one of the many ethnic groups in Namibia with a population of 50,529 as of 2023. T ...

was a fierce critic of all European influence, and particularly that of missionaries. The previous five mission journeys into the Kavango had been unsuccessful but the seventh led to the establishment of a mission station at Nyangana in 1910 and at Andara in 1913. Gotthardt also developed the first mission station in former

, at Oshikuku, in 1924.

Church career

Gotthardt was appointed

Prefect Apostolic An apostolic prefect or prefect apostolic is a priest who heads what is known as an apostolic prefecture, a 'pre-diocesan' missionary jurisdiction where the Catholic Church is not yet sufficiently developed to have it made a diocese. Although it ...

of Cimbebasia in 1921, replacing the retired Eugenio Klaeyle. When the prefecture became the Windhoek

Vicariate A vicar (; Latin: ''vicarius'') is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious" in the sense of "at second hand"). Linguistically, ''vicar'' is cognate with the English pre ...

soon thereafter, he became Vicar and was ordained as bishop at

Hünfeld Hünfeld () is a town in the district of Fulda, in Hesse, Germany. It is situated 16 km northeast of Fulda. In 2000, the town hosted the 40th Hessentag state festival. Hünfeld has a population of close to 16,000. Infrastructure Transpor ...

in Germany in 1924, becoming the leader of the Catholic Church in

. In 1923, he published a widely received paper ''The awakening of Africa and the duties of the Catholic church'' in which he portrayed the "unhappy entanglement" of colonisation and mission, one of the first pieces of criticism of colonisation in Namibia. After serving 25 years in the position of Vicar,

Pope Pius XII Pope Pius XII (; born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli; 2 March 18769 October 1958) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death on 9 October 1958. He is the most recent p ...

appointed him as archbishop in 1951. After more than 50 years of service, Gotthardt resigned at the age of 80 in May 1961. He died in

Swakopmund Swakopmund ("Mouth of the Swakop River, Swakop") is a city on the coast of western Namibia, west of the Namibian capital Windhoek via the B2 road (Namibia), B2 main road. It is the capital of the Erongo Region, Erongo administrative district. It ...

on 3 August 1963.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gotthard, Joseph German Roman Catholic missionaries Roman Catholic missionaries in Namibia 20th-century Roman Catholic bishops in Africa 1880 births 1963 deaths German expatriate bishops People from Windhoek Roman Catholic bishops in Namibia