The Rhenish Missionary Society (''Rhenish'' of the river

Rhine The Rhine ( ) is one of the List of rivers of Europe, major rivers in Europe. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein border, then part of the Austria–Swit ...

; , ''RMG'') was one of the largest Protestant missionary societies in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. Formed from smaller missions founded as far back as 1799, the Society was amalgamated on 23 September 1828, and its first

missionaries A missionary is a member of a religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Miss ...

were

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are Consecration in Christianity, consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the religious denomination, denominationa ...

and sent off to

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

by the end of the year. The

London Missionary Society The London Missionary Society was an interdenominational evangelical missionary society formed in England in 1795 at the instigation of Welsh Congregationalist minister Edward Williams. It was largely Reformed tradition, Reformed in outlook, with ...

was already active in the area, and a closer working relationship was formed with them. The Society established its first

mission station A Christian mission is an organized effort to carry on evangelism, in the name of the Christian faith. Missions involve sending individuals and groups across boundaries, most commonly geographical boundaries. Sometimes individuals are sent and ...

in the

Cederberg The Cederberg mountains are located near Clanwilliam, Western Cape, Clanwilliam, approximately 300 km north of Cape Town, South Africa at about . The mountain range is named after the endangered Clanwilliam cedar (''Widdringtonia cedarbe ...

in 1829, named

Wupperthal Wupperthal (sometimes also spelt Wuppertal) is a small town in the Cederberg mountains in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It was founded in 1830 by two German missionaries of the Rhenish Missionary Society (Rheinische Mission), Theob ...

, and predated the naming of the German city by 100 years. Very soon, the missionaries started migrating north through the barren and inhospitable south-western Africa. Here they encountered various local tribes such as the Herero, Nama and Damara, and were frequently in the middle of wars between them. The missionaries tried to broker peace deals between the tribes, and for this reason were later seen as political assets by the tribes. Around the same time, debate started in Germany regarding its colonial empire, with the activities of the RMS in distant Africa fanning imaginations. The unclaimed area to the north of the

Cape Colony The Cape Colony (), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British Empire, British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope. It existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when it united with three ...

was proclaimed

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 ...

in 1880, but they quickly ran into numerous problems, since Germany was inexperienced at colonization. The

Herero and Namaqua Genocide Herero may refer to: * Herero people, a people belonging to the Bantu group, with about 240,000 members alive today * Herero language, a language of the Bantu family (Niger-Congo group) * Herero and Nama genocide * Herero chat, a species of bi ...

during 1904–1907 proved to be the

nadir The nadir is the direction pointing directly ''below'' a particular location; that is, it is one of two vertical directions at a specified location, orthogonal to a horizontal flat surface. The direction opposite of the nadir is the zenith. Et ...

of their rule, and combined with the effects of

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, Germany was unable to maintain a foothold so far from home. South Africa annexed the area in 1915, renaming it

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

. During this time, missionaries' reactions ranged from compassion and help for the local tribes, to patriotism and support of colonial interests. In 1861, a station in

North Sumatra North Sumatra () is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia located in the northern part of the island of Sumatra. Its capital and largest city is Medan on the east coast of the island. It borders Aceh to the northwest, Riau to the sou ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

, was launched and it lasted until 1940. A book concerning the missionary work there was written by the first evangelist woman who joined the Society, Hester Needham. RMS was also active in South China, where they constructed a Hospital in Tungkun, the area is now called Dongguan, Guangdong Province, China. The hospital was supported by several notable medical missionaries, including Dr.

Johannes E. Kühne, Johannes is a Medieval Latin form of the personal name that usually appears as "John" in English language contexts. It is a variant of the Greek and Classical Latin variants (Ιωάννης, '' Ioannes''), itself derived from the Hebrew name '' Ye ...

Dr. Gottlieb Olpp, Dr. Eich, Dr. Zeiß. The RMS legacy survives in Hong Kong under the auspices of the Chinese Rhenish Church Hong Kong Synod, which established and operates several schools including the Rhenish Mission School in Sai Ying Pun (since 1914) along with Rhenish Church Grace School in Diamond Hill (since 1982) and the Rhenish Church Pang Hok Ko Memorial College in Kowloon Tong (since 1973). The Chinese Rhenish Church has operated on Bonham Road, Sai Ying Pun since 1898 and continues in a church adjacent to the Rhenish Mission School, and the Chinese Rhenish Church Kowloon has existed in Kowloon Tong since 1928. During the 20th century, the Society focused on its work in southern Africa. The Society ultimately amalgamated all of its mission stations in South Africa into the

Dutch Reformed Church The Dutch Reformed Church (, , abbreviated NHK ) was the largest Christian denomination in the Netherlands from the onset of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century until 1930. It was the traditional denomination of the Dutch royal famil ...

, except for Wupperthal which chose to join the

Moravian Church The Moravian Church, or the Moravian Brethren ( or ), formally the (Latin: "Unity of the Brethren"), is one of the oldest Protestant denominations in Christianity, dating back to the Bohemian Reformation of the 15th century and the original ...

. The mission stations in

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 ...

became part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church there. In 1971, the Rhenish Mission and the Bethel Mission were combined into the Vereinte Evangelische Mission.

Literature

* N. Needham: ''God First or Hester Needham’s work in Sumatra,'' Horace Hart Printer to the University, Oxford 1899. *G. Kunze: ''Im Dienste des Kreuzes auf ungebahnten Pfaden'', Barmen 1897, 3rd edition 1925. * Eduard Kriele: ''Das Kreuz unter den Palmen. Die Rheinische Mission in Neu-Guinea'', Barmen 1927. * W. Berner: ''Rheinische Missionsgesellschaft (RMG)'', in ''Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart'' (RGG), 5. vol., Tübingen 1961, p. 1083. * Bade, K.J., ''Colonial Missions and Imperialism: the background to the fiasco of the Rhenish Mission in New Guinea'', Australian Journal of Politics & History, 21:2 (1975), pp. 73–94. * K.-J. Bade: ''Colonial Missions and Imperialism: The Background to the Fiasco of the Rhenish Mission in New Guinea'', in: John A. Moses - Paul M. Kennedy (eds.): ''Germany in the Pacific and Far East, 1870-1914'', Brisbane 1977. * Hermann Reiner: ''Beginnings at Madang - The Rhenish Mission'', in: Herwig Wagner/Hermann Reiner (eds.): ''The Lutheran Church in Papua New Guinea. The first Hundred Years 1886-1986'', Lutheran Publishing House: Adelaide 1986, Second revised ed. 1987, , pp. 99–139. * Paul Steffen: ''Missionsbeginn in Neuguinea. Die Anfänge der Rheinischen, Neuendettelsauer und Steyler Missionsarbeit in Neuguinea''. (Studia Instituti Missiologici S.V.D. - 61) Steyler Verlag, Nettetal 1995, .

References

* {{Authority control 1828 establishments in Prussia Christian organizations established in the 1820s Religious organizations established in 1828