Women in the mission

"Women are largely invisible, inaudible, absent in missionary historiography," writes Christine Lienemann-Perrin in the book "Die Mission ist Weiblich. Women in the Early Hermannsburg Mission". In order to escape existing restrictions, women often resorted to niches - where they were usually very successful in leaving their mark away from the limelight.

In recent years, the Evangelical Lutheran Mission in Lower Saxony has repeatedly endeavoured to raise awareness of those women who independently dedicated themselves to spreading the Christian faith - to which marriage to a missionary or the role of a so-called "accompanying wife" was no contradiction.

"Abschied gehörte dazu - Lebensspuren Hermannsburger Missionsfrauen im 20. Jahrhundert" (1) is the title of a book initiated in 2008 by Nina Dürr and the then director of the ELM, Martina Helmer Pham Xuan. In it, 15 women, sent abroad with their husbands, describe the stages of their lives, starting with their religious education in their youth, through the phase of deciding to go abroad, to life in a foreign country and their return to Germany. While the missionaries' tasks were usually clearly defined, the women were often faced with the challenge of first creating their working environment - not to mention the "culture shock", the language barriers or the lack of recognition of their professional qualifications abroad. As different as the life paths of the 15 women and the places where they work were, the end result is a "wonderful testimony to a fulfilled life", summarise Nina Dürr and Martina Helmer-Pham Xuan.

Texts on the various roles, activities and challenges of "women in the early Hermannsburg mission" (2), but also in the partner churches in the 20th century (3), have been published in two conference volumes by Jobst Reller, former lecturer in Church History and Practical Theology at the Hermannsburg Mission Seminary. In November 2010, the "Ludwig Harms Symposium" organised an annual conference on the subject. The focus was not only on the women from Germany who courageously travelled abroad, but also on the "native agents of the mission" abroad. One of them is Paulina Dlamini, the "apostle of Zululand", as she is described by missionary Heinrich Filter. Born in 1856 and raised in the traditional religion of her people, the Paulina Dlamini worked independently as an evangelist following an apparition of Jesus in a dream and established two stations of the Hermannsburg Mission in the Emakhosini region of South Africa. Women like her are at the centre of the second volume "Women and Times."

But what was life like for women in the Hermannsburg Mission in the 19th or early 20th century? One colourful example is the biography of Elsa Wickert (née Blomstrand; 1893 - 1962) (4), who was born into a Swedish missionary family in India. At the age of 19, she married Winfried Wickert, who became head of the Hermannsburg Mission Seminary in 1932-34 and later mission director, and travelled with him to South Africa in 1937. She left a significant mark in Hermannsburg by setting up the traditional mission bazaar, which raised huge sums for missionary work over the years. The children's mission festival was also her initiative. From 1937 in South Africa, she also called the women together, for example at missionary conferences, and worked with them on specific topics. She also knew how to inspire children for the faith with her gift of "lively and vivid storytelling." The fact that this woman - travelling between India, Sweden, Germany and South Africa, mother of seven children, two of whom died in the Second World War - also had a hard life story does not seem to have diminished her faith.

Elisabeth Grabe (née Peters; 1903 - 1936) is another female figure in the Hermannsburg Mission whose life can be traced in a book (5). Her letters, which lay dormant in a cupboard for 70 years, provide deep insights into her thoughts and make it clear that "Else" Grabe, as a convinced Christian, saw her goal in life as going on a mission. "She was one of the core members of the small team at the Hermannsburg Mission, which was able to trigger one of the most beautiful developments in missionary history and a great blessing: the establishment of the Mekane-Yesus Church in Ethiopia. Today, over three and a half million members belong to this growing church," writes her grandson Martin Grabe. However, his grandmother was not allowed to follow this development any further. She died at the age of 32 as a result of a tropical infection.

Literature:
(1) Martina Helmer-Pham Xuan, Nina Dürr: Abschied gehörte dazu. Traces of the lives of Hermannsburg missionary women in the 20th century. Lit Verlag Dr W. Hopf, 2010 Berlin
(2) Jobst Reller (ed.): "Die Mission ist weiblich". Women in the early Hermannsburg Mission. Lit Verlag Dr W. Hopf, 2012 Berlin.
(3) Jobst Reller (ed.) with Rainer Allmann, Hartwig F. Harms, Kirsten Ruether: Frauen und Zeiten. Women in the Hermannsburg Mission and its partner churches in the 20th century. Lit Verlag Dr W. Hopf, 2014 Berlin.
(4) Jobst Reller: Elsa Wickert - the life of a missionary woman between India, Sweden, Germany and South Africa. Ludwig-Harms-Haus Verlag 2016.
(5) Martin Grabe (ed.): Post aus Äthiopien. Bridal letters of a missionary to Africa. Published by Francke-Buchhandlung GmbH, 2007.