Walkway Dedicated To Early Pioneers Who Settled Hahndorf
Second Sign: Why Did They Emigrate?
For centuries, a vast stretch of land now forming the northern portion of modern neighbouring nations Germany and Poland was known as the Kingdom of Prussia. In 1830, its very religious king, Friedrich Wilhelm III, arbitarily united the numerically small Reformed Church (to which he belonged) with the Lutheran Church of the majority of his subjects. A small, scattered, but determined group of Lutherans refused to obey, and became known as Old Lutherans.
Hahndorf’s founding pioneers belonged to one of the most stubborn cores of resistance to church union. These people were mostly of mixed German-Slavic ancestry, warm-hearted and tolerant, and greatly devoted to their homes and family and living a devout Christian faith. Their homeland was a clutch of small villages covering the junction of the three Prussian provinces of Brandenburg, Silesia and Posen, some 200 kilometres south-east of Berlin, at the point where the usually slow moving Oder River swings sharply west to avoid steep granite cliffs on its way north to the Baltic Sea.
Continuous general encouragement for these protesters came from Dr JG Scheibel, both a University professor and the extremely able and inspiring Pastor of St Elisabeth’s Lutheran Church in Breslau, the capital of Silesia. Locally, these particular Old Lutherans looked to Pastor August Kavel, pastor of the village of Klemzig, in Brandenburg, later to be joined by other Pastors, including GD Fritzsche and LFE Krause from parishes in Province Posen.
King Friedrich Wilhelm III expected trouble from this quarter of his domains. His great-grandfather, Friedrich Wilhelm I, had written way back in 1722: The vassels [here] are always complaining … but you must not take any notice of the complaints … for they are mostly groundless, but that is their national habit.
How badly the king misjudged the situation this time! Dramatically, influential Dr Scheibel was driven into exile to the neighbouring Kingdom of Saxony during 1832, after his congregation became one of the first in the nation to protest openly against the Union Church. As civil disobedience spread, two years later, in 1834, Friedrich Wilhelm III began active persecution of Old Lutherans.
Undeterred, Kavel resigned his Klemzig Union parish on Easter Monday 1835 and began a clandestine local ministry to keep loyal Old Lutheran followers now without a church strong in their faith. In July 1835, Krause was arrested at the end of an Old Lutheran service for the general public he held in the private chapel of a young nobleman Baron von Koszutski and his family at Gross Tschunkawe near Militsch in Posen; nearly two years’ state imprisonment in various parts of Prussia followed for the pastor. Shortly before ordination as a minister in the Union Church, schoolteacher Fritzsche left that body in August 1835 to become a Lutheran pastor instead, and then, in constant fear for his freedom, established an underground travelling ministry to scattered groups of Old Lutherans in western Posen and northern Silesia.
Old Lutherans had to worship secretly inside private homes and barns and outdoors in deep forests. Bands of foot troops and hussars constantly combed the most restless areas of the Prussian countryside, and as detailed searches moved on, local civilians chosen at random had make their own homes available to to quarter these forces. Wherever caught, worshipping Old Lutherans were surrounded and summarily dealt with. Records show that some persons, including women, were severely beaten at whim on the spot before being released.
As a result, single adults and heads of families, together with their pastors, faced heavy fines at first and then imprisonment and/or confiscation of private property for repeated failure to join the Union Church. Occasionally, it was not unknown for some imprisoned Old Lutherans to be starved within an inch of their lives. Despite strenuous protests, the Prussian Government refused to relent, and for some six years daily existence continued to be unbearably hard for these people.
At least two future Hahndorf founding families were amongst those who suffered significantly during these tumultuous times. Johann George Kuchel was fined fifty Thaler for deciding to have his children prepared for confirmation by a Lutheran pastor instead of a Union pastor. Samuel Thiele ended up in court over a similar situation and eventually had his household goods seized and his cottage sold to pay the fifty Thaler fine and the court costs.
Most unwillingly, for they dearly loved their native land, significant numbers of Prussian Old Lutherans eventually set their hearts on emigration. North America and Russia were considered at first. However, on an investigative visit to Hamburg in 1836, Pastor August Kavel heard from the city’s helpful chief of police about the British colony of South Australia, in the process of being founded, where all settlers would enjoy freedom of religious belief. Because South Australia guaranteed the one thing which the persecuted Old Lutherans so ardently desired, Kavel inspired his large congregation to go there, despite knowing very little else about the place.
Kavel departed for London to persuade GF Angas, the astute but compassionate Baptist Christian businessman and Chairman of the South Australia Company, which had charge of the arrangements for the new settlement, to induce the promoters to lend his flock the money to make the journey. No doubt thrilled at the prospect of gaining immediate valuable skilled labour for their massive project, Angas and his backers agreed, and Kavel remained in England until the emigration, ministering to Germans living near the London docks and perfecting his command of English. Little did the faithful pastor imagine what a time would pass until he was re-united permanently with his congregation.
Numbers of families in August Kavel’s congregation split permanently over who would emigrate and who would remain. In a horrific mix of excitement and frustrations, those people departing quickly had to dispose of their real estate and most of their belongings, and procure passports from a most reluctant Prussian Government which placed daunting obstacles in their path. The ships which Angas and his company despatched to Hamburg to pick up their passengers on the arranged date in 1836 had to return empty to England and the South Australia Company lost a great deal of money as a result. Most of the would-be emigrants were forced to live off precious meagre capital, which dwindled quickly, and endure cruel taunts from their neighbours who were staying put.
Two more years passed! At last, King Friedrich Wilhelm III and his government could wrangle no longer. The Prussian bureaucrats were becoming more and more a national and international laughing-stock. Passports were issued and the emigrants given a mere two months to get out of Prussia. Somehow, Kavel and his flock persuaded GF Angas to lend them their passage money out of his own resources, a mighty gesture which immediately strained his finances severely. The last minute flurry of preparations for departure must have tested already exhausted stout hearts to the limit yet again.
Pastor Kavel’s congregation were trailblazers. Krause’s flock bound in several groups for North Americal were able to leave during 1839. Pastor Fritzsche’s followers departed for South Australia in 1841, after Friedrich Wilhelm III died in 1840 and his much more understanding son, Friedrich Wilhelm IV, came to the throne. Persecution of Old Lutherans ceased, but the Prussian burning interest to emigrate to South Australia and neighbouring colonies, for reasons other than religious, continued to swell for some forty years, before dropping away suddenly.
