Heinrich Vedder

Hermann Heinrich Vedder ( born July 3, 1876 in Wester Enger, Westphalia, † April 26, 1972 at Okahandja, South West Africa ) was a German missionary, linguist, anthropologist and historian.

Since 1903 he was a missionary of the Rhenish Mission Society in South West Africa (Namibia).

Vedder was the Germans in South Africa very connected and worked for many years in the publication of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Church of the Federal Council issued the German Church Federation of South and South-West Africa in Windhoek African native calendar with.

Among his best known works include his work on the Bergdama (or Damara ), also translated into English history of South West Africa until the death Mahareros in 1890 and the participation in the work of the indigenous tribes of South West Africa.

Life

Vedder was recorded on 1 April 1895 as aspirant in the mission house of the Rhenish Mission in Barmen. On October 1, 1895 his six-year training, in addition to Bible studies and some elementary subjects, English, Dutch, Latin and Greek were taught began. After his military service, he began another four years in the seminary, where he received his theological and Hebrew, biblizistisch oriented education. On August 5, 1903 he was ordained with five other candidates. Missionary Vedder was determined for missionary work in what was then German South-West Africa.

Just a few months later, on November 28, 1903, he boarded with the missionaries Schaible and calibration the steamer " Helene Woermann " and reached on December 27, 1903 Swakopmund in South West Africa. In Scheppmann village on the Kuiseb he learned the basic concepts of the Nama language. Due to the uprising of the Herero and Nama had to cancel his classes Vedder in Scheppmann village and continue with missionary Olpp in Otjimbingue. In Karibib he studied with missionary Dannert five months the language of the Herero and was briefly instructed by the Finnish missionary Rautanen in the Ndongasprache.

In January 1905 Vedder took his missionary order in Swakopmund, where 1905/ 06, a wooden church was built in prefabricated construction. On October 1, 1905 Vedder married his bride Come from Germany to Hälbichs farm. He then traveled to a conference in Okahandja.

The first task Vedder in Swakopmund was the collection of communities. His work was the Damara, Herero and the Germans and members of the security force, the prisoner hospital and the Civil Hospital. Vedder preached at services in the languages ​​of the Nama and Herero.

The fate of about 1,500 prisoners of the Herero people in Swakopmund very moved him. With the help heimatlicher mission churches he could distribute clothing to the prisoners, which the rough coastal climate were not used. In an interview with the Governor Friedrich von Lindequist he reached a better treatment of prisoners.

From 1922 until his retirement Vedder worked as a missionary in Okahandja, where he died on 26 April 1972. He was buried on 28 April 1972 in Okahandja with great participation of " blacks" and " whites". A district of Okahandja means his honor Veddersdal ( Afrikaans: " Vedder valley ").

The Bergdama

Vedder's monograph on the people and culture of the Namibian Damara is considered a classic of Africanist ethnography. The Damara were before the arrival of the Bantu-speaking Herero and the supremacy of khoisansprachigen Nama groups in addition to the San probably the only inhabitants of South West Africa. They were primarily hunter-gatherers, but also operated next to garden cultivation and cattle breeding. Copper and iron production and processing has been dominated by them.

Documents

Works

  • Heinrich Vedder: The Bergdama. 2 vols. Hamburg: Friederichsen, 1923 (. Hamburg University essay from the field of Cultural Studies, Volumes 11 & 14, Series B, ethnology, cultural history and languages ​​, Volumes 7 & 8)
  • Heinrich Vedder: Grammar of the Nama language, 1908
  • Carl Hugo Hahn Linsingen; Heinrich Vedder; Louis Fourie: The native tribes of South West Africa. 1st ed 1928, London: Cass, 1966
  • Heinrich Vedder: The old South West Africa - West Africa's history to the death Mahareros 1890 Martin Warneck Verlag, Berlin 1934
  • ( Employees ) The natives Law / tot. Job is in the former colonial administration officials and missionaries of the colonies, sorted and annotated by former colonial officials, anthropologists and lawyers. Edited by Erich Schultz- Ewerth and Leonhard Adam; Togo, Cameroon, West Africa, the South Seas colonies / ordered and Edit. A. Schlettwein, Julius Lips, Berengar von Zastrow, Max Schmidt, Heinrich Vedder, Hermann Trimborn, Richard Thurnwald, Erich Schultz- Ewerth. Stuttgart: Strecker and Schröder, 1930
  • Heinrich Vedder: South West Africa in Early Times. Being the story of South West Africa up to the date of Maharero 's death in 1890. Cass & Co. London 1966
  • Heinrich Vedder: Introduction to the History of South West Africa. Windhoek, John Meinert, o.J
  • Heinrich Vedder: Short Stories from a long life. Wuppertal -Barmen, published by the Rhenish Missionary Society, 1953
  • Heinrich Vedder: African animal stories. Barmen, publisher of the Mission House, 1925. 3rd edition.
  • Heinrich Vedder: From the Bushmen. Barmen ( Mission House ), ca 1910 ( Rhenish Mission No. writings. 189)
Damara people Ordination Kuiseb River Martti Rautanen Nama people Integrated Authority File
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