Joseph Ohrwalder

Josef Ohrwalder ( born March 6, 1856 in Lana, Burggrafenamt (South Tyrol, Italy today ); † August 7, 1913 in Omdurman, Sudan ) was a Comboni missionary and author.

Life

Ohrwalder joined the Comboni Missionary Association Daniele and was ordained in 1880 in Cairo to the Catholic priest. In 1881 he traveled through Khartoum to the mission Delen in the Nuba Mountains in Sudan. This he leads together with Father Alois Bonomi. During this time, the station was attacked repeatedly in the course of the early Mahdi uprising. 1882 Ohrwalder was eventually captured by the Mahdists and brought to El Obeid. From 1886 he was imprisoned in the capital of the Mahdist Omdurman. 1891 managed to escape with two Italian Missionary Sisters Ohrwalder. In Cairo, wrote Ohrwalder with the help of the British intelligence officer Francis Reginald Wingate his book Uprising and Empire of the Mahdi in Sudan and my ten years of imprisonment there myself. This work and written by Slatin Pasha book Fire and Sword in the Sudan were popular writings, which advocated the policy of the United Kingdom, the reconquest of the Sudan. The mood of the British population was set by the two reports against the Caliphate of Omdurman.

After a short stay in Austria Ohrwalder held in 1892 and again in Egypt and Sudan. At first he worked in Suakin. The city was for about 10 years, next to the Egyptian border area, the only point in Sudan, which was held by the British against the Mahdists. After the defeat of the Mahdi uprising in the Battle of Omdurman he was with the German confrere Father Wilhelm Banholzer the first missionary, the Khartoum entered again after 15 years, later he went to Omdurman. He worked there until his death as a missionary.

Works

• Uprising and Empire of the Mahdi in Sudan and my ten-year captivity there myself. Innsbruck 1892.