Alexander Merensky

Alexander Merensky ( born June 8, 1837 in Panten (now Pątnów Legnicki ) at Liegnitz; † May 22, 1918 in Berlin) was a German Protestant missionary, who worked since 1859 in South Africa ( Transvaal ).

Life

Orphaned early, Alexander grew up with relatives. In 1855 he entered the mission house in Berlin to be trained to be a missionary. The release took place on 23 November 1858. Together with Karl -Heinrich Theodor Griitzner he traveled from Amsterdam to Cape Town by sailing ship and on to Natal.

On August 14, 1860, he founded a missionary Griitzner near Lydenburg the mission station Gerlach hoop. There Merensky was ordained on 11 January 1861. Another mission, Kchalathlolu, was inaugurated in August 1861. On October 15, 1863 Merensky Marie married Liers from Breslau. They lived together seven months ( until May 1864) in Kchalatlolu. With the permission of the Pedi, they founded about 15 km from the capital, the mission station Ga - Ratau. In May 1864, this station was inaugurated.

His marriage to Marie Liers seven children were born, the fourth child of Hans Merensky.

But soon it started first persecution of Christians, and Merensky fled with the municipality on November 23, 1864 from Ga - Ratau. Merensky acquired from its own funds in January 1865 a farm in the district of Middelburg in the Transvaal Republic. Along with missionary Griitzner he founded here on 8 January 1865, the mission station Botshabelo - a Northern Sotho word for " place of refuge ". 1869 a blacksmith shop, a wagon construction workshop and a mill were built in Botshabelo. Many of the villagers learned their craft here. In Peter 's releases appeared in Berlin in 1870, a first publication of Merensky on the Zimbabwe ruins. In it, he had summarized research reports. In self- publishing, he brought out the original Map of the Transvaal.

The Transvaal Republic was annexed in 1876 by ​​the English and Sir Wolseley Botshabelo made ​​his headquarters in the Transvaal. During the First Boer War in 1881 Merensky was medical officer of the Boer troops. He was in the battles for Laingsnek, Skuinshoogte and at the Battle of Majuba Hill here and described his position in Veldhospital the event, which he watched from a distance with a telescope. After the war, he distrusted both British and Boers, and Merensky decided to resign his position in South Africa and return with his family to Germany. In 1883 he was appointed inspector of the Berlin Mission. In Germany, he showed great interest in the German colonization and became a member of the Society for German colonialists. He also wrote reviews for the German colonial newspaper.

In 1890 he undertook a journey to the north end of Lake Nyasa (now Lake Malawi in Malawi) in the Kondeland. There he founded two other mission stations, cheek height of a man and Manow. Later he published a map of the area. On his return to Germany he visited Botschabelo again.

In Germany, Berlin and Heidelberg awarded him for his scientific publications honorary doctorate. Merensky died in Berlin and was buried at the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Cemetery.

In the near Middelburg the culture of the Ndebele is now maintained in the museum village of Botshabelo and brought home to the public.

Works (selection)

  • How to best educate the Negro for plantation work? Berlin, Verlag Walther & Apolant, 1886 (second edition: Berlin: Süsserott, 1912; Colonial papers, 64 /65)
  • The work of the German missions. / A. Merensky. - Berlin, Buchh. Berlin's Evang. Missionsges. , 1905
  • Statistical information on the status of the entire evangelical mission organization at the turn of the century. / A. Merensky. - Berlin, Buchh. the Berlin Evangelical Missionary Society, 1902
  • The position of the mission to the folklore of the nations. / A. Merensky. - Berlin,
  • German work on the Nyassa, German East Africa. / Alexander Merensky. - Berlin: Berlin Evangelical Missionary Society, 1894
  • What teach us the experiences that have made other peoples at colonization attempts in Africa? / Alexander Merensky. - Berlin, Matthies, 1890
  • Memories from the life of mission in South-East Africa ( Transvaal ) 1859-1882. / A. Merensky. -. Bielefeld and Leipzig, Velhagen & Klasing, 1st edition 1888, 2nd durchges. and presumably Ed: Memories from the mission life in the Transvaal 1859 - 1882 Berlin: Buchh. . the Evangel. Missionary Society, 1899, "Memories from the mission life in the Transvaal (South Africa) from 1859 to 1882, Berlin 1899 ," new ed. and introduced by Ulrich van der Heyden, Berlin: Edition Ost, 1996, The Excerpt A study trip to the Transvaal from the 1st edition is a short biography published in: From Greenland to Lambarene. Travelogues of Christian missionaries from three centuries. Edited by John Paul. Evangelical publishing house Berlin 1952 ( page 114-128 ) = cross - Verlag, Stuttgart, 1958 ( page 111-126 ).
  • Contributions to the knowledge of South Africa, geographic, ethnographic and historical content. / Alexander Merensky. - Berlin, ET d Mission House, 1875
  • Petrich, Hermann; Merensky, Alexander: Alexander Merander Dr. theol. - A life picture of the German Evangelical Mission of the last century. Berlin, publishing house of the Berlin Evangelical Missionary Society, 1919
  • Merensky, Alexander: memorandum on the economic value of the South.
  • Merensky, Alexander: Mission Atlas of Protestant missionary society. Berlin, Bookstore of the Evangelical Missionary Society
Legnica Transvaal Province Pedi people Northern Sotho language Integrated Authority File
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