Jakob Künzler

Jakob Künzler ( born March 8, 1871 in Hundwil, Switzerland, † January 15, 1949 in Ghazir, Lebanon ) was a Swiss deacon and missionary.

Life

He grew up in Canton Appenzell Ausserrhoden and did an apprenticeship as a carpenter. Then he settled in Basel to the Protestant deacon ( nurse ) form, because he understood diakonia as practical following Jesus. In 1899 he traveled to Urfa in the Ottoman Empire, where he found his real place of action. He continued his medical on to the independent surgeon and founded a boys' school. In 1905 he married Elisabeth Bender, daughter of a missionary and Chrischona- granddaughter of an Ethiopian princess.

1915-1917 was Künzler eyewitness of the Armenian genocide, which he in 1921, his book titled wrote In the land of blood and tears. Risking their lives, he helped where he could, caused thousands of Armenian orphans and led the hospital operation continues in Urfa.

In October 1922, he had to close the hospital and moved with his family to Ghazir near Beirut, where he opened a center for orphaned girls. Later he established a settlement in Beirut for Armenian widows and Azounieh in a tuberculosis sanatorium. Despite illness and subsequent physical disability he was working on, because it would not let the plight of Armenian refugees go. His tireless and selfless use sake Künzler was also called brother Jacob.

Awards and Honors

Writings

• In the land of blood and tears, 1929 ( new edition 1999)
• Kobi the -gaps in the service of life, 1959