Mission Reflexion
Introduction
This exhibition invites you to reflect on the mission concept through the lens of the 200-year history of the Berliner Mission. What ideas, expectations, questions, and impacts are reflected in the history of the mission? It is important to us to present diverse perspectives and openly address entanglements with various— including colonial—worldviews.
The timeline presents 1. Dates in world history that were significant for the Berlin Mission, 2. Events at locations where the Berlin Mission was active, 3. Portraits of individuals from our mission history. The transformation of the Berliner Mission from a traditional mission society into an ecumenical and interreligious network with partners all over the world is depicted on the final panels.
Diplomats from eleven states in Europe, the USA, and the Ottoman Empire met in Berlin for the so-called Congo Conference from 1884 to 1885. Africans were not represented at the conference. The participants agreed on a framework that laid the foundation for establishing European colonial regimes on the continent. The Congo Conference stands as a symbol of the systematic subjugation of Africa by European powers. Article 6 of the General Act highlights the importance of Christian missions in the colonization of Africa. Missionaries were to "instruct the natives [...] and make them understand the benefits of civilization."
The discovery of gold and diamond deposits in South Africa sparked a conflict in which the British Empire sought to seize control of the Boer republics, the Orange Free State, and the South African Republic (Transvaal). The ensuing war was marked by numerous war crimes on both sides.
The BMG tried to remain neutral in the conflict, but this proved impossible. Mission stations were used as command posts or military hospitals by both sides and many were damaged or destroyed. Internally, the BMG faced loyalty conflicts. Most German missionaries sympathized with the Boers, while Black converts sided with the British. Although missionaries did not participate in combat, their sons did. Consequently, Berlin missionaries were detained. South African converts and Black mission members were recruited into military service and abused as forced laborers by both the British and the Boers.
The "Boxer" movement began as a folk religious protest in Shandong province. The movement, known as "Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists" (Yihequan), viewed Chinese society as primarily threatened by Christian missionaries and Chinese converts, whom they saw as agents of Western imperialism. When the Boxer movement gained support from the Chinese government, the situation turned violent, resulting in the deaths of more than 400 foreign missionaries and tens of thousands of Chinese converts. The BMG also suffered casualties, and many mission stations were destroyed. An international coalition, including the German Empire, intervened militarily in China. Initially targeting the Boxers, they later also targeted the Chinese military. The foreign troops looted Chinese cities and often killed Chinese people indiscriminately. As a result, China was forced to sign a humiliating peace treaty and pay large reparations. The Berlin missionary Julius Wendland wrote about the conflict in the Berlin Mission Reports of 1901: "The excessive arrogance of Confucian China had to be broken, and it could only be broken in the way it has happened. China is now open to the Gospel." In contrast, Superintendent Voskamp in Qingdao openly criticized the actions of the imperial invasion forces.
The Maji Maji Rebellion was the largest military resistance movement against German colonial rule in East Africa. What began as a protest against taxes and forced labor quickly evolved into a religious and ideological struggle for freedom, engulfing the entire southern region of the colony.
The colonial power's response was exceedingly brutal, leading to the devastation of entire regions. This brutality triggered a massive famine, resulting in the deaths of between 100,000 and 300,000 people. In one instance, Berlin missionaries were directly involved in the conflict. The mission station Jakobi became the center of a fierce battle. Because colonial soldiers were stationed there, the missionaries were perceived as part of the war effort. Missionary Arenfeld commented in the 1907 mission report: "The terrible object lesson of the rebels' misery, their hunger, and their death, in contrast to the loyal ones, was certainly not without value."
Berlin missionary Gröschel defended the Jacobi mission station with armed force, saying:
The catastrophe of World War I marked a turning point for the Berlin Mission Society in many ways. The great optimism of the World Missionary Conference for international cooperation was shattered by the war. Many Berlin missionaries became soldiers or field preachers. Money transfers to mission areas became impossible, as fierce fighting also occurred in German colonies, particularly in East Africa. Berlin missionaries were firstly detained and, after the war, expelled. They were not allowed to return to mission areas until 1925. This ended the constant growth of the missionary societies. At the end of the 19th century, the BMG operated 49 mission stations, 99 outstations, and 190 places of prayer in Africa. The 1907 annual report noted 70 missionaries and 890 Black helpers in South Africa alone. These numbers were never reached again. The war also held great significance for Christians in the colonies, highlighting the fragility of the supposedly superior civilization of Christian Europeans, as Christians were shooting at other Christians. During the forced absence of Berlin missionaries, local evangelists and teachers continued the work, contributing significantly to church growth and giving the self-organization of African congregations new momentum.
Many Protestant missionaries, both in mission areas and in leadership positions in Germany, welcomed the rise of the National Socialists, although some later regretted it. BMG missionaries were partly active in the Confessing Church, which did not necessarily indicate a general rejection of the Nazi regime. The BMG's missionary-theological orientation, known as Volkschristianisierung, was suitable for reinterpretation into racist exclusion policies. Siegfried Knak, BMG director from 1921 to 1949, stated regarding the "race question": "What God has separated, man should not unite." The BMG faced challenges in the Nazi "racial state," as their work in Africa and China was socially devalued, and the mission received fewer donations. Additionally, the quasi-religious glorification of the National Socialist party and Hitler harmed religious organizations like the BMG. With the outbreak of World War II, many BMG missionaries in mission areas were detained or expelled, causing the work to partially come to a halt or to be increasingly carried on by local forces.
The political disenfranchisement of Black South Africans and the racist segregation policy began long before the apartheid system. The Natives’ Land Act of 1913 established spatial segregation of population groups in South Africa, leaving only seven percent of the land to the Black population.
The BMG had a divided stance on this racist policy, as many missionaries were aware of its injustice. However, despite some dissenting voices, the majority agreed with it. They lived closely with white settlers and were often intermarried with them, which led many Berlin missionaries to sympathize with the Boers and their policies. On the other hand, the mission's theological approach of "Volkschristianisierung" aimed to "preserve" Black South Africans from "Europeanization," meaning urbanization, industrialization, and modernization of their societies, even against their will. This entrenched a cultural and ultimately hierarchical divide between white and Black people, easily translating into the racist segregation known as apartheid. Werner Eiselen, the son of a Berlin missionary family and appointed Secretary of Native Affairs in 1949, is still regarded as one of the architects of apartheid.
Sol Plaatje, raised on a Berlin mission station, journalist, and political activist against the Natives’ Land Act, wrote to a British missionary in 1916:
The post-World War II territorial transfers to Poland and Russia, and the division of Germany, posed significant challenges for the Berlin Mission Society (BMG). Many of BMG's supporters were from areas no longer part of Germany. In the German Democratic Republic (GDR), the BMG's activities faced severe restrictions. The mission magazine was banned, fundraising was prohibited, and events could only be held in closed church spaces. Churches and mission societies were monitored by the State Security Service. Only the director received travel permits for international ecumenical conferences. Funds could only be transferred from the West to overseas missions. Despite these constraints, the BMG decided against relocating entirely to the West in order to maintain contact with supporters in the East. However, the situation worsened with the construction of the Berlin Wall, leading to the relocation of foreign operations to the West in 1969, resulting in the division of the BMG. In 1975, the Ecumenical Missionary Center/ Berlin Mission Society (Ökumenisch-Missionarische Zentrum/Berliner Missionsgesellschaft) (ÖMZ/BMG) was established in the East, and the Berliner Missionswerk was established in the West.
Peace prayers and Monday demonstrations in many places in the GDR strengthened the citizens' movement and resistance against the SED regime. The State Security Service intensified the surveillance of the mission house. On November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall, which had divided Berlin and the two German states for 28 years, was opened.
Following reunification, the Berliner Missionswerk der Evangelischen Kirche in Berlin-Brandenburg became the legal successor of the Ökumenisch-Missionarische Zentrum/BMG in 1991, with all rights and obligations. At that time, the ÖMZ/BMG had 85 employees and the Missionswerk West had 55 employees and 25 abroad. Initially, most departments of both organizations were housed in the mission house in Friedenau in 1991, and the Berliner Missionswerk returned to the old mission house in 2000.
Alexander Merensky was one of the most active and controversial missionaries of the BMG. He came from humble beginnings and saw a career as a missionary as promising. After his training at the Berliner Mission House, he went to South Africa in 1859, where he founded several stations in the Bapedi area until he was expelled from the area. During the First Boer War in 1879, he worked as a doctor for the Boers. After returning to Germany, he advocated for the colonial movement, writing about the "efficient" exploitation of colonized Africans. In 1891, he founded the first BMG station in East Africa and became the superintendent of the Nyassa Synod.
Sekhukhune I was the Chief Paramount of the Bapedi in Transvaal, in the northeast of present-day South Africa, from 1861. He successfully militarily resisted both the Boers and, after the annexation of Transvaal by Britain, the British. He saw the BMG missionaries, including Alexander Merensky, as opponents of his policies. Convinced that the BMG was secretly allied with the Boers, he expelled Merensky along with many converts from his territory in 1865. After his military defeat against the British and Swazi in 1879, Sekhukhune was captured and assassinated.
Klaas Koen was the first Black missionary of the BMG. Born in 1852 to Christian parents at a mission station in South Africa, he was adopted by a missionary couple named Prietsch. Koen came to Germany for further training, where he passed the exam for the "preaching office among the heathen." In 1877, Koen was sent to South Africa, where he founded the Georgenholtz station and lived with his wife, Maria Brose. Severely ill with malaria, unlike German missionaries, he was not granted a transfer from the unhealthy area and died in 1883.
Martinus Sewushane was born in the 1830s in northern South Africa in the Bapedi region. In the 1860s, he worked there as an interpreter and cultural mediator with Berlin missionaries. After these missionaries were expelled by Chief Sekhukhune in 1865, Sewushane initially worked as a teacher at a newly established station but soon began to act as a missionary himself. In 1885, he was officially ordained. Due to racist discrimination and the refusal of autonomous structures by his superiors at the Botshabelo mission station, he founded the independent Lutheran Bapedi Church in 1892 and became its first bishop. The Bapedi Church was the first independent church in southern Africa and still exists today. The BMG long considered Sewushane a "betrayer" and did not ordain any more Black missionaries for decades afterward.
In 1891, Martinus Sewushane wrote a letter declaring his break from the Berlin Mission Society (Berliner Missionsgesellschaft) to establish his own church:
„[W]e are tired of the harsh rule, the miserable little laws, the foolish payments that grow among us through them. [...] Therefore we part graciously: Listen, we want to separate from the teachers who are here, we speak especially for ourselves, offering the work of God. We want to stand on our own feet, we do not want to be carried on their backs until we have gray hair. We want to establish the church of the Bapedi as a united, common, free church governed by its own laws.”
After his studies, Siegfried Knak became a pastor in Pomerania and then went on to serve as a field preacher in World War I. In 1921, he took over the directorship of the BMG. Although as part of the Confessing Church (Bekennende Kirche) he resisted Gleichschaltung (process of Nazification designed to turn Germany into a single party state), he was deeply rooted in "völkisch" thinking. Between 1931 and 1935, he wrote several works supporting the Nazi "racial theory" and linking it to his missionary theological worldview. He remained director of the BMG until 1949.
Tupewilve Sanga was born in the southern highlands of present-day Tanzania. He came into contact with the BMG missionaries as a house servant and also worked as a cook and teacher for them. As World War II loomed in 1938, he was nominated as a theological candidate to prevent the congregation from being left without a pastor in case of another war. He was trained and ordained as a pastor in just five months. His skill in dealing with colonial authorities and his tireless efforts significantly contributed to church growth in the southern areas of the later Lutheran Church of Tanzania. He once baptized 400 people in one service. For his contributions to the independence of the Lutheran Church, he was posthumously awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Iringa in 2023.
Ling Deyuan was born in Guangdong Province, China. He attended a BMG mission school, where he was introduced to Christianity. Due to his talents, he progressed to higher education and then to seminary. Ling was ordained in 1914 and was assigned to the Shixing mission station in 1927, which he managed for 20 years during the civil war and Japanese occupation. With the communist takeover, it became increasingly difficult for Ling to care for his congregation. He joined the patriotic Three-Self Church and attempted to reconcile the political and economic situation with his Christianity. The communists subsequently tried to co-opt him as a "revolutionary."
Emily Lehmann was born in 1912 and trained as a nurse in Berlin. In 1936, she was sent to Guangdong Province in southern China, where she worked as the last BMG missionary in China focusing on women and girls. Her time in China coincided with severe crises: the Japanese occupation, the Chinese civil war, and the communist takeover. Additionally to her work, Lehmann kept an extensive diary. After her expulsion in 1949, she converted her notes into various publications, which today provide insight into the everyday life of missions amid the violent history of 20th-century China.
Anneliese Dörfer worked for 19 years as a missionary nurse for the BMG in Africa, spending four years in East Africa and 15 years in South Africa. Unlike many Berlin missionaries, she could not reconcile herself with apartheid after arriving in South Africa in 1952. She publicly compared the brutal racism of the regime to Nazi policies. Her outspoken criticism of South African conditions made her unpopular within the BMG. Her efforts against the forced relocation of Black mission members brought her into conflict with authorities multiple times. After a serious car accident, she had to leave South Africa for health reasons in 1967.
Najla Mousa Sayegh was born in Nazareth into an Anglican family in 1902. After graduating from Talitha Kumi, she taught in Bisan in the Jordan Valley for three years before becoming head of a girls' school in Jaffa. Sister Bertha Harz, principal of Talitha Kumi, brought her to the school in 1929. Sayegh attended the diaconal course in Kaiserswerth in 1933 and became a deaconess in 1937. During World War II, she was detained by the British mandate authorities. From 1950, Sayegh co-led Talitha Kumi with Sister Harz, taking over sole leadership in 1962. She was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit for her work.
Gudina Tumsa was born in 1929 in western Wollega, then part of the Ethiopian Empire. In his youth, Tumsa was a nurse and evangelist before being ordained in 1958. In the 1960s, he studied in the USA, engaging deeply with the works of Martin Luther King Jr. and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. After returning to Ethiopia, he became General Secretary of the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (EECMY), a partner church of the Berliner Missionswerk since the 1970s. Tumsa advocated for a holistic theology, believing that there is no “apolitical life.” He fought vigorously for human rights and was murdered by the military regime in 1979.
„In our case, theology must grow out of our concrete daily experiences, from our dealing with the ordinary matters of life as we experience them in our situation, in our cultural context, in our economic life, in our political experience, and in our social practice. […] An apolitical life is not worth living. Not engaging is a denial of the good creation and the reality of the incarnation […] The history of God's people in the Old Testament begins with the liberation of a group of slaves from oppression. Nothing is more political than this biblical narrative. […] African theology should develop a political theology relevant to African political life.”
Joyce Damian Ngandango was born in 1979 in the Iringa region in southern Tanzania. After her theology studies and ordination, she took over the leadership of the Huruma Center in Iringa in 2016. The Huruma Center cares for children and adolescents who lost their parents to the AIDS epidemic or need protection due to experiences of violence. The center is run by the ELCT, the current partner church of the Berliner Missionswerk. As a pastor and director of the Huruma Center, Ngandango and her team care for over 40 children and adolescents. Volunteers from the Berliner Missionswerk assist with homework and play activities.
Sally Azar is the first ordained female pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land. Azar comes from a family with a 100-year tradition of Arab Lutheran life. Her grandfather and father, who is the bishop of the ELCJHL, both studied theology in Germany. Azar worked as a vicar in Berlin for two years and has been a pastor in Jerusalem since 2023.
The history of today's Berliner Missionswerk began on February 29, 1824. Eleven men, mostly lawyers and judges, but also professors and military officers, founded the "Society for the Promotion of the Evangelical Mission among the Heathen" at Holzmarkt 1. The society was not an institution of the Prussian church and was initially intended as an aid association for existing missionary societies. Its primary goal was to raise funds for the training of missionaries. Sending out their own missionaries was not yet considered.
Just ten years after BMG's founding as an aid association, four missionaries were sent to South Africa. Supported by their South African interpreter Richard Miles, they established the first station, Bethanien, southwest of Bloemfontein on Koranna land. Initially, the local population showed little interest in the missionaries and moved away from the station's area. The missionaries not only clashed with white settlers but also amongst themselves, resulting in none of the original missionaries remaining in Bethanien after a few years. The station consolidated with the arrival of the "second generation" of missionaries in the late 1840s.
Before sending the missionaries Gustav Kraut, August Lange, Reinhold Gregorowsky, Johannes Schmidt, and August Gebel to South Africa, preacher Couard delivered the following “consecration speech”
[You shall] go forth to strengthen the small group of faithful Jesus witnesses in South Africa and to offer the Gospel of God among the tribes languishing in physical and spiritual misery on this continent, so that the heathen there may become an offering, pleasing to God and sanctified through the Holy Spirit. I send you among the heathen – so goes this word – to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, to receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those sanctified by faith in me. (Acts 26, 17-18)
In 1842, the Berlin Mission Society (Berliner Missionsgesellschaft) sent three missionaries to Ghazipur in India to work among the residents of Uttar Pradesh. However, high living costs and the poor health of the missionaries hampered the effort. The attempt to establish a foothold in India was abandoned in 1848 due to the lack of funds for building schools, orphanages, or hospitals. Two of the missionaries continued their work in India with the British Church Missionary Society.
For the growing number of mission staff and seminarians, the Mission House on Georgenkirchstraße was built, where the Berliner Missionswerk is still headquartered today. The Mission House housed the administration of the mission as well as missionaries in training, known as "Zöglinge" (pupil). They were selected based on strict criteria, including solid education, pious lifestyle, and good health. They had to be young and unmarried. In the mission seminar, they were prepared for their dispatch. In four years, they received not only theological training but also practical knowledge of handicrafts and medical care, as they would be on their own in the mission areas.
t the annual festival in 1876, Director Wallmann revealed that the BMG had accumulated a large deficit. The intensive work in the mission areas had been at the expense of maintaining the mission aid associations at home. These formed the basis of the mission movement, spreading the mission idea in church congregations and collecting donations. The 1876 annual report namely lists 282 aid associations, but most were inactive. Wallmann's successor, Director Wangemann, reorganized and decentralized the handling of the aid associations. Missionaries on home leave and converts from the mission areas appeared at mission festivals, resulting in large and small donations. By 1889, the BMG was debt-free.
Berlin missionaries began working as itinerant missionaries in China in the 1860s. Only with the possibility of acquiring land could mission stations and schools be established from 1882 onwards. A focus of the BMG was the admission of abandoned girls in orphanages. Many Chinese, however, associated Christianity with European imperialism, leading to repeated violent attacks known as "mission incidents" (Chinese "jiao’an") on missionaries and Chinese converts. One such "incident" provided the German Empire with a pretext to annex the colony of Kiautschou in 1898.
After the BMG received the right to acquire land in China, missionaries immediately began building schools. Schools held a special significance in Chinese society due to the high regard for literacy. Not only in China, but also in Africa, education in mission schools was of central importance. It often provided the first and sometimes the only access to European knowledge for many people in the mission areas. Teaching became a primary task for missionaries, with missionary wives often leading the school lessons. These mission schools imparted both secular but predominantly religious knowledge. For people in the colonial areas, these schools were often the most impactful encounter with Christianity they had ever had, leaving a lasting influence. The District Commissioner of Songea in Tanzania remarked in 1921 about mission schools: “In the villages of this district, mission schools are also used as churches. As far as the villages are concerned, the terms ‘school’ and ‘church’ are synonymous.”
Director Theodor Wangemann issued a new missionary code in 1882, detailing how missionaries and converts were to conduct themselves. This code reflects a missionary worldview heavily influenced by racism and religious control. The mission station, as the center of Christian daily life, was meant to serve as a sanctuary against "heathen abominations," a place for imparting European work ethics, and a space for social control. Violations by converts could lead to punishments ranging from warnings and fines to forced labor and exclusion from the community. Parts of this missionary code remained in effect until 1957.
The Protestant missions in Germany also critically examined the colonial movement. The "Continental Missionary Conference" of 1885 in Bremen was a direct response to the "Congo Conference" in Berlin. Its goal was to "clarify the position of the mission to the German colonial movement as much as possible." Most attending societies, including the BMG, emphasized the international and independent nature of the missionary movement: "The aims of colonial policy and the mission are often so far apart that it is in the interest of both to carefully avoid any confusion and mixing."
BMG missionaries worked in the German naval base Qingdao and Guangdong Province, which was Chinese territory. Figures like Richard Wilhelm, Ernst Faber, and Emily Lehmann contributed significantly to the Berlin and German East Asia Mission. Faber and Wilhelm played key roles in bridging German and Chinese cultures. The Berlin missionary Carl Voskamp and Ernst Faber (first in the Rhenish Mission, then in the General Evangelical-Protestant Mission Society) became renowned experts on Chinese culture and religion, also according to many Chinese locals. However, the mission was most significantly advanced by Chinese missionaries. By 1885, there were already three ordained preachers, such as FU Set-am, in Guangdong Province.
The BMG began its missionary work in East Africa following the German conquests in present-day Tanzania, Burundi, and Rwanda only after some hesitation. Shortages of personnel and financial concerns, as well as safety concerns due to the recently concluded colonial war against the Swahili under Abushiri, made the undertaking seem unpromising. A donation of 5,000 Marks and the strong advocacy of Alexander Merensky, also in his capacity as a member of the "German Colonial Society," tipped the balance in favor of beginning work there. The first BMG station, named Wangemannshöh after the BMG director, was established on Lake Nyassa.
The first tasks of the missionaries were the construction of their homes and a church. Initially, these churches were makeshift buildings. However, as quickly as possible, larger churches made of adobe bricks were built, resembling German churches in architecture and size. Missionary Karl Jauer from Friedrichshain described in his report the efforts required: “Finally, the transport could begin from where the bricks were created to the station, with 180 women carrying the bricks on their heads daily. Procuring beams and rafters for the church was also a massive task, as trees suitable for this purpose were found almost exclusively in inaccessible ravines.”
In 1895, the missionary couple Helene and Robert Franz established a medical station in Blouberg, South Africa. Healthcare was a crucial aspect of missionary work, as the healing of the sick was seen as a significant demonstration of Christian compassion. The introduction of modern European medicine created a competition with indigenous medical knowledge. Many missionaries viewed the skills of traditional healers as mere "heathen superstition." The establishment of hospitals weakened the position of traditional healers, making missionaries indispensable to the local population, as these mission hospitals often provided the only reliable access to medical care. The Helene Franz Hospital, named after its founder, still exists today.
During the Berlin Trade Exhibition, a Colonial Exhibition was held in Treptower Park, where the BMG was also represented. In an exhibition room, German missions showcased their "activities and successes." The exhibition gained notoriety for the racist display of 106 people from the German colonies. The BMG was actually critical of this display, fearing that "these people will be filled with contempt and bitterness against us." However, this was accepted in hopes of increasing donations.
In 1908, the “Society for the Promotion of Evangelical Missions among Heathens2 (Gesellschaft zur Beförderung der evangelischen Mission unter den Heiden) decided to rename itself to the Berlin Mission Society (Berliner Missionsgesellschaft). The reason was relatively simple: on the one hand, the previous name was somewhat cumbersome, and on the other hand, the nature of the society had fundamentally changed. It was no longer just a support association but actively sent out missionaries. The renaming was also intended to prevent confusion with other missionary societies, as the society was commonly referred to in practice as simply the Berlin Mission (Berliner Mission).
In Edinburgh, 1,215 delegates from over 170 missionary societies gathered for the first "World Missionary Conference." Only Protestant and Anglican representatives were invited, most of them from the Anglo-American sphere, with only 19 people of color present. Eight commissions discussed the future of the mission. The BMG advocated for the creation of an international missionary commission to represent missionary societies in disputes with colonial governments. The enthusiastically proclaimed common goal of the assembled missionary societies was the "conversion of the whole world within this generation." The World Missionary Conference was one of the strands that led to the ecumenical movement.
During World War II, the BMG missionaries in Japanese-occupied territories in China could operate relatively undisturbed. After the war, especially those Berlin missionaries who were active in the foreign organization of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (abbr. NSDAP) were expelled, as they were considered allies of the Japanese. With Mao Zedong's rise to power in 1949, many Chinese Christians were integrated into the ruling structures of the Chinese Communist Party through the patriotic Three-Self Church. The outbreak of the Korean War in 1951 provided the pretext for expelling all Western missionaries from the country.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Southern Africa (ELCSA) emerged from the missionary work of German, Scandinavian, and American mission societies, particularly the BMG and the Hermannsburg Mission. In 1960, four regional independent churches were formed, which merged to form the ELCSA in 1975. During the founding assembly of the Black Lutheran churches, a bombing by unknown perpetrators injured 20 people. Today, the ELCSA has 600,000 members and is a partner church of the Berliner Missionswerk.
Responding to the call of the World Council of Churches' assembly in New Delhi in 1961, mission work became an integral part of church activities. In the former GDR, the Berlin Mission continued its ecumenical-missionary work on behalf of the GDR Church Federation (DDR-Kirchenbund) at the old mission house. The Ecumenical Missionary Center (Ökumenisch-Missionarisches Zentrum) maintained contacts with churches in Tanzania, Cuba, the Middle East, East Asia, and socialist countries in Eastern Europe.
In 1970, high school graduate Erika Holthaus visited the Kratzenstein mission station in South Africa and spontaneously decided to work there for a year. This inspired the Berliner Missionswerk to regularly send volunteers. Currently, 25 to 30 volunteers are sent annually to partner churches. Since 2016, incoming volunteers from partner churches have come to Germany for a year. The volunteer program offers more than just an international experience; it encourages participants to learn about global ecumenism and daily life in another country through intercultural encounters. These experiences not only broaden participants' perspectives on global and economic connections, but also foster self-reflection.
Beth Musyimi, an incoming volunteer from Nairobi, reflected on her 2023 stay in Germany:
„To sum it all up: it has been life changing. I get to take home with me experiences, deep and meaningful relationships, the best of memories, and a new me. It changed my views about the world at large; I got to experience the best of both worlds. I got to know how it is to help and to be helped, getting to know how it feels, never to fit in but somehow just learning to live with it. I got to love total strangers and take them as family, and I got to push myself out of my comfort zone, just to survive for one year.”
The “development of apartheid laws and the [...] expansion of the security services” led the BMG missionaries to reassess their stance on apartheid. BMG endorsed the Upumulo Resolution, in which the Lutheran Pastoral Conference condemned apartheid in 1967. Subsequently, three BMG missionaries were expelled from South Africa. Pastor Markus Braun emphasized in the Berlin Mission reports that "verbal professions of the church against apartheid are no longer sufficient." The South African government continued to act against critical voices. Missionary Christian Fobbe was denied re-entry to South Africa after a stay in Germany because a government official labeled his lifestyle as "political." Later in 1985, Berlin pastor Gottfried Kraatz was arrested and expelled.
In West Berlin, the Berliner Missionswerk was founded by the decision of the Regional Synod of the Evangelical Church in Berlin-Brandenburg in 1974/75. The Berlin Mission Society (Berliner Missionsgesellschaft) merged into the Berliner Missionswerk. Founding members included the Jerusalem Society (established in 1851), the German East Asia Mission (founded in 1882), and the Evangelical Church of the Union (Evangelische Kirche der Union). Operating in the former house of the Gossner Mission in Berlin-Friedenau, The Berliner Missionswerk maintained ties to partnership churches. They particularly focused on South Africa, Tanzania, the Middle East, and East Asia.
Theodor Fliedner, founder of the Kaiserswerth Diaconate, along with deaconesses Adelheid Bleibtreu, Pauline Keller, and nurses Katharine Evers and Henriette Zenke, opened a children's home for Arab girls in Jerusalem in 1851. This evolved into a school for girls and boys, named Talitha Kumi (English: "girl, arise!") since 1868. In 1961, the school moved to its current building near Beit Jala in the West Bank. In 1974, the Berliner Missionswerk took over the school's sponsorship. Today, Talitha Kumi is a coeducational school actively working towards reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians.
The roots of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania (ELCT) lie in the missionary work of German, Swedish, and American mission societies during the 19th-century colonial period. The BMG was also active in present-day Tanzania from 1891. During the British mandate, seven Lutheran churches formed the Federation of Lutheran Churches in Tanganyika in 1938. Shortly after Tanzania's independence, these churches merged into the ELCT. Since 1975, the ELCT has been a partner church of the Berliner Missionswerk and now has around eight million members.
In 1976, Elisabeth Stärke began her service in the newly created area of "catechetical work with children" at the ÖMZ. Together with the congregational service and regional and deanery officers for catechetical work with children, she developed ecumenical-missionary yearly themes focusing on children from partner countries. The teaching materials and the annual Day of Encounter, which started in 1977, made the ÖMZ nationally known. Over 1800 children and adults regularly attended the Day of Encounter at the ÖMZ, which always included ecumenical guests.
The Iglesia Presbiteriana-Reformada en Cuba (IPRC) traces its origins to the missionary work of American mission societies starting in 1890. After the 1959 revolution, collaboration with churches in the USA became difficult, and many Christians left Cuba. The IPRC became independent. Since the late 1980s, churches have had more freedom of action following a period of state atheism. The question of the church's stance and engagement “in socialism" was a crucial point in meetings with Christians in the GDR. Since 1999, the IPRC has been a partner church of the Berliner Missionswerk.
Since 2003, the iThemba Labantu Ecumenical Education Center has existed in the Philippi township of Cape Town, South Africa. Under the direction of Otto Kohlstock, an ecumenical worker of the Berliner Missionswerk, 50 staff members offer various educational programs, ranging from childcare to music lessons, dance and theater classes, and computer and automotive courses. In 2016, iThemba Labantu opened a primary school. The center provides a safe space for children experiencing violence, runs awareness programs for boys and girls, and offers parent training and social counseling.
In the newly established Ecumenism Department, the areas of ecumenism, international congregations, migration/integration, and interreligious dialogue were consolidated. The Ecumenical Center – Berliner Missionswerk has since positioned itself as a competence center for ecumenical, intercultural, and interreligious work of its supporting churches.
The Migration/Integration Department advises the church on refugee policy issues and church asylum. It develops projects for and with refugees. With its support, the Hardship Commission (Härtefallkommission), the Berlin Refugee Council (Flüchtlingsrat Berlin), and the Forum for Deportation Observation (Forum Abschiebebeobachtung) were established. Since 2016, there has been a regional pastor position for this area and the "mobile migration counseling" service.
The Interreligious Dialogue Department maintains relations with interreligious partners in the Ecumenical Center. It keeps close contact with political and social groups, develops and organizes dialogue projects, and participates in interreligious and religious-political discourse.
Johannes Goßner, founder of the Gossner Mission, was initially a member of the BMG board before he took his own path due to theological differences. Goßner sent out 141 missionaries, mostly craftsmen, leading to the formation of the Indian Gossner Evangelical Lutheran Church in Chotanagpur and Assam, a partner church of the EKBO. Today, the Gossner Mission is active in India, Zambia, Nepal, Uganda, and Germany. Since 2010, it has been headquartered in the Berlin Mission House. In 2020, the Gossner Mission also became the sponsor of the Ecumenical Center and has a seat and vote in the mission council.
Under the theme "Here I Stand," inspired by Martin Luther, women from the regional church and participants from partner churches gathered for a consultation in Berlin. Women from India, Ethiopia, South Africa, Swaziland, Botswana, Tanzania, Palestine, Egypt, Poland, Czech Republic, Sweden, England, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Cuba, and the USA discussed issues such as the situation of women in the churches, poverty, violence, and migration. This initiated an international dialogue among women from Protestant churches to "continue discussions, form and question opinions, and stay in conversation despite differing views."
In June 2024, the Christian Encounter Days (Christlichen Begegnungstage, abbr. CBT24) took place in Frankfurt (Oder) and Słubice under the motto "Nothing Can Separate Us." The regional church Berlin-Brandenburg-schlesische Oberlausitz, together with the Evangelical-Augsburg Church in Poland, hosted the event and tasked the Berliner Missionswerk with organizing this church day. The program included family and youth activities, panel discussions on spiritual and socio-political topics, Bible breakfasts, joint worship services, ecumenical devotions, concerts, and more. About 4000 participants from Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia, Ukraine, Germany, and Austria attended.
The Christian Encounter Days were also intended as a political positioning of young Christians for a just and peaceful world:
„As Christian churches, we take a stand in a world challenged by many crises. We advocate for solidarity and unity, against divisions, power claims, populism, and war. As a grown community, we stand together boldly, supported by the love of God given to us in Jesus Christ. The German-Polish friendship is reflected in the joint invitation of the EKBO and the Diocese of Wrocław of the Lutheran Church in Poland, as well as the inclusion of the regional ecumenism.”
The world map refers to the network of the Berlin Mission Organisation with today's partner churches. Naturally, they have diverse focuses and their own perspectives on the topic of mission today.
Click on the dots next to the locations of the partner churches to find out more about the projects.
If you would like more information on the individual churches, click on one of the following buttons:
Contractually agreed partnership since 1959 and 1977
The ELCJHL has its roots in the German Palestinian mission and became independent with the election of the first Arab Lutheran bishop in 1979. It is active in education, gender equality, and the reconciliation process between Israel and Palestine. The six congregations are located in the West Bank, Amman (Jordan), and in East Jerusalem. In the area of the ELCJHL, the Berlin Mission Society maintains the German international school Talitha Kumi in Beit Jala.
Contractually agreed partnership since 1982
The Coptic Evangelical Church of Egypt, founded in 1854 by American Presbyterian missionaries, became independent in 1926. It is the oldest and currently the largest Protestant church in Egypt, with 314 congregations. A major focus of the Nile Synod is on education. It operates hospitals, health centres, and 22 schools, including a school for individuals with disabilities.
Contractually agreed partnership since 1975
The Berlin Mission Society began its work in Southern Africa, with its first missionaries arriving there in 1834. From their mission activities, and the efforts of missionaries from Hermannsburg, Scandinavia, and North America, four regional, independent Black churches emerged starting in 1960 and united in 1975 to form the ELCSA. The church has about 600,000 members across seven dioceses, including one in Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) and one in Botswana. After the end of apartheid, the church focused on new societal challenges, such as combating the AIDS epidemic and addressing poverty in informal settlements. An ecumenical co-worker of the Berlin Missionary Society, Pastor Otto Kohlstock, works at the church education centre iThemba Labantu in Philippi, a township of Cape Town.
Contractually agreed partnership since 1975
Ethiopia has been a Christian country since biblical times. The origins of the EECMY lie in the mission activities of lutheran and reformed mission societies from Scandinavia, North America, and Germany at the beginning of the last century. With over 11 million members, the EECMY is the largest Lutheran church in the world. Today, it sends missionaries to neighboring countries, operates universities, schools, and hospitals, and engages in development and awareness-raising work throughout the country in areas such as water, food security, and sexual self-determination. It also works against the practice of female genital mutilation.
Contractually agreed partnership since 1975
With over 7.9 million members, the ELCT is one of the largest lutheran churches in Africa. It originated from the mission activities of Swedish, American, and German mission societies, including those of Berlin missionaries in the southern part of the country, starting in 1891. The now-independent mission churches merged in 1963 to form the ELCT. The church plays a crucial role in Tanzania's health and education sectors. Across the country, the ELCT operates hospitals, first aid stations, orphanages, and numerous schools, including schools for the blind and deaf. Many of these institutions trace their origins to the founding work of Berlin missionaries, including the Matema Hospital on Lake Nyasa, where the Berlin Mission Society remains actively involved.
Contractually agreed partnership since 1999
The IPRC was founded around 1900 by American Presbyterians and remained part of the mother church in the USA for a long time. After the 1959 revolution, and following a massive exodus of clergy and parishioners to the USA, the church became independent in 1967. This led the church to reinvent itself, and it evolved into one of the global pioneers of a “Church in Socialism.” After 1990, it became both theologically more diverse and socially more inclusive. It transformed from a church of the white, privileged classes into a small but inclusive church, with its social and diaconal work extending far beyond its formal membership. Today, the IPRC has about 5,000 members, but its social work reaches a much larger number of people.
Contractually agreed partnership since 1997
With the founding of the Second Polish Republic in 1919, the EAKIP was established, whose roots trace back to the Reformation. After the Wehrmacht invasion, the EAKIP was dissolved in Poland at the end of 1939; about 30 percent of its clergy perished in concentration camps and prisons. Reestablished in 1945, the EAKIP is now the largest Protestant church in Poland, with 130 congregations. The year 2022 was of significant importance for the church, on the 7th of May the first eight female deacons were ordained as pastors.
Contractually agreed partnership since 2017
The history of the "Church of the Transylvanian Saxons" dates back more than 850 years, to when settlers from the Rhine and Moselle regions came to what is now Romania. For a long time, all German-speaking Protestant congregations in the country were under the authority of the Prussian Church. It was not until the 1920s that this Lutheran diaspora integrated into the Association of the EKR. After the fall of the "Iron Curtain," two-thirds of the congregation members emigrated to Germany. Today, the EKR is a denominational and linguistic minority church with about 11,000 members. The language of proclamation is German.
Contractually agreed partnership since 2014
In 1765, the first large group of settlers from the German lands came to the Volga region. The 20th century was marked by restrictions and deportations of the so-called Russian Germans. It was only with the political changes in the 1980s and 90s that faith could once again be practiced openly. The congregations of the ELKER extend along approximately one thousand kilometers of the middle and lower Volga riverbanks. Large distances are one of their major challenges. In these small congregations – many ELKER members have relocated to Germany – community development includes diaconal initiatives to reach out to society.
The name "Bohemian Brethren" refers to its roots in the Czech Reformation – and thus to the legacy of Jan Hus. Today, the EKBB, with around 72,000 believers, is the largest Protestant church in the Czech Republic; however, in a secular environment, this means that less than one percent of the population identifies with it. The EKBB has always emphasized the importance of education. Additionally, the diaconia is an important provider of social services in the country.
Contractually agreed partnership since 1980/81 with three church districts
The UCC in the USA has approximately 800,000 members in 4,852 congregations. It describes itself as "Christian, congregational, reformed, and protestant." In the USA, the UCC and other liberal churches (often referred to as Mainline Churches) play a significant role as voices in society and are distinctly positioned in support of equal rights for all Americans.
Contractually agreed partnership since 1998
The Church of England is the mother church of the Anglican Communion and, with approximately 25 million members, it is the largest of all Anglican churches worldwide. It is headed by the British monarch, and it is the last state church within the Anglican Communion. The partnership exists between the Berlin Diocese and the Diocese of London. With the Diocese of Chichester, there is a multilateral connection through the Coburg Conference, which also includes the Catholic Archdiocese of Bamberg and the Evangelical Lutheran Church District of Bayreuth.
Contractually agreed partnership since 2008
The Swedish Church was the state church until the year 2000. Today, it still has about 70 percent of the Swedish population as its members. The partner diocese is Gothenburg. As many of the challenges facing Swedish society as a whole are concentrated in this diocese, Gothenburg holds an important voice within the Church of Sweden. A key focus is contributing to a sustainable society where the human being is at the center.
Contractually agreed partnership since 1978
The PCT was founded in 1865 by Scottish and Canadian missionaries. Today, it has approximately 257,000 members in over 1,200 congregations. During the years of military dictatorship after World War II, the PCT boldly advocated for the interests of the people. Other focal points of its engagement include missionary and social diaconal work, Christian witness in the modern workplace, and the right of peoples to self-determination.
Contractually agreed partnership since 1976
The United Church of Christ in Japan (Kyodan) is currently the largest Protestant church in Japan, with approximately 196,000 members in 1,725 congregations. Protestant Christianity arrived in Japan from American missionaries starting in 1858. The first Protestant church in Japan was established in Yokohama in 1872. At its synod in 1890, the church formulated its own confession of faith. In the understanding of the present United Church of Christ in Japan (Kyodan), this founding was ecumenical.
Contractually agreed partnership since 1977
The PROK was established in 1953 as a breakaway group from the Presbyterian Church of Korea, which was founded in 1907. During the military dictatorship of the 1970s and 1980s, it actively advocated for human rights and democratization. To this day, the church is committed to dialogue, diversity, and reconciliation, and works on behalf of the poor and marginalized.
Representing the memory of the Berliner Missionswerk, which is housed in our archive at Bethaniendamm 29, are five display cases in the center of the room. We exhibit only few objects since the provenance of many items in the archive is unclear. These remain hidden from view initially. Different perspectives can then be opened like “windows”. Commented on by researchers, archivists, or contemporary witnesses, they offer various viewpoints.
The archive contains 943 items from Asia and Africa brought to Berlin by missionaries. These are primarily everyday objects, such as the wooden spoons displayed here. However, items of political life, agriculture, military equipment, toys, plans, and (land) maps were also collected. Clear indications of the origins of these objects were rarely noted, making provenance research difficult. Many questions remain unanswered: Where and by whom were the items made? Who did these objects belong to? Were they gifts, purchased, traded, or stolen? What is their significance? How did they come to Berlin?
The library of the Berliner Missionswerk contains numerous translated Bibles, hymn books, and church ordinances from the mission areas. Learning languages and translating Christian texts have been integral to the work of the missionaries from the beginning. Language skills were essential to approach people and preach the Christian faith. Colonial officials and military personnel also valued the missionaries' language skills and often enlisted them as interpreters in communication with the local population.
The drum (Ngoma in Swahili) is an object that exemplifies how stereotypes and judgments of missionaries shaped intercultural encounters in mission areas. The musical instrument was misused to construct a dichotomy between the "light of the gospel" and the perceived "darkness" of those being missionized. While the drum remains an integral part of life for many communities, accompanying people during religious, educational, or festive events and used for communication, it symbolized for the missionaries the „utterly foreign, the diabolical,“ the antithesis of Christian hymns: in short, so-called „heathenism“.
Images have played a central role in the work of the mission society from early on. Alongside illustrative drawings, an increasing number of photographs were taken in the 19th century to depict the work of missionaries. These images were crucial for fundraising, appearing in mission magazines and being presented at events. They also served as educational material for missionaries as visual resources. In both cases, the staged photographs and drawings shaped perceptions of the societies they depicted, helping to generate and reinforce colonial knowledge.
The holdings of the Berliner Missionswerk today include various types of maps: maps of mission areas, travel plans, and especially plans of the different mission stations in both large and small scales. These various maps served not only for orientation but also for illustration and the delineation of different mission areas.
Our self-understanding as the Berliner Missionswerk - Ecumenical Center and our understanding of Mission have fundamentally changed since our founding 200 years ago.
We are appalled by the racist sense of superiority held by our predecessors. The language and self-conception of many missionaries are foreign to us today. We recognize that alongside the intention to spread their faith and support people, there were also many entanglements of the Christian mission with the colonial powers of their time.
The worldviews of earlier missionaries continue to shape our perceptions to some extent. Therefore, it is important for us to make visible how we are influenced by them. This exhibition is a step towards addressing the history of the Berliner Mission.
We remain closely connected in partnership and solidarity with the now-independent churches that have emerged from our mission and that of other mission organizations. From them, we hear how they have often experienced Mission as liberating. In recent years, new connections have also grown out of interreligious and ecumenical dialogue. The impulses from our international and interreligious partners transform our Christianity and shape our work.
Today, our mission is to work together within this network in mutual respect, to communicate the Gospel while respecting the right to self-determination of all people, and to contribute to making the world more just, peaceful, and sustainable.
We warmly invite you to share your questions and comments on the whitebord with us.
What advice would you offer us?
Whose voices are missing?
What would you like to see from the Berliner Missionswerk?
Your can learn more about the current work of the Berliner Missionswerk this website.
The sources for all texts and quotations can be found on the German version of this website.