German Missionaries in Australia

AFC Täger was a tailor before he became a Moravian brother. He was 31 years old when he was accepted to Herrnhut (24 December 1842) where he received his first communion (14 February 1843) and then attended the Moravian college at Niesky from 1845. Four years later he was called to missionary service to set up the first Moravian mission in New Holland (Australia).

Täger was ordained as Diaconus at Niesky (15 July 1949) and in late August 1849 he departed for London with Br. Friedrich Wilhelm Spieseke as lay helper. They sailed from London in October 1949 on the migrant ship Sibella and arrived in Melbourne after a five-months journey (25 February 1850).¹

The two Brothers spent six weeks in Melbourne, then a short period at the Mount Franklin Protectorate Station with Edward Stone Parker, they spent five months at Archibald Macarthur Campbell's Gannawarra station, a day's ride from the proposed mission site endorsed by Charles LaTrobe, the first Lieutenant Governor of the colony of Victoria erected in 1851.

Täger (now aged 40), assisted by Spieseke, set up Lake Boga mission during 1851. The two were plagued by sore eyes and other illnesses, and floods interrupted their plans.² After almost 20 months in Australia they opened the mission in October 1851, but without being able to report a resident population for some time. In January 1854 the two were reinforced by a younger Brother, Paul Hansen (aged 26), who arrived in Melbourne in January 1854.³

Täger was wary of government assistance, fearing a loss of control, and indeed he received little assistance when neighbours and travellers trespassed on the mission land, which was still not gazetted. He went to Melbourne to seek clarification and was kept waiting there for nine weeks. Presumably he found it difficult to negotiate with authorities in English, and he was accused of being 'unacquainted with English laws and customs’.⁴ He fell ill, and to help him make the momentous decision about the future of the mission he drew a ‘personal lot’, a Moravian practice to divine the Will of God. In May 1856 he returned to Lake Boga to dissolve the mission without having consulted the Moravian Mission Board or heeding the counsel of the Anglican Bishop Perry of Melbourne. Rev. Lloyd Chase, one of their few supporters, immediately wrote an account in their defence detailing the difficulties put in their way.⁵

Täger, Spieseke and Hanson returned to London on 9 December 1856 and to Herrnhut on 23 December 1856 where they were called to a meeting on 10 January 1857 with the Conference of Elders of the Unity of Brethren (Unitätsältestenkonferenz).⁶ In the end Spieseke and Hanson were practically exonerated, whereas Täger was severely chastised and held responsible for the failure of the mission. Jensz argues that he became a scape-goat in an effort to defend the international reputation of the Moravian missionaries.

Spieseke was entrusted with a further expedition to Victoria, whereas Täger was excluded from such plans.⁷ He died at Gnadenberg at age 60 in December 1870.