German Missionaries in Australia

Heinrich August Hahn attended the local school in Neu-Tucheband (now on the border to Poland) and became a stonemason before being called for military duty in the Franco-Prussian war in 1869. He then attended the Moravian mission school at Niesky (1871-1873) and became a teacher in the Moravian school at Ebersdorf for a short period before he was called to missionary service in Australia in October 1874. He was accepted into the Morvaian Akoluthie on 15 July 1875, ordained as Diaconus on 24 September 1875, and on 8 November 1875 married the Moravian Sister Mary Ellinor Clemens at Fulneck (England), who was the daughter of prominent Moravian, Gottfried Clemens.¹

The two had been recruited for Ebenezer mission, but instead Wilhelm Kramer, whose relationship with Friedrich Hagenauer at Ramahyuck had deteriorated, was posted to Ebenezer. The Hahns were directed to assist at Ramahyuck mission, where they arrived on 9 January 1876. Hahn became the school teacher and after a period of cordial relations with Hagenauer, their relationship also fractured. Hagenauer claimed that Hahn did not render enough assistance, and that he ‘spent all his spare time in his room’. Eventually Hagenauer alleged that Hahn was ‘defrauding’ the government, and requested his removal from the mission.² In this battle Hagenauer invoked the influence of powerful allies, including the editor of the Lutheran Christenbote and President of the United Lutheran Synod, Pastor Hermann Herlitz.

In January 1880 Hahn resigned from his position and also left the Moravian Church to become a government school teacher. At Ramahuck he was replaced with a Baptist teacher (Beilby or Beilly) whom Hagenauer had known for ten years. No further Moravian Brethren were posted to Ramahyuck, where Hagenauer’s children eventually took over direction of the mission.³