Pioniermissionar in Kaiser-Wilhelmsland

English summary: Wilhelm Diehl (1874-1940) spent 18 years as a missionary. At the conclusion of his ten years of training in the Rhenish Missionary Society in Barmen, he was ordained and was assigned for his mission field to Kaiser-Wilhelmsland (German New Guinea), arriving at the end of 1902. At the missionary station at Bogadjim on Astrolabe Bay, he was first active as an assistant, but within a year he was already in charge of the station. Afterward his first wife, Louise, died...
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English summary: Wilhelm Diehl (1874-1940) spent 18 years as a missionary. At the conclusion of his ten years of training in the Rhenish Missionary Society in Barmen, he was ordained and was assigned for his mission field to Kaiser-Wilhelmsland (German New Guinea), arriving at the end of 1902. At the missionary station at Bogadjim on Astrolabe Bay, he was first active as an assistant, but within a year he was already in charge of the station. Afterward his first wife, Louise, died after the ten-month sea voyage to New Guinea, in 1907 he married Johanna. Their edited diaries are published in the first volume of this series. The notes of Wilhelm Diehl extensively document, how his knowledge about indigenous customs and views constantly developed. He was increasingly deployed as an arbitrator and mediator in the conflicts between the native peoples on the one side and the institutions of the German colony on the others, viewing those responsible for encroachments as his fosterlings. From realization that the coastal area was unhealthy and sparsely population, the missionary undertook countless expeditions into the hinterlands, uncharted and virtually unknown to Europeans, where he had thrilling first-contact encounters with Melanesian peoples. Diehls expeditions finally led to the construction of island stations, which secured the successful activities of the mission. Diehl recorded many of his meetings in photographs, the most striking examples of which are made available to reader in the pictorial section of this volume. German description: Wilhelm Diehl (1874-1940) beschloss mit 18 Jahren, Missionar zu werden. Seine zehnjahrige Ausbildung in der Rheinischen Missionsgesellschaft in Barmen schloss er mit der Ordination ab. Er wurde fur das Arbeitsfeld in Kaiser-Wilhelmsland (Deutsch-Neuguinea) bestimmt, wo er Ende des Jahres 1902 eintraf. Auf der Missionsstation Bogadjim in der Astrolabebucht war er zunachst als Assistent tatig, ubernahm jedoch bereits nach eineinhalb Jahren die Station. Nachdem seine erste Frau Louise nach zehnmonatigem Sudseeaufenthalt im Jahr 1905 gestorben war, heiratete er 1907 Johanna. Ihre Tagebucher hat der Herausgeber in Band 1 dieser Buchreihe veroffentlicht. Die nun vorgelegten Aufzeichnungen Wilhelm Diehls dokumentieren anschaulich, wie sein Wissen um indigene Brauche und Anschauungen standig wuchs. Er wurde daher zunehmend als Schiedsrichter und Schlichter eingesetzt, sei es bei Konflikten der Einheimischen untereinander oder mit den deutschen kolonialen Institutionen. Bei Ubergriffen stellte er sich stets vor seine Schutzlinge. Aus der Erkenntnis heraus, dass die Kustenregion zu ungesund und dunnbesiedelt war, unternahm der Missionar zahlreiche Expeditionen in das so gut wie unerforschte Hinterland, wobei es zu aufregenden Erstkontakten mit der melanesischen Bevolkerung kam. Diehls Expeditionen fuhrten letztlich zum Aufbau von Inlandsstationen, was der Mission ein erfolgreicheres Wirken sicherte. Viele seiner Begegnungen hat Diehl in Fotografien festgehalten. Die eindrucksvollsten Aufnahmen werden dem Leser im Abbildungsteil dieser Edition zuganglich gemacht.