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The Moravian, Berlin, and Leipzig Mission Archives in Eastern Germany

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 May 2014

Thaddeus Sunseri
Thaddeus Sunseri*
Affiliation:
Colorado State University
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Extract

The reunification of the Germanies in 1990 has opened up research opportunities for historians of Africa. While research in East German archives was possible for Western scholars during the Cold War, conditions for research were not as easy or affordable as they currently are. Intent on obtaining foreign exchange, East German authorities channeled Western researchers to expensive hotels and limited the number of files a researcher could see in a day in order to prolong the process. Visas had to be obtained well in advance of research trips, and for prescribed durations, curtailing the flexibility one needed if archival materials proved to be especially rich. From the Western side, while the Federal Republic was generous in allocating funds for research in its archives (particularly through DAAD—German Academic Exchange Service—research grants), it prohibited use of those funds for research undertaken in East Germany. Today it is possible to use DAAD funds for travel and research throughout reunited Germany.

While federal and state archives in eastern Germany offer valuable resources for researchers interested in the former German colonies, mission archives located in the East have not been widely used by historians of Africa. For the most part these have been content to use published mission histories and newspapers as their sources of information, neglecting diaries, station reports, and correspondence which offer more nuanced and detailed pictures of African life.

Type
Research Article
Information
History in Africa , Volume 26 , January 1999 , pp. 457 - 462
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1999

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References

1 A map of missionary societies' activities in German colonies can be found in Schnee, Heinrich, ed., Dcutschcs-Kolonial-Lexicon (Leipzig, 1920).Google Scholar

2 For a history of Moravian missions, which includes locations of mission stations, see Schulze, Adolf, Das zweite Missionshundert: 200 Jahre Brüdermission (Herrnhut, 1932).Google Scholar See also Hutton, J.E., A History of Moravian Missions (London, 1922).Google Scholar The latter includes maps of mission stations and a narrative of the founding of various mission sites.

3 Marcia Wright discusses mission activity in the Nyasa region in German Missions in Tanganyika, 1891–1941 (Oxford, 1971).Google Scholar

4 An overview and history of Berlin Mission stations is found in Richter, D. Julius, Geschichte der Berliner Missionsgesellschnft, 1824-1924 (Berlin, 1924)Google Scholar; and Wangemann, H.T., Geschichte der Berliner Missionsgesellschaft und ihrer Arbeiten in Südafrika (Berlin, 1872).Google Scholar Wangemann's work includes descriptions of other mission societies active in tive in South Africa before 1868, with a map of their locations. See as well van der Heyden, Ulrich, “The Archives and Library of the Berlin Mission Society,” HA 23(1996), 411–27.Google Scholar

5 On the Leipzig Mission see Spear, Thomas, ed., Michele, C. and Murphy, Timothy, trans., Evangeliscli-Lutherisches Missionsblatt (Madison, 1995).Google Scholar

6 For background information on the Ethnographic Museum, and other Leipzig-based projects related to Africa, see Jones, Adam, ed., Afrika in Leipzig: Erforschung unit Vermittlung eines Kontincnts, 1730-1950 (Leipzig, 1995).Google Scholar