- Karl Wilhelm Posselt
Karl/Carl Wilhelm Posselt (
20 June 1815 Diekow bei Berlinchen,Neumark ,Brandenburg -12 May 1885 Christianenburg,Natal ,South Africa ), was a German missionary from theBerlin Missionary Society and was active in South Africa where he became known as "the missionary with the violin".Posselt initially trained as a teacher atNeuzelle , but became inspired by mission work during his training and attended a seminary in Berlin from1834-39. On 21 December 1839 he disembarked atTable Bay after a voyage fromHamburg on the "Devonshire". He arrived as a member ofthe Berlin Missionary Society and in the company of fellow missionaries Ludwig Liefeldt and Johannes Winter.Posselt served his apprenticeship under Carl Friedrich Schultheiss (1815-1855) at the Itemba mission station on the Kubusie River near
Stutterheim inKaffraria . Here he also learnt the rudiments of theXhosa language. Itemba was razed during the
Frontier War of 1846-47, rebuilt and redestroyed in
1850. [ [http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Meadows/7589/Names/Wanderung.html Index of Names for 'Deutsche Wanderung'] ] Posselt and Liefeldt started a new mission station Emmaus, which was renamed Wartburg, on the IndweRiver, only to have that sacked as well. Posselt then started work among the Zulu people living below theDrakensberg in Natal and near the modern-dayBergville . With Wilhelm Guldenpfennig he founded a new station there, again named Emmaus, and existing to this day. In 1856 when hostilities again broke out, Posselt fled toPietermaritzburg . There he served the community of Neu-Deutschland which had been founded in 1848 with the arrival of 182 German settlers fromBremen [http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutsche_in_Natal] , and whose main activity was growing cotton. Then it was located just outsidePort Natal , but today forms part of Westville inDurban . The settlers had been recruited fromBramsche nearOsnabrück by a director of the "Natal Cotton Company", Jonas Bergtheil in order to cultivate cotton. The cotton-growing project soon failed and the colonists started growing vegetables to supply the demand in Port Natal. Some of the Germans moved inland and started the settlement of Neu-Hanover or New Hanover near Pietermaritzburg.Posselt returned to Emmaus when the community of Neu-Deutschland seemed to be on the point of dissolving, but went back when the rifts were healed. [ [http://www.genealogy.net/privat/gueinzius.h/E/Wilhelm-t.htm Genealogy Net] ] In 1858 he settled at the mission station he had founded in 1854 and named Christianenburg after his first wife, situated close to Neu-Deutschland and forming part of present-day Clermont Township.
Family
Posselt's parents were Carl Ludwig Posselt (9 April 1782 - 27 December 1834), a schoolteacher in Diekow, and Marie Elisabeth Fischer (24 June 1781 - 27 December 1834). They had 4 children - Charlotte, Karl Ludwig, Karl Wilhelm, Karl August.
Karl Wilhelm married his first wife, Christiane Schönheit (d17 April 1848Pietermaritzburg ), on 1 April 1841 inUitenhage and had 3 children - Johannes, Nathaniel, ChristianeHe married his second wife, Sophie Elizabeth Königkrämer (10 December 1834 - 30 November 1913), on 11 June 1851, producing 10 more children - Nathaniel, Mathilde, Emile Christiana, FelixAlbrecht Wilhelm, Sophie Lisette, Hermann Eberhardt, Erna, Emma Anna, Theodor Wilhelm, Helmuth [ [http://www.gassner-ahnenforschung.de/missionar/i32.htm#i1 Gassner genealogy] ]
*Sophie Lisette Posselt (5 October 1860 Christianenburg - 14 January 1923 Botshabelo, Middelburg) married the missionary Friedrich Michael Hellmuth Beuster (31 December 1850
Liebenwalde ,Brandenburg - 1 April 1920 Botshabelo, Middelburg) on 31 October 1879 at Christianenburg. [ [http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Meadows/7589/Names/berliner.html Berlin Society missionaries] ] [ [http://www.familysearch.org/eng/Search/frameset_search.asp?PAGE=AncestorSearchResults.asp%3Ffirst_name%3D%26last_name%3DPosselt%26fathers_first_name%3D%26fathers_last_name%3D%26mothers_first_name%3D%26mothers_last_name%3D%26spouses_first_name%3D%26spouses_last_name%3D%26from_date%3D%26to_date%3D%26date_range%3D%26standardize%3D%26juris1index%3D%26juris2index%3D%26juris1friendly%3D%26juris2friendly%3D%26event_index%3D%26testing%3D%26juris1%3D%26juris2%3D%26juris3%3D Family Search] ]
*Mathilde Posselt (1855 Emmaus, Bergville - 8 January 1932Pretoria ) married missionary Friedrich Carl Adolph Grünberger (15 April 1838 Godow,Oberschlesien - 1 August 1918 Pretoria)References
Bibliography
*Pfitzner, E., & D. Wangemann, "Wilhelm Posselt der Kaffernmissionar", Berlin 1895
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