RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1969 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d 149 NOTES AND QUERIES "BETHESDA" AND THE BERLINER FRAUENVEREIN FÜR CHINA The following is an extract from a letter written on 15th August 1968 to the Hon. Editor by Pastor Albrecht Plag of the German-speaking Evangelical-Lutheran Congregation in Hong Kong. To my knowledge, the first foundling house to be established and built in Hong Kong was the one founded by the "Berliner Frauenverein für China". This body was formed at Berlin in 1850 under the influence and through the efforts of the German Protestant pioneer missionary to China, the Rev. Dr. Karl Gützlaff whose contribution to the early history of Hong Kong is well known. He is buried at the Colonial Cemetery in Happy Valley.* The history of that foundling house, which was named "Bethesda", is given (at least up to 1897) in the book Aus der deutschen Mission unter dem weiblichen Geschlechte in China (C. F. Winter'sche Buchdruckerei, Darmstadt, 1889, 3. Aufl. 1897) by Miss Luise Cooper. According to this source, “Bethesda” was designed and built by Mr. C. St. G. Cleverly, the then Surveyor-General for the Hong Kong Government. The dedication ceremony took place on 5th July, 1861. The site was bought for HK$720 by the "Berliner Frauenverein für China" (Hong Kong representative at that time: Mr. Ladendorff), probably in 1860 or early 1861. The size of the lot is given as 350 ft. long and 150 ft. wide and the annual crown rent is £23 and 2 sh. per year. It must have been quite a respectable building, situated on a hill overlooking the harbour somewhere in the western part of Hong Kong Island.* In 1881, on the same property, just next to "Bethesda", the German Lutheran Congregation of the time built their own little church. A few years earlier, they had elected the Rev. E. Klitzke, the then director of "Bethesda", as their pastor. However, soon after Rev. Klitzke died (in 1883) that predecessor of our present German-speaking Evangelical-Lutheran Congregation in Hong Kong (constituted in 1965) declined and ceased to exist. Klitzke is also buried at the Colonial Cemetery. * See Plates 16 and 17, kindly supplied by Pastor Plag. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1975 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d 294 NOTES AND QUERIES The innkeeper of the German Inn was Christian Frederick William Petersen. He conducted a tavern and boarding house for sailors until his death in 1896, aged 64. The German Tavern was located on the south side of Queen's Road, not far west from the Gough Street steps. His wife was probably Chinese as baptisms of their children were recorded in the Chinese congregation of the London Missionary Society. The Hong Kong Blue Books under 'Ecclesiastical Returns' lists as a place of worship for Europeans the chapel of the Berlin Mission House from 1871 through 1919, though services were probably not held during the war years. From this source we can draw up a list of pastors of this German (Lutheran) congregation: Ernest Klitzke. The inscription on his tombstone in the Colonial Cemetery, Happy Valley reads, "Pastor of the German Congregation in Hong Kong 1867-1881." Christian Wilhelm Louis. Pastor from the death of Klitzke in 1881 to his own death in July, 1883. He was the son-in-law of Rev. J. L. Ladendorff. F. E. W. Hartmann, 1883-1890 Richard F. F. Gottschalk, 1891-1897 Th. Kriele, 1898-1904 J. Müller, 1905-1911 Fr. von Probst, 1913 The attendance at the Chapel, as listed in the Blue Book returns, was never large, ranging between 20 and 40. The congregation originally met in the chapel within the Berlin Foundling House, but in 1881 they occupied a small chapel built on the same premises. The China Mail, Nov. 24, 1880, reports the laying of the foundation stone: The foundation stone of the new Lutheran Chapel in Bonham Road was laid yesterday afternoon by Pastor Klitzke, of the Berlin Ladies' Association. The Pastor read an appropriate address, and after the ceremonies usual upon such an occasion had been performed, the children of the Foundling Hospital sang a hymn in conclusion. The new Chapel, which is built on the top of the ground storey below the level of the road (made use of as a laundry and quarters for the servants connected with the institution), is to be a small edifice, only intended to seat a con- ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1988 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch RASHKB and author Vol. 28 (1988) ISSN 1991-7295 David Faure 203 THE ARCHIVES OF THE BASEL MISSION In June 1988, I visited the Archives of the Basel Mission located in the Mission House at 21 Missionsstrasse, CH 4003 Basel, Switzerland. This archive is rich in material on the Hakka communities in Kwangtung Province. These archives are not as well known as some other mission collections. The earlier records are written in the old German script and present difficulties to those who have not been trained in reading it. Along with missionary matters, the correspondence from China also contains much material of anthropological, sociological and historical interest. In my visit my chief interest was to gather data on the work of the mission in the San On and Tung Kun Districts of Kwangtung, particularly their school and seminary at Li Long. I did not have time to transcribe items of more general interest, but I did copy the following. My translation was checked and corrected by Rev. Dr. Richard Deutsch, a close friend and a former colleague in the Theological Division of the Chinese University, Hong Kong, who is now on the staff of the Mission House. A Revolutionary Plot at Canton A-1.29 No. 51, 28 November 1895, Rev. Mr. Kircher, Hong Kong. “A few weeks ago, a Christian in the Berlin Mission House at Canton told the missionaries to seek safety as a revolution would break out in ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1994 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g 7 Gutzlaff was not unaware that his Union needed closer supervision. He appealed to German missionary societies to send out agents to assist him in his project. In response the Rhenish Missionary Society at Barmen and the Basel Missionary Society each sent two men in 1847. After a brief orientation period in Hong Kong, they were sent into China where they worked severally in areas where Cantonese, Hakka and Tiu-chau speakers lived. During the second Sino-British war they weathered out the war in Hong Kong and Macao. It was also the time when some took home leave. On the return of Rev. Rudolph Lechler of the Basel Missionary Society in 1861, he built a mission house, school and chapel at Sai Ying Pun. The church and school served the Hakka speaking community in Hong Kong. The congregation is now the present Kau Yan Church on High Street. The Rev Heinrich Cocking, also a medical doctor, arrived in Hong Kong in 1855 as an agent of the Berlin Missionary Society. He opened a small dispensary and hospital in 1858 at the foot of Morrison Hill in Wanchai. It was principally for Chinese but German sailors were also treated there. Agents of the Berlin Ladies Mission for China opened a home for foundling children on the top of Morrison Hill. The Berliner Frauenverein für China had been organised in response to the Rev. Charles Gutzlaff's appeal for support for his vision of the speedy conversion of the Chinese nation. The home was moved to No. 1 High Street in 1861 where it had built a large building, which was named Bethesda. It was not far from the mission house and chapel of the Basel Missionary Society. Before the removal to High Street of the Berlin foundling home, German speaking services were held on Sundays at their establishment on Morrison Hill. At an earlier time these services were held in a tavern on Queen's Road East operated by a German. The Rev. Philip Winnes, of the Basel Mission, reported in 1858: “In this manner, I preached until the sailors had enough, and that they had quite soon". The Hong Kong Blue Books in their ecclesiastical returns list a place of worship for Europeans from 1871 at the chapel of the Berlin Mission House on High Street. A small chapel was built beside the foundling home in 1881. Its entrance was off Bonham Road. The services were moved to the hall of Union Church on Kennedy Road in 1902. They remained there until 1904 when they were moved back to the Bethesda Chapel where services were held. ================================================================================