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Carl Hugo Hahn (1818–1895) was a
Baltic German Baltic Germans (german: Deutsch-Balten or , later ) were ethnic German inhabitants of the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, in what today are Estonia and Latvia. Since their coerced resettlement in 1939, Baltic Germans have markedly declined ...
missionary and
linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Lingui ...
who worked in South Africa and South-West Africa for most of his life. Together with Franz Heinrich Kleinschmidt, he set up the first Rhenish mission station to the
Herero people The Herero ( hz, Ovaherero) are a Bantu ethnic group inhabiting parts of Southern Africa. There were an estimated 250,000 Herero people in Namibia in 2013. They speak Otjiherero, a Bantu language. Though the Herero primarily reside in Namibia, t ...
in
Gross Barmen Gross Barmen ( German: Groß Barmen) is a historic settlement and a recreational spa on the Swakop River in central Namibia, north of Windhoek. It is situated on the District Road 1972, 25 km south-west of Okahandja in the Otjozondjupa Regio ...
. Hahn is known for his scientific work on the Herero language.


Early life

Hahn was born into a bourgeois family on 18 October 1818 in
Ādaži Ādaži () (formerly german: Neuermühlen) is a town in Pierīga, on the left bank of the Gauja river. Town is administrative center of Ādaži Municipality. It is located by the highway A1, 21.6 km from the center of Riga. Ādaži ...
(Aahof) near Riga in the Russian Empire. He studied Engineering at the Engineering School of the Russian Army from 1834 onwards but was not satisfied with that choice and, more generally, his parents' way of life. In 1837 he left Ādaži for Barmen (today part of Wuppertal, Germany) to apply at the missionary school of the
Rhenish Missionary Society The Rhenish Missionary Society (''Rhenish'' of the river Rhine) was one of the largest Protestant missionary societies in Germany. Formed from smaller missions founded as far back as 1799, the Society was amalgamated on 23 September 1828, and i ...
. He was admitted to the Missionary School in Elberfeld (also part of Wuppertal today) in 1838 and graduated in 1841.


Missionary work

Hahn arrived in Cape Town on 13 October 1841. His orders were to bring Christianity to the Nama and the
Herero Herero may refer to: * Herero people The Herero ( hz, Ovaherero) are a Bantu ethnic group inhabiting parts of Southern Africa. There were an estimated 250,000 Herero people in Namibia in 2013. They speak Otjiherero, a Bantu language. Though t ...
in South West Africa—not an easy task considering that both tribes were enemies at that time, albeit at peace from Christmas Day 1842 to 1846. He travelled to Windhoek (or as the locals called it then, ǀAiǁgams) in 1842 and was well received by
Jonker Afrikaner Jonker Afrikaner ( 1785, ''Roode Zand'' near Tulbagh, South Africa – 18 August 1861, Okahandja) was the fourth Captain of the Orlam in South West Africa, succeeding his father, Jager Afrikaner, in 1823. Soon after becoming ''Kaptein'', ...
,
Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...
of the
Orlam The Oorlam or Orlam people (also known as Orlaam, Oorlammers, Oerlams, or Orlamse Hottentots) are a subtribe of the Nama people, largely assimilated after their migration from the Cape Colony (today, part of South Africa) to Namaqualand and Da ...
Afrikaner tribe residing there. When in 1844 Wesleyan missionaries led by Richard Haddy arrived at the invitation of Jonker Afrikaner, Hahn and his colleague Franz Heinrich Kleinschmidt moved northwards into
Damaraland Damaraland was a name given to the north-central part of what later became Namibia, inhabited by the Damaras. It was bounded roughly by Ovamboland in the north, the Namib Desert in the west, the Kalahari Desert in the east, and Windhoek in ...
in order to avoid conflict with them. Hahn and Kleinschmidt arrived at ''Otjikango'' on 31 October 1844. They named the place ''Barmen'' (today
Gross Barmen Gross Barmen ( German: Groß Barmen) is a historic settlement and a recreational spa on the Swakop River in central Namibia, north of Windhoek. It is situated on the District Road 1972, 25 km south-west of Okahandja in the Otjozondjupa Regio ...
) after the headquarters of the Rhenish Missionary Society in Germany and established the first Rhenish mission station to the Herero there. Hahn learned the language and taught gardening and animal husbandry, building a church in 1850 and attempting to evangelize. At that time Jonker Afrikaner oversaw the development of the road network in South-West Africa. Hahn and Kleinschmidt initiated the creation of a path from Windhoek to Barmen via Okahandja, and in 1850 this road, later known as
Alter Baiweg Alter may refer to: * Alter (name), people named Alter * Alter (automobile) * Alter (crater), a lunar crater * Alter Channel, a Greek TV channel * Archbishop Alter High School, a Roman Catholic high school in Kettering, Ohio * ALTER, a command in ...
(''Old Bay Path''), was extended via
Otjimbingwe Otjimbingwe (also: Otjimbingue) is a settlement in the Erongo Region of central Namibia. It has approximately 8,000 inhabitants. History The area was already a temporary settlement of some Herero in the early 18th century. Their chief Tjiponda c ...
to
Walvis Bay Walvis Bay ( en, lit. Whale Bay; af, Walvisbaai; ger, Walfischbucht or Walfischbai) is a city in Namibia and the name of the bay on which it lies. It is the second largest city in Namibia and the largest coastal city in the country. The ci ...
. This route served as an important trade connection between the coast and Windhoek until the end of the century. Their missionary work was not very successful, and in 1850, after a crushing Herero defeat at the hands of Jonker's Nama troops in Okahandja, the Herero fled the area. Hahn was recalled to Germany to report back, but was given new orders upon arrival in Cape Town in November 1852. Since Haddy had fled Windhoek in the wake of Jonker's raids, Hahn was tasked to fill the void, but he failed and returned to Germany, arriving in Barmen on 13 September 1853. He traveled Europe between 1853 and 1856 to gather support for his endeavors, which by then were considered futile by the Rhenish Missionary Society. He returned with the order to evangelize the people in Ovamboland, after a brief return to Otjimbingwe where some of the Herero had fled, but his four-month 1857 expedition with the Rev.
Johannes Rath Johannes Rath (Vienna, Austria, 31 January 1816 – Kuils River, Cape Colony, 6 June 1903) was a missionary with the Rhenish Missionary Society. Missionary in Otjikango Rath was trained as a weaver but heard his call to mission in 1840 and wa ...
to the
Ovambo Ovambo may refer to: *Ovambo language *Ovambo people *Ovamboland Ovamboland, also referred to as Owamboland, was a Bantustan in South West Africa (present-day Namibia), intended by the apartheid government to be a self-governing homeland ...
at
Ondangwa Ondangwa (earlier spelling ''Ondangua'') is a town in the Oshana Region of northern Namibia, bordering the Oshikoto Region. Ondangwa was first established as a mission station of the Finnish Missionary Society (the FMS) in 1890. In 1914, it becam ...
ended in a disaster, and the members barely escaped alive. Moreover, Gross Barmen was almost destroyed by then due to the skirmishes between Namas and Hereros. Hahn's next expedition took him, Rath, and
Frederick Thomas Green Frederick Thomas (Fred) Green (April 4, 1829 – May 5, 1876) was an explorer, hunter and trader in what is now Namibia and Botswana. From 1850 to 1853 he operated in the Lake Ngami area with his older brother Charles. After 1854 he was mainly b ...
to the banks of the
Cunene River The Cunene (Portuguese spelling) or Kunene (common Namibian spelling) is a river in Southern Africa. It flows from the Angola highlands south to the border with Namibia. It then flows west along the border until it reaches the Atlantic Ocean. It ...
. His writing about the journey would later be published in the German travelogue Petermanns Geographische Mitteilungen, in which his descriptions of northern Hereroland and the San language, territory, and culture corroborated Francis Galtons reports on Ovamboland. Hahn also included a description of the
Etosha pan The Etosha Pan is a large endorheic salt pan, forming part of the Cuvelai-Etosha Basin in the north of Namibia. It is a hollow in the ground in which water may collect or in which a deposit of salt remains after water has evaporated. The 120-kil ...
and collected animal specimens for the Natural History Museum, Berlin. A shortage of missionaries stymied the Rhenish Missionaries in Ovamboland, and Hahn himself returned to Germany in June 1859 to escape the Nama-Herero war, finding friends and support for the Rhenish Missionaries on a whirlwind tour of Germany, England, and
Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eight ...
. After the Herero defeated the Nama on many occasions, missionary work was continued. Having turned down an offer to lead the
Berlin Missionary Society The Berlin Missionary Society (BMS) or ''Society for the Advancement of evangelistic Missions amongst the Heathen'' (German: '' Berliner Missionsgesellschaft'' or ''Gesellschaft zur Beförderung der evangelischen Missionen unter den Heiden'') was a ...
in 1863, Hahn returned to
Otjimbingwe Otjimbingwe (also: Otjimbingue) is a settlement in the Erongo Region of central Namibia. It has approximately 8,000 inhabitants. History The area was already a temporary settlement of some Herero in the early 18th century. Their chief Tjiponda c ...
in January 1864 and established a missionary station and a theological seminary there (which he named the Augustineum after St.
Augustine of Hippo Augustine of Hippo ( , ; la, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Afr ...
) to educate indigenous missionaries, this time recruiting German artisans and farmers to supply the settlement. In 1868, however, an attack by the Nama ended his hitherto successful project, and the Herero under chief
Maharero Maharero kaTjamuaha (Otjiherero: ''Maharero, son of Tjamuaha'', short: Maharero; 1820 – 7 October 1890) was one of the most powerful paramount chiefs of the Herero people in South-West Africa, today's Namibia. Early life Maharero, was b ...
fled the settlement to Okahandja and gave up their Christian affiliations. In 1870 Hahn brokered a ten-year peace deal between the Nama and the Herero and convinced the
Finnish Missionary Society The Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Mission (''FELM'', formerly ''The Finnish Missionary Society''; fi, Suomen Lähetysseura ry; sv, Finska Missionssällskapet rf) is a Lutheran missionary society formed on January 19, 1859, in Helsinki, Finland. ...
to take over missionary work in Ovamboland. When the Rhenish Missionary Society began trading for profit and colonizing (rejecting his Lutheran austerity for a more Reformed Church orientation), Hahn severed his ties with them on 4 March 1872 and returned in 1873 to Germany, by which time 13 missions in Hereroland were prospering. He relocated to the Cape Colony. For the next twelve years, Hahn served as pastor of the German Lutheran congregation (St. Martini) in Cape Town. Assisted from 1875 onward by his son (the Rev. C.H. Hahn Jr.), ministering to a growing population of poorly educated and largely illiterate German settlers in the Cape Flats (arriving largely between 1877 and 1884). During his tenure, he helped found the
German International School Cape Town The German International School Cape Town (german: Deutsche Internationale Schule Kapstadt, DSK) is a German international school in Cape Town, South Africa. The school has English and German streams, available for primary school, middle school, a ...
, pay off the debts from the building of St. Martini's church on Long Street, build a parsonage, and spin off daughter churches in Paarl and
Worcester Worcester may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England ** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament * Worcester Park, London, Engla ...
. After failed efforts by Cape Colony to make South West Africa a British protectorate, the Nama-Herero war sparked anew on the "bloody night" of 23 August 1880. When, at the end of 1881, a Herero attack was rumored to have occurred on the Cape magistracy in
Walvis Bay Walvis Bay ( en, lit. Whale Bay; af, Walvisbaai; ger, Walfischbucht or Walfischbai) is a city in Namibia and the name of the bay on which it lies. It is the second largest city in Namibia and the largest coastal city in the country. The ci ...
, Hahn pleaded the Herero's case and urged restraint by colonial authorities in a letter published in the
Cape Times The ''Cape Times'' is an English-language morning newspaper owned by Independent News & Media SA and published in Cape Town, South Africa. the newspaper had a daily readership of 261 000 and a circulation of 34 523. By the fourth quarter of ...
on 13 January 1882. From 1882 until his retirement in 1884 he was the Cape Government's "Special Commissioner for the Walwich Bay Territory", traveling there at the behest of Commissioner
Hercules Robinson, 1st Baron Rosmead Hercules George Robert Robinson, 1st Baron Rosmead, (19 December 1824 – 28 October 1897), was a British colonial administrator who became the 5th Governor of Hong Kong and subsequently, the 14th Governor of New South Wales, the first Gove ...
and attempting to restore peace to South West Africa in talks with Maharero in Okahandja (17–18 February 1882). Apart from a treaty between the Swartbooi Nama and the Herero, Hahn was unsuccessful and recommended in his March 1882 report to the Cape government that the Walvis Bay area be maintained as British territory.


Linguistic works

While in Gross Barmen, Hahn learned to speak
Otjiherero Herero (, ''Otjiherero'') is a Bantu language spoken by the Herero and Mbanderu peoples in Namibia and Botswana, as well as by small communities of people in southwestern Angola. There were 211,700 speakers in 2014. Distribution Its linguis ...
(first gaining the ability to preach in the language on 29 January 1847) and translated the New Testament and other religious texts into the language of the natives. As early as 1846, he compiled the first Rhenish Missionary prayer book in Herero, and together with Rath, he released a collection of biblical stories and hymns translated into the language under the title ''Ornahungi oa embo ra Jehova'' in 1849. Additional prayer books in 1861 and 1871 book-ended his 1864 output of two further biblical narratives, a copy of
Luther's Small Catechism ''Luther's Small Catechism'' (german: Der Kleine Katechismus) is a catechism written by Martin Luther and published in 1529 for the training of children. Luther's Small Catechism reviews the Ten Commandments, the Apostles' Creed, the Lord's Pra ...
, and a 32-song hymnal. Highlights of the Old Testament and the aforementioned complete NT began the work that
Peter Heinrich Brincker Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a sur ...
and others would complete. Hahn also drafted W.H.I. Bleek's unpublished grammar of Otjiherero (''Entwurf einer Grammatik der Herero Sprache'', 1854), ultimately delivering his own version to Riga in December 1854, and published its first dictionary, ''Grundzüge einer Grammatik des Herero (im Westlichen Afrika) nebst einem Wörterbuche'' (Berlin/London, 1857) through the
Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences The Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences (german: Königlich-Preußische Akademie der Wissenschaften) was an academy established in Berlin, Germany on 11 July 1700, four years after the Prussian Academy of Arts, or "Arts Academy," to which "Berli ...
. The latter, including a comprehensive grammar and a Herero-German dictionary of 4,300 words, was the first publication using Standard Alphabet by
Richard Lepsius Karl Richard Lepsius ( la, Carolus Richardius Lepsius) (23 December 181010 July 1884) was a pioneering Prussian Egyptologist, linguist and modern archaeologist. He is widely known for his magnum opus '' Denkmäler aus Ägypten und Äthiopien' ...
, eventually causing much consternation over its suitability for transcribing a Bantu language. During his visit to Germany in 1873/74, University of Leipzig awarded a Doctor degree
honoris causa An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad hon ...
to Hahn for his research on the language of the Herero, although his domestic servant and interpreter, Urieta ( Johanna Gertze) probably had a more than cursory role in the creation of his language studies and publications.


Family life

Carl Hugo Hahn married his wife Emma (
née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...
Hone, daughter of
William Hone William Hone (3 June 1780 – 8 November 1842) was an English writer, satirist and bookseller. His victorious court battle against government censorship in 1817 marked a turning point in the fight for British press freedom. Biography Hon ...
) on 3 October 1843, on home leave in Cape Town. They had at least five children, including two daughters (Margaritha, wife of Carl Heinrich Beiderbecke since their marriage on 24 November 1875; and Eloisa) and three sons (including William Heinrich Josaphat, Carl Hugo Jr. and Traugott). While Carl Sr. ministered in South-West Africa, his children attended school in Gütersloh. Emma died on 14 April 1880 in Cape Town, after which he visited Germany for a short while. After his retirement for health reasons in 1884, Hahn visited Margaritha in the United States, and later lived with his son, Carl Jr., in Paarl, then minister of St. Petri's Lutheran Church there. Traugott worked in the Lutheran Church in Livonia, and several of his descendants became theologians and clerics in Germany. Carl Hugo Hahn Sr. died in Cape Town on 24 November 1895 and is buried at St. Petri in Paarl.


Works

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References


Footnotes


Literature

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hahn, Carl Hugo 1818 births 1895 deaths People from Ādaži Municipality People from Kreis Riga Baltic-German people German Lutheran missionaries Lutheran missionaries in Namibia Lutheran missionaries in South Africa Missionary linguists Linguists from Germany 19th-century Lutherans