The Unity Province Guyana

The Co-operative Republic of Guyana is located on the northeastern coast of South America and is the western neighboring country of Suriname. On today's territory - previously known as Berbice, which belonged to the Netherlands - there was the ›Pilgerhut‹ station, founded in 1740, which existed for about 23 years. In 1815 the region became British and the next attempt to establish a mission by the Moravian Church began after the proclamation of the Abolition of Slavery in the British colonies in 1835. John and Anna Elisabeth Colemann were the first missionaries, followed by Adam and Rebekka Hamann. The attempt was stopped after 5 years - although it was not without success - and it was not until 1878 that a new start with three missionaries from Barbados was made. The small, resulting record group was maintained in the Unity Archives in a separate record group. The records from the period 1834-1908 are in the inventory of the Mission-Department of the Unity Elder's Conference (R.15.H.III.), while records from the period 1908-1931 are kept in the inventory of the Mission-Direction (record group MD - Demerara (Guyana)). Records pertaining to financial management are in the record group MDF. In addition to a small collection of documents from the early days of the mission in Guyana, the inventories mainly contain serial files: reports, correspondence, and accounting documents. All these record groups can be researched using our online searching aids: www.unitaetsarchiv.findbuch.net.

The Mission Province Newfoundland and Labrador

The congregations of the Labrador Province of the Moravian Church are situated along the northeastern coast of the Labrador Peninsula within the Canadian Province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Although four Moravian missionaries explored a place at the coast of Labrador for the first time in 1752, only the second official attempt from 1770 could establish itself as a permanent work in Labrador. In 1771 the first mission station was founded, called Nain, followed by Okak (1776), Hoffenthal (1782) and others. The Unity Archives' records concerning Labrador are for the period 1750-1900 in the inventory of the Mission-Department of the Unity Elder's Conference (record group R.15), for the period 1900-1931 in the inventory of the Mission-Direction (record group MD). Records pertaining to financial management are in the record group MDF. In addition to some documents from the first attempt, the journeys of Jens Haven and Lorenz Drachardt and the beginning of the mission after 1770, the inventories mainly contain serial files: diaries, minutes, correspondence, annual reports, and accounting documents. Among the diaries are those of the individual mission stations or congregations (such as Nain, Okak, Hoffenthal, Hebron, Zoar, Rama, Killinek, Makkovik). Okak's diary is the original copy because the station was closed after the Spanish flu pandemic in 1919. Interesting supplementary documents may be found in the Topographical Collection (TS), which contains illustrations, maps, and plans, and in the collection of photographs. All these record groups (except the collection of photographs) can be researched using our online searching aids: www.unitaetsarchiv.findbuch.net.

The Unity Province Nicaragua 

For the Moravian Church, the beginning of missionary work on the Miskito coast, the eastern coast of today's Nicaragua, was the first nineteenth-century mission project ever. The idea for this project was not their own, but had been brought to the Unity Elders' Conference by the Saxon Prince Otto Victor I. von Schönburg-Waldenburg. In 1848, the first missionaries, Heinrich Gottlob Pfeiffer, Johannes Eugen Lundberg and Ernst Kandler traveled from Jamaica to Bluefields on the Miskito coast and began their work. The relatively small resulting record group in the Unity Archives was maintained in a separate record group. The records for the period 1846-1908 are in the inventory of the Mission-Department of the Unity Elder's Conference (as R.15.H.II), while records for the period 1908-1931 are in the inventory of the Mission-Direction (record group MD - Nikaragua). Records pertaining to financial management are in the record group MDF. In addition, there are maps and plans in the Topographic Collection (TS) and a large series of photographs in the collection of the "Lichtbildstelle der Mission" (LBS). The inventories of the records mainly contain serial files: diaries, minutes, correspondence, annual reports, and accounting documents. Among the diaries are those of the individual mission stations or congregations (such as Bluefields, Magdala, Rama, Ephrata, Joppe, and many more). All these record groups (except the collection of photographs) can be researched using our online searching aids (www.unitaetsarchiv.findbuch.net).

Two Unity Provinces in North America

The Northern Province

The history of the Moravian contact with North America began in 1733 with plans by Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf to establish a settlement in the new colony of Georgia. After its founding in Savannah in April 1735 and the beginning of missionary work among Native Americans, slaves and German settlers, it was Pennsylvania in the end, which became the new centre of the Moravian church in North America from 1740. As was the case in Georgia, the Moravians had various aims in mind for this area: establishing contacts between Christian settlers from Europe, the settlement of Moravians, and the missionary work among the Indigenous population. Zinzendorf's stay between November 1741 and January 1743 strengthened these three trajectories and led, among other things, to the foundation of the congregation in Bethlehem, which was to develop into the centre of the Moravian Church in North America.

After the General Synod of 1857 had decided to grant greater independence to the Moravians in North America, the responsibilities there of the Unity Elder’s Conference in Berthelsdorf, as well as that of the Unity Archives, came to an end. For the period dating from the first negotiations with the trustees of Georgia and the establishment of the work in Pennsylvania up to 1857, however, there are a large number of records primarily gathered in the historical record group R.14.A. These include a variety of records and collections concerning the beginning of the work in Georgia and Pennsylvania, the founding and organization of the new settlements, etc. The serial records contain travel diaries, diaries of and correspondence with the congregational settlements in Pennsylvania (Nazareth, Bethlehem, Lititz), and of the large number of so called town- and country-congregations (Philadelphia, Lancaster, Oley, Heidelberg, Yorktown, Donegal, Emmaus, Schoeneck, Hope); minutes from the Helper’s Conferences and regional synods; and copies of church records. Supplementary documents can be found in the record groups concerning the financial administration (UVC) as well as in the Topographical Collection (TS), which contains a large number of illustrations, maps, and plans. All of these record groups can be researched using our online search tools.

The Southern Province

The history of the Southern Province of the Moravian Church in North America started with an exploration party of Moravians and surveyors to the backcountry of North Carolina led by August Gottlieb Spangenberg.  John Carteret, the Earl of Granville (1690–1763), offered to sell the Moravians 100,000 acres of land from his real estate holdings in the Carolinas. At the end of 1752, the group finally arrived at a suitable site where a total of 98,985 acres had been surveyed off, and Spangenberg named the tract »Wachovia«. The deeds to the land were signed in London on August 7, 1753, and two months later, on October 8, 1753, the first colony of Brethren set out from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and founded the first settlement (Bethabara) on November 17, 1753. With the establishment of additional congregations, Wachovia became the Moravians’ second center in North America after Pennsylvania. Salem, founded in 1766, became Wachovia’s central administrative community.
After the General Synod of 1857 had decided to grant greater independence to the Moravians in North America, the responsibilities there of the Unity Elder’s Conference in Berthelsdorf, as well as that of the Unity Archives, came to an end. For the period dating from the first contacts with the Earl of Granville up to 1857, however, there are a large number of records primarily gathered in the historical record group R.14.B. These include a variety of records and collections concerning the beginning of the work in North Carolina, the founding and organization of the new settlements, etc. The serial records contain diaries of and correspondence with all the congregations in Wachovia (Bethabara, Bethania, Salem, Friedberg, Hope, Friedland); minutes from the Helper’s Conferences and regional synods; and copies of church records. Supplementary documents can be found in the record groups concerning the financial administration (UVC) – for example, copies of the original land deeds – as well as in the Topographical Collection (TS), which contains a large number of illustrations, maps, and plans. All of these record groups can be researched using our online search tools.

The Unity Province Suriname

The mission of the Moravian Church in the area of the present-day republics of Suriname and Guyana began in 1735 with the sending of three Moravian brothers—Georg Piesch, Georg Berwig and Christoph von Larisch—to the former Dutch colonies on the northeast coast of South America. Von Larisch died after only a month and a half in country, while the other two returned to Europe in early 1736. But this inauspicious beginning and the new start in 1738 gave rise to diverse mission work among various population groups in the country: work which developed up to the end of the 18th and then especially during the 19th century. On January 1, 1963, the Broedergemeente in Suriname became an independent unity province, to which 73 parishes and approx. 40,000 members belong today.

For the period spanning 1734–1900, the largest part of the Unity Archives’ records concerning Suriname is located in the inventory of the Mission Department of the Unity Elders’ Conference (record group R.15.L). Most of the records after 1900 were handed over to the Zeist Mission Society in 1928 and are now in the Utrecht Archives (Het Utrechts Archief). In addition to some documents from the early days of the mission as well as items pertaining to the negotiations and initial attempts at building the first stations, the record group R.15.L consists primarily of serial files: diaries, minutes, correspondence, and annual reports. The diaries hail from nearly all stations, both those no longer extant and those which today are still Moravian congregations in Suriname: Pilgerhut, Saron, Ephrem, Hoop, Bambey, Sommelsdyk, Paramaribo, Albina, Nieuw Amsterdam, Annaszorg, Beekhuizen, Catharina Sophia, Clevia, Charlottenburg, Domburg, Groot Chatillion, Bergendal, Wanhatti, and many more. Furthermore, there are travel reports to and from Suriname, as well as for trips within the country in addition to diaries, e.g. those of Johannes King (1830–1898).

A second large number of records pertaining to financial management of the mission are in the record group MDF. Most of them belong to the important company of C. Kersten & Co. in Paramaribo, founded as a shop by Christoph Kersten in 1768. The company was subject by law to the mission administration in Herrnhut until 1950, earning money for the maintenance of the mission in Suriname but also for the entire missionary work of the Moravian Church.

A third important group of documents belongs to the library’s manuscript collection (NB.VII.R.2 and 3): translations of biblical and liturgical texts, dictionaries, grammars, and hymn books into different languages spoken in Suriname.

Interesting supplementary documents may be found in the Topographical Collection (TS), which contains illustrations, maps, and plans, as well as in the collection of photographs (LBS). All these record groups (except for the collection of photographs and the library) can be researched using our online searching aids: www.unitaetsarchiv.findbuch.net.

The Unity Provinces in Tanzania

(The Northern-Province, the Eastern-Province and Zanzibar, the Rukwa-Province, the Southern-Province, the South Western-Province, the Lake Tanganyika Province and the Western-Province)

The mission of the Moravian Church in the area of the present-day Republic of Tanzania began in 1891 with the sending of a team of four Moravian missionaries—Theodor Meyer, Theophil Richard, Georg Martin, and Johannes Häfner—to the colony of German East Africa, which had been occupied some years earlier. Georg Martin died of malaria on the journey and was buried at the former Scottish mission station of Kararamuka (today Kapugi). On August 21, 1891, the remaining brothers founded the mission station of Rungwe north of Lake Nyasa, the mother congregation of the present-day Southern Province of the Moravian Church in Tanzania. In January 1898, Edmund and Martha Dahl, together with Konrad and Minna Elise Meier, took over the former mission station of the London Missionary Society at Western Tanganyika, Urambo. This area became the second center of the Moravian Mission and is today part of the Western Province of the Moravian Church in the country.

For the period spanning from 1891 to the 1940s, the largest part of the Unity Archives’ records concerning the two regions, called “Nyassa” and “Unyamwezi,” is located in the inventory of the Mission Department of the Unity Elders’ Conference (record group R.15.M.I and M.II) in the inventory of the Mission-Direction (MD). In addition to the documents from the beginning of the mission as well as items pertaining to the negotiations and initial attempts at building the first stations, the record groups in R.15 and MD consist primarily of serial files: diaries, minutes, correspondence, and annual reports. The diaries hail from nearly all the older stations or congregations in the two regions: Rungwe, Ipyana, Isoko, Mbozi, Rutenganio, Utengule, Urambo, Ipole, Kitunda, Sikonge, Kyimbila, Tabora, and others. For the period after the Second World War, the records concerning Tanzania belong to the Moravian Mission Society (Herrnhuter Missionshilfe e.V. [HMH]) and to the Church Board of the Continental Province of the Moravian Church, Bad Boll District. They are combined in the record Group EFUD and document the manifold ongoing connections with the Tanzanian provinces of the Moravian Church as well as their development towards independent status.  A second large number of records pertaining to the financial management of the mission are in the record group MDF. A third important group of documents belongs to the library’s manuscript collection (NB.VII.R.2 and 3): translations of biblical and liturgical texts, dictionaries, grammars, and hymn books into different languages spoken in Tanzania. Interesting supplementary documents may be found in the Topographical Collection (TS), which contains illustrations, maps, and plans, as well as in the collection of photographs (LBS). All these record groups (except for the library and EFUF) can be researched using our online searching aids: www.unitaetsarchiv.findbuch.net. The large collection of photographs is accessible through the International Mission Photography Archive (IMPA) https://digitallibrary.usc.edu/.