Johann Flierl | |
|---|---|
 April 1878 | |
| Born | 16 April 1858 |
| Died | 30 September 1947 (aged 89) Neuendettelsau Mission Station, Finschhafen Province, New Guinea |
| Education | Missionary Seminary of Neuendettelsau, Franconia |
| Spouse | Beate Maria Louise Auricht |
| Children | Wilhelm, Johannes, Dora, Elise |
| Parent(s) | f: Johann Konrad Flierl m: Kunigunda, née Dannhauser |
| Church | Lutheran Neuendettelsau Mission Society, South Australian Synod |
| Ordained | 21 April 1878 |
| Writings | Forty Years in New Guinea (Chicago, 1927) See list of publications |
Congregations served | Assistant, Bethesda Mission Station, Australia 1878–85 Founder, Elim Mission, North Queensland, Australia, 1885–86 Founder/Director, Simbang Mission Station, near Finschhafen, New Guinea (Kaiser-Wilhelmsland) 1886–1930 Founder/Director, Sattelberg Mission Station, Finschhafen District, New Guinea 1892–1900, Malahang Mission Station |
| Notes | |
Johann Flierl (16 April 1858 – 30 September 1947) was a pioneer Lutheran missionary in New Guinea. He established mission schools and organised the construction of roads and communication between otherwise remote interior locations. Under his leadership, Lutheran evangelicalism flourished in New Guinea. He founded the Evangelical Lutheran Mission in the Sattelberg, and a string of filial stations on the northeastern coast of New Guinea including the Malahang Mission Station.
He was educated at the mission seminary in Neuendettelsau, in the Kingdom of Bavaria. Prior to finishing his education, the Neuendettelsau Missionary Society sent him to the Bethesda mission, near Hahndorf, in South Australia, where he joined an Old Lutheran community. While there, he felt called to serve in the newly established German protectorate, Kaiser-Wilhelmsland. On the journey to New Guinea, he founded the Hope Vale Mission Station in Cooktown, Queensland, in Australia.
In Kaiser-Wilhelmsland, he established a lasting Lutheran presence at the missionary stations of Simbang, near Finschhafen, another on Tami, and a third, on the Sattelberg in the Huon Peninsula, plus several filial mission stations along the coast of the present-day Morobe province.
- ^ P. G. Sack, 'Flierl, Johann (1858–1947)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Online Edition, Australian National University, 2006, updated continuously, ISSN 1833-7538, [1].
- ^ John Garrett, Footsteps in the Sea: Christianity in Oceania to World War II. Institute of Pacific Studies, World Council of Churches, 1992; ISBN 978-982-02-0068-5, pp. 2–15