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Gotthard Daniel Fritzsche (20 July 1797 – 26 October 1863)[1] was a Prussian-Australian pastor who became instrumental in furthering that religion in South Australia. He was born inLiebenwerda, in theElectorate of Saxony, Germany, and migrated to Australia in 1841. From 1842 to 1863, he was pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. He died and was buried atLobethal, South Australia.
Gotthard Fritzsche was born in Liebenwerda, in the Electorate of Saxony, where his father was town musician.[2] He attended gymnasium inDresden, but while studying, his hometown became part ofPrussia following theCongress of Vienna, so he was required to enter military service for a short period.[2] He went toBreslau after hisgymnasium training, to receive his university training. There he studied underJohann Gottfried Scheibel. As was customary, after his university education, he served as a private tutor.
At his first examination for entering the ministry, he declared himself to be against thePrussian Union, and was banned from ministry in the State church. He joined the undergroundOld Lutheran church as aFlying Pastor, who travelled from place to place disguised as a travelling tradesman, performing secret worship services and rites to those opposed to the State church. He was taken on by a man called Zahn, lord of the manor atTurowo, who was a sympathetic Lutheran.[2] He was the only Lutheran pastor who is known to have avoided imprisonment, while still remaining in the country.[2] After a time, he grew weary of the work, and he travelled toHamburg.
Fritzsche arrived in Hamburg when a group of PrussianOld Lutherans were searching for financing and a pastor to join their group in emigrating to South Australia. In 1840, at the synodical gathering of the newly constitutedLutheran Church in Australia, a request had been sent to the Old Lutherans in Prussia to send a second pastor to the young German settlement. A requirement had been imposed on them by thePrussian government, that they must be accompanied by a pastor before being allowed to emigrate.
Fritzsche was not eager to emigrate. He had already declined an invitation byJohannes Grabau to emigrate to the United States. However, he did relent to the requests of the people who were waiting to emigrate to South Australia. Fritzsche travelled to England to meet withGeorge Angas in an attempt to gain financing for the balance of the fares, a sum of over £2000. Angas was unable to provide any financing to the group. It was in early June that a letter was received from a "Mrs. Richardson inNewcastle UK", with a sum of £270. The remainder of the required finances (£1800) was donated by one of the other emigrants, Mrs Anna (Hannchen) Nehrlich. Fritzsche had become engaged to her daughter Johanna Dorothea (Dorchen, Dorette), while in Hamburg.
The group set sail for Australia, on 11 July 1841 on the shipSkjold, arriving on 28 October 1841 atPort Misery, South Australia. The migrants settled atLobethal, andBethanien. Fritzsche made his home at Lobethal.
Fritzsche took on pastoral duties at Lobethal and the neighbouring communities, as part of theGerman settlement in Australia. Relations with the earlier Prussian settlers was initially harmonious, but soon deteriorated. In 1842 PastorAugust Kavel, in an attempt to consolidate the settlers into one localised community, strongly urged the settlers in the early settlements atKlemzig andHahndorf to relocate to the newly settledLangmeil. Many of the settlers in these towns refused, and an underlying tension arose between these communities and Pastor Kavel.
Over time, Fritzsche learned that Kavel had developed amillennialistic point of view (which Fritzsche disagreed with), and had the subject discussed at thesynod gatherings in 1844 and 1845. No resolution was reached at these gatherings. In addition to this disagreement, Fritzsche also differed with Kavel, in a proclamation released in 1846, regarding the power ofcivil government in the church. These disagreements between the two pastors intensified a division which had developed in the Lutheran community.
At the synodical gathering atBethany, on 16 and 17 August 1846, the subject of millennialism was again raised, and when the disagreement became heated, a divide was forged, when the Kavel followers left and formed their own synod. At this point, Fritzsche became the head of theEvangelical Church of South Australia.
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