Ward 2 Development Forum

Hans Peter Hallbeck

Properties3
descriptionSwedish-born Moravian missionary (1784 to 1840) who led the Moravian missions in South Africa from Genadendal from 1817. He founded the teachers' training college there in 1838 and became the first bishop in South Africa.
tagstheme/heritage, lang/en
aliasesHallbeck, H.P. Hallbeck, Bishop Hallbeck

6 min read

Hans Peter Hallbeck was a Moravian missionary from Sweden who led the Moravian missions in South Africa from Genadendal between 1817 and 1840 [MS]. In 1838 he founded South Africa’s first teachers’ training college at Genadendal [IC]. He became the first bishop to serve in South Africa [MS]. The years he led the mission are often called Genadendal’s golden age [MS].

What the letters in square brackets mean

Facts on this page are followed by a tag that shows where they come from.

  • [IC] Independently Corroborated. Confirmed by at least two sources that do not depend on each other, or by an official record.
  • [MS] Mission-Sourced. Comes from Moravian records, including Hallbeck’s own reports, and the histories written from them. These often agree with each other because they share an origin.
  • [TBV] To Be Verified. Seems likely, but nobody has confirmed it yet.

At a glance

Born18 March 1784, in Malmö, Sweden [MS]
DiedDecember 1840, at Genadendal [MS]
Known forLeading the Moravian missions in South Africa, and founding the teachers’ training college at Genadendal in 1838 [IC]
Link to the valleyHead of the mission at Genadendal for 23 years, during its years of growth after emancipation

His life

Hallbeck was born in Sweden in 1784 and studied theology at Lund University [MS]. After his studies he joined the Moravian Church [MS]. Balie’s history gives his birth as 18 March 1784 in Malmö, the son of a cooper, and says he served the church at Gracehill in Ireland from 1813 and at Fairfield in England from 1815 [MS]. In 1817 he was appointed superintendent of the Moravian missions in South Africa and settled at Genadendal [MS]. Balie’s history says he and his wife, Johanna Beck, arrived on 17 December 1817 [MS].

He led the missions through a time of fast change. Ordinance 50 of 1828 gave free people of colour legal equality [IC]. Slavery ended in law in 1834 and completely on 1 December 1838, and many freed people came to the mission stations [IC]. Genadendal’s population grew from 1,446 in 1837 to 2,187 in 1840 [MS]. Hallbeck also set up several new Moravian mission stations and wrote rules for how the missions were run, suited to conditions at the Cape [MS]. Balie’s history names them as Enon and Hemel-en-Aarde (1818), Elim (1824), and Clarkson (1839) [MS].

At Genadendal, Balie’s history credits him with a lending library in 1825, a tannery and new clothing and shoe trades from 1828, and South Africa’s first kindergarten, opened on 12 September 1831 [MS]. He began training teachers privately in 1828, and infant schools were opened on all the mission stations [MS]. To win over the crying infants at the kindergarten, the book says, he dressed up as one of their mothers [MS].

He wrote regular reports that were published in Moravian mission magazines in Europe and North America [MS]. They are among the main sources for the valley’s history in these years. In a letter dated 27 September 1838 he reported that 92 of 97 girls examined in the mission schools could read as well as children of their age in European schools [MS].

He was the first bishop to serve in South Africa [MS]. He died in 1840 [MS]. Balie’s history quotes the missionaries’ account of his last illness, an abscess and erysipelas, which began on 16 December 1840 and ended with his death a few days later [MS].

The teachers’ training college

In 1838 Hallbeck founded the first teachers’ training college in South Africa at Genadendal [IC]. Mission sources give its opening date as 12 September 1838 [MS]. Balie’s history says 11 students enrolled that day, with Hallbeck as principal and C.F. Francke as lecturer [MS]. It says the college was a response to the end of slavery: the mission expected many freed people to settle at its stations, and decided to train teachers from its own congregations to serve them [MS]. It trained teachers, and later also pastors, for the mission schools [MS]. It is known in Afrikaans as the Kweekskool [MS].

The government closed the college in 1926, arguing that coloured people did not need higher education because they were suited to farm work [IC]. One source says teacher training ended in 1937, and that Emil Weder Secondary School opened in 1938 in its place [TBV]. Balie’s history gives 1926 and 1927 for the closure, and says 236 teachers qualified there in 90 years [MS]. See Emil Weder Secondary School.

His legacy in the valley

  • Hallbeck House, in the mission complex on Church Square, is a Provincial Heritage Site [IC].
  • The college he founded is the first link in the valley’s long tradition of training teachers. The Valley of Grace Learning Campus idea proposes bringing study after school back to the valley for the first time since the college closed.
  • The missionaries of 1792 reopened the mission he later led.
  • Benno Marx ran the mission press in the generation after him.
  • Jan Amos Comenius, the teacher and bishop whose ideas the Moravian Church honoured, is part of the tradition his college carried on.

What is still open

  • The exact dates and places of his birth and death.
  • Which mission stations he founded. Balie’s history names four, listed above, and they have not been checked against other sources.
  • When teacher training at Genadendal ended: 1926, 1927, or 1937.
  • How the teachers trained at the college, and the families of the valley, saw his leadership.

References

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