On 24 December 1792, three Moravian missionaries arrived at Baviaanskloof: Hendrik Marsveld, Daniel Schwinn, and Johann Christian Kühnel [IC]. It was 48 years since Georg Schmidt had been forced to leave [IC]. They found Magdalena still keeping his New Testament [MS]. Like Schmidt, they were craftsmen who earned their own living [MS]. Within a few years they had reopened the school and built a chapel, a forge, and a water mill, and the mission grew into Genadendal [IC]. This page covers all three, because they arrived, worked, and wrote their diaries together.
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, mainly the missionaries’ own diaries, and the histories written from them, such as Bernhard Krüger’s The Pear Tree Blossoms. 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
| Who | Hendrik Marsveld, a tailor; Daniel Schwinn, a shoemaker; Johann Christian Kühnel, a knife-maker (cutler) [MS] |
| Born | Marsveld in 1744 and Kühnel in 1762, according to library records of their diaries [TBV]. [[history/genadendal-a-long-walk |
| Died | Kühnel on 20 April 1813, Schwinn on 25 July 1816, and Marsveld on 8 September 1822, all at Genadendal, according to Balie’s history [MS] |
| Arrived | 24 December 1792, at Baviaanskloof [IC] |
| Known for | Reopening the mission and its school, and building the chapel, forge, and mill [IC] |
| Link to the valley | The founders of the mission that became Genadendal |
Why they came
After Schmidt left in 1744, the VOC and the Dutch Reformed Church at the Cape would not allow Moravian missionaries to return [IC]. Moravian sources say the church leaders in Europe, working through the Moravian settlement at Zeist in the Netherlands, spent years seeking permission [MS]. The details of how it was won rest on Moravian sources alone [MS]. Permission came in 1792 [IC].
The three men were chosen as Herrnhut chose its missionaries: tradesmen who would support themselves and live among the people they served [MS]. Marsveld was a tailor, Schwinn a shoemaker, and Kühnel a knife-maker [MS].
Reopening the mission
The three arrived on 24 December 1792 and found the ruins of Schmidt’s house and the pear tree still standing [MS]. They found Magdalena, about 80 and nearly blind, with the New Testament Schmidt had given her [MS].
People came quickly. Eight kraals of Khoekhoe moved to the kloof, and formal lessons began on 4 March 1793 with 25 adults [MS]. The school has run ever since, and is now L.R. Schmidt Primary School [MS].
The work was contested from the start. Colonists in the Overberg depended on Khoekhoe labour and did not want the mission to draw workers away from their farms [IC]. The historian Russel Viljoen has written about this conflict in the years 1792 to 1795 [IC]. The VOC would not let the missionaries build a church [IC]. They could build only after the British took the Cape in 1795 [IC].
Then the mission grew fast:
- A chapel was consecrated in 1796 [IC]. Balie’s history dates the first chapel, the Middle House, to 1798 [MS].
- In March 1797 they built a forge, and a water mill at about the same time [IC]. Kühnel used the forge to make knives, which became known across the Cape [MS].
- A larger church was finished by 1800 [IC].
- In 1806 the governor renamed the mission Genadendal, “valley of grace” [IC]. More than 1,000 Khoekhoe were living there by then [MS].
Their later lives
Balie’s history, drawing on the mission’s records, gives an account of each man [MS]. Marsveld was born in Gouda in the Netherlands, worked as a tailor at Zeist, and became known at Genadendal as the tailor-miller [MS]. He was the last of the three to die, in 1822, at the age of 77, and many residents came to the missionaries’ house in tears when the news spread [MS]. Schwinn was born at Erbach in Germany and had settled at Zeist [MS]. In 1799 he went back to Europe, married Anna Hellinger, and returned in 1800 bringing two brides for Marsveld and Kühnel, chosen by the Moravian practice of drawing lots [MS]. Kühnel was trained as a cutler and taught young men of the mission to make knives, which became one of the mission’s main sources of income [MS]. All three are buried in the mission cemetery at Genadendal [MS].
The Genadendal Diaries
The three kept a diary of daily life at the mission. It records who came, what was taught, who fell ill, and how the missionaries dealt with farmers and officials [IC]. The first volume, covering 1792 to 1794, was translated into English and published in 1992 by the University of the Western Cape as The Genadendal Diaries [IC]. It is one of the main sources for the valley’s history, and for the life of Magdalena in her last years [IC]. Like Schmidt’s diary, it shows the Khoekhoe through the missionaries’ eyes.
Their legacy in the valley
- Kühnel House, in the mission complex on Church Square, is a Provincial Heritage Site [IC].
- The water mill, the forge, and the school they started are part of the story the Genadendal Mission Museum tells today [MS].
- Genadendal knives, made in the tradition Kühnel began, are in the museum’s collection [MS].
Links to other figures
- Georg Schmidt started the mission they reopened.
- Magdalena had kept it alive, and helped them in their first years.
- Hendrik Marsveld now has a page of his own, covering his journeys to Cape Town to speak for the mission.
- Johann Christian Kühnel now has a page of his own, covering the forge and the knives.
- Abraham Josias Sluysken, head of the Cape government from 1793 to 1795, let them stay at Baviaanskloof but forbade them to build, and ordered the Khoekhoe living with them to send their cattle away [MS].
- Bisani, a commandant of the Swellendam rebels, ordered them to leave Baviaanskloof in July 1795 [MS].
What is still open
- Where each man came from, and when each was born and died. Balie’s history gives dates for all three, which have not been checked against other sources. It gives 1745 for Marsveld’s birth, and library records give 1744.
- How the Khoekhoe families who moved to the kloof in 1793 saw the new missionaries.
- The details of how permission to return was won in 1792, which rest on Moravian sources only.
Related
- Valley History
- History of the Valley
- Georg Schmidt
- Magdalena
- Hendrik Marsveld
- Johann Christian Kühnel
- Abraham Josias Sluysken
- Genadendal Mission Museum
- Moravian Church Genadendal
- L.R. Schmidt Primary School
- Genadendal: A Long Walk
References
- Marsveld, H., Schwinn, D. and Kühnel, J.C. (1992). The Genadendal Diaries: Diaries of the Herrnhut Missionaries, Volume I (1792 to 1794). Edited by H.C. Bredekamp and H.E.F. Plüddemann, translated by A. Flegg. University of the Western Cape Institute for Historical Research. The missionaries’ own record, and their birth years in the library record.
- Wikipedia. Genadendal. The arrival on Christmas Eve 1792, Kühnel’s trade, the chapel, forge, and mill, and the building permit.
- Genadendal Project. History of Genadendal and Surrounds. The arrival date, the chapel of 1796, the forge of 1797, and Kühnel’s knives.
- Wikipedia. List of heritage sites in Caledon. Kühnel House as a Provincial Heritage Site.
- Viljoen, R. (1995). “Moravian Missionaries, Khoisan Labour and the Overberg Colonists at the End of the VOC Era, 1792 to 1795.” In Bredekamp, H. and Ross, R. (eds), Missions and Christianity in South African History. Witwatersrand University Press. The conflict with the colonists.
- Krüger, B. (1966). The Pear Tree Blossoms: A History of the Moravian Mission Stations in South Africa, 1737 to 1869. Genadendal Printing Works. The missionaries’ trades, the first lessons, and the road to permission.
- Balie, I. (2023). Genadendal, The Valley of Grace: A Long Walk Through the History of the First Mission Station in South Africa. AuthorHouse. First published 2020. The birth and death dates of the three men, the chapel of 1798, and their later lives. Page numbers are on Genadendal: A Long Walk.