The Support for Protestant Missions in Prussian Lithuania in the First Half of the 19th Century: The Role of Private Initiatives and the Press

Abstract

    The article analyses the forms of financial support collected for protestant missions in Prussian Lithuania in the first half of the 19^th century. It investigates the role of mission supporter, inspector of Bachmann Manor near Klaipėda (the former Memel) and member of the Moravian Church Wilhelm Andreas Rhenius in gathering donations for missions in southeast India. Lithuanian periodical publication Nuſidawimai apie Ewangelios Praſiplatinima tarp Ʒydu ir Pagonu (editor Johann Ferdinand Kelch, published from 1832) is also discussed. The paper examines the translation of Ernst Friedrich Ball’s sermon Tēkel, tai yr: Swēre tawę Swàrcʒeis ir perlèngwą ißrądo (Königsberg, 1843) by Evangelical Lutheran priest, future professor at the University of Königsberg and author of the Lithuanian grammar Friedrich Kurschat (Frydrichas Kuršaitis).