Working toward the Nation: The Bethel Mission to East Africa and Protestant Social Welfare, 1890–1933

This paper examines the way German Protestants used work as a way to integrate marginalized migrants into the larger nation.  During the second half of the nineteenth century Friedrich von Bodelschwingh, a Protestant social reformer in Germany and leader of the famous Bethel institutions, developed a new approach to poor relief that stressed inner reform and reintegration rather than charity.  Concerned about the growing influence of Socialism among the working classes, he believed his philosophy, which stressed the importance of the work ethic (Arbeitserziehung), Protestantism and community, would transform marginalized migrant workers into loyal supporters of the monarchy.  In 1890, when he assumed control of the fledgling Evangelische Mission nach Deutsch Ostafrika (EMDOA), Bodelschwingh trained his missionaries in the same philosophy with the goal of transforming Africans into loyal subjects of the German Empire. When the missionaries returned from Africa in 1918, however, they were disappointed to learn that Bodelschwingh’s successors had embraced eugenics as a solution to the trauma caused by World War I.  To them, eugenics marked the abandonment of the philosophy to which they had devoted themselves in Africa.  Therefore, they focused on resisting the attempts of German Protestants to embrace eugenics while drawing on their experience in Africa to continue to mold marginalized working class individuals into loyal members of the nation. Thus, this paper argues that the experience in Africa was vital to shaping the attitudes of the returning missionaries to Protestant poor relief efforts in Germany after 1918.   For them, a strong work ethic and adherence to Protestantism were more important to strengthening the nation than eugenics.  Furthermore, the Bethel missionaries’ use of Arbeitserziehung illustrates the transnational development of Protestant poor relief policies and their relationship to national identity.