August Kavel

Kavel was born in Berlin, where he attended the Gymnasium zum Grauen Kloster school and went on to study theology.

In 1826, he was ordained and installed as the Pastor at the church in the village of Klemzig, located near the city of Züllichau (Sulechów) in what as then the German state of Prussia and is now Klępsk, Poland.

Between 1798 and 1840, the Protestant churches in Prussia had been subjected to a number of changes, brought about by the decrees of King Frederick William III.

This escalated in 1830, when Frederick William announced a number of changes that outlawed the traditional rites of the churches and prescribed a form of worship which many Lutherans believed was against the Will of God.

Pastor Kavel used this worship order until 1834 when, under the influence of the writings of Johann Gottfried Scheibel, he ceased and joined the ranks of the dissenters.

His congregation likewise were prohibited from using the church premises, and participating in any worship services presided by suspended Pastors.

Pastor Kavel began to look for avenues to lead his congregation in an exodus from Prussia to a place where they could worship in freedom.

They travelled to Plymouth, where they picked up Pastor Kavel, and then continued on their journey until they arrived in Port Adelaide on 20 November 1838.

One of Kavel's followers, Johann Friedrich Krummnow, taught the girls en route but was deemed "not completely satisfactory and the community did not allow him to teach in Australia".

Tension arose between Kavel and the settled migrants at Hahndorf and Klemzig when he strongly urged them to relocate to Langmeil.