Hermannsburg Mission

Harms worked at St. Peter and St. Paul's Church in Hermannsburg on the Lüneburg Heath, from 1844, initially as a curate and, later, as its Lutheran pastor.

He was considered a good minister by the community and had a great talent for bringing things alive.

On 12 October 1849, the first students moved into the Hermannsburg Mission Seminary, newly founded by Harms.

Harms had a vision to begin his missionary work with the Oromo people (then called the Galla) in East Africa.

Consequently, the Hermannsburg missionaries landed at Port Natal (now Durban) in South Africa in 1854.

In 1859 they established a mission station in Shoshong and in 1864, August Mylius started his work with the Telugu in southern India.

He left the Evangelical Lutheran State Church of Hanover and was followed by the majority of the Hermannsburg community.

By maintaining the legal status of the foundation, however, it remained possible to preserve the special character of the spiritual work here.

The Ludwig Harms House in Hermannsburg, in whose building the mission seminary was originally based, is now a modern conference centre with a cafe, bookshop and "One World Shop".

It houses an exhibition called "Candace - Mission Possible" to inform those interested about the work and worldwide network of the ELM.