Moravian Mission Seminary, South Africa East

“Moravian Mission Seminary. Br. van Calker” (“Moravian Mission Seminary. Brother van Calker”). Group portrait of about sixty boys and men, predominantly wearing suits and hats, in front of a building. The ones in the first row are sitting: Three white men in the middle are sitting on chairs, the Africans on the ground. The persons behind them are standing. Theophil Ernst van Calker, born in 1860 in Paramaribo / Suriname, was a missionary of the Moravian Church. In 1890 he married Mathilde Werner in Herrnhut. He began his work in the region of Silo (South Africa East) in 1890 and became president of the South Africa mission in 1894. In the same year he started to work in Baziya, one year later in Tabase. He worked again in Silo in 1909, retired and returned to Germany in 1926. He died in Herrnhut in 1929.