Christian Keyser

Christian Gottlob Keyser
Born7 March 1877
Geroldsgrün, Kingdom of Bavaria
Died14 December 1961
Neuendettelsau, Franken, Bavaria
EducationMissionary Seminary of Neuendettelsau, Franconia
SpouseEmilie Heumann
ChildrenJutta, b. 9 June 1907, Sattelberg Papua New Guinea
Hertha, b. 27 October 1908
Imma Eleonora, b. 7 July 1911, Finschhafen, d. 29 September 2004, Neuendettelsau, Germany
ChurchLutheran Neuendettelsau Mission Society, South Australian Synod
WritingsWörterbuch der Kâte-Sprache; Eine Papuagemeinde

Das bin bloss ich. Lebenserinnerungen (It is merely me: Memoirs). (1929)
A People Reborn.

(See partial list)
Congregations served
Director, Sattelberg Mission Station, Finschhafen District, New Guinea 1900-1920

Christian Gottlob Keyser (also spelled Keysser, Kaiser) was a Lutheran missionary of the Neuendettelsau Mission Society. He served for almost 22 years at the Neuendettelsau Mission Station in the Finschhafen District of New Guinea, which had been founded in 1892 by Johann Flierl. He controversially proposed the evangelization of tribes, rather than individuals, the concept known as Volkskirche (Congregation Church). An avid linguist, he compiled one of the first dictionaries of a Papuan dialect: Dictionary of the Kâte Language, a Papuan community (Wörterbuch der Kâte-Sprache; Eine Papuagemeinde). He also maintained a regular correspondence with the German Geographical Society in Berlin, reporting on his naturalist findings in New Guinea.[1] He published his memoirs (1929),[2] as well as over 300 essays and pamphlets and ten books. An intrepid explorer, he ascended the Saruwaged Range massif in 1913 and collected many important natural history specimens there.[3][4][5]

  1. ^ Erwin L. Lueker, Luther Poellot, Paul Jackson, Christian Cyclopedia, Concordia Publishing House, 2002. "The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod - Christian Cyclopedia". Archived from the original on 2009-09-01. Retrieved 2009-08-31..
  2. ^ (in German) Christian Keyser, Das bin bloss ich. Lebenserinnerungen. (It is merely me: Memoirs.) Neuendettelsau, Freimund-Verlag, (1929) 1966.
  3. ^ Royen, Pieter van (1979-01-01). The Alpine Flora of New Guinea. J. Cramer. ISBN 978-3-7682-1245-8.
  4. ^ Thomas, Michael Roger Oldfield (1922-06-01). "LXXXII.—On mammals collected by C. Keysser in the Saruwaged and Rawlinson Mountains Region of N.E. New Guinea". Annals and Magazine of Natural History. 9 (54): 669–676. doi:10.1080/00222932208632727.
  5. ^ "Keysser, Christian (J.E.) (1877-1961) | History of Missiology". www.bu.edu. Retrieved 2023-06-27.