Carl Friedrich Scheffler (Fritz)

Born

1 MAR 1874 inRosenberg, Ostpreußen

Deceased

12 DEC 1966 inMossel Bay

Occupation

Missionary

Notes

Fritz was born 1/3/1874 in Rosenberg, Ostpreußen, son of Carl and Charlotte Scheffler. He arrived in Africa in 1902, as a missionary from the Berlin Missionary Society.

Fritz decided as a child that he wanted to become a missionary. His education as a missionary was thorough and he read his Bible in Greek and Hebrew until an advanced age.

In 1902 Fritz joined missionary Wedepohl in Gutu in Mashonaland (today a part of Zimbabwe).

Together with missionaries Wedepohl, Klonus and Schwellnus, Fritz built a new church at Gutu.

Repeated black water fever and malaria attacks forced Fritz to relocate to Adamshoop in 1906 where he regained his health.

In 1906 he replaced missionary Kikillus in Herbertsdale.

In the meanwhile his fiancé, whom he had never met, was enroute to Cape Town.

They corresponded via letters until they decided to get married. (Their letters were published in 1972 in a book titled "Liewe Lydia, Liewe Fritz".

He married Lydia Charlotte Stacklies (daughter of Johann Stacklies and Anna Mastholat) in Cape Town on 29 September 1906 (the day she arrived in South Africa). Lydia was born on 27/3/1878 in Königsberg.

From 1912 to 1914 Fritz worked in Riversdal as an assistant to missionary Grosskopf, and in 1914 he was relocated to missionary Anhaldt-Schmidt at Haarlem in the Langkloof.

With the onset of the First World War he was arrested and moved to a concentration camp (given his German heritage), but enroute to the concentration camp the order to place him in the concentration camp was rescinded.

This stressful time caused his wife to become seriously ill and could have contributed to the onset of Parkinson's disease, from which she continued to suffer for the next 23 years.

In 1920 Fritz relocated to Mossel Bay where he performed most of his life's work. Outposts, churches and schools were built, mostly by himself. After his retirement in 1947 he lead a team that built abig school at Buisplaas, a school and teachers' residence at Ruiterbos and a teachers' residence at Kraaldoorns.

In 1948 he visited his old missionary outpost in Gutu, but never officially worked as a missionary again.

For Fritz schools were an integral part of the missionary work and everywhere he worked he paid particular attention to schools and to the training of teachers. A primary school in Mossel Bay was named after him.

Fritz was an exact man, hard and precise worker that never compromised from his principles or mission.

Fritz passed away on 9/12/1966 in Mossel Bay.

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