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Rufus Pech

THE DEPARTMENT OF ARCHIVES AND ARCHIVAL STUDY CENTER Evangelical Lutheran Church of Papua ,

Ca. 1970 the decision was made to microfilm all documents referring to the Lutheran Mission enterprise in PNG from its inception in 1886 to the present. Almost a decade of preparatory work elapsed before Dr. G.O. Reitz came back from a IAMS conference in Rome with an overall plan for the implementation of this project with the systematic filming of all archival documents held in Lae, PNG, and supplementary filming in West Germany, the USA and Australia. The overseas partners of the E.L.C. PNG based in those countries have provided the modest budget required for this project to the present time.

1. The Organization of the Archival Materials

The missionary history of the church falls into 5 easily definable periods which makes chronological organization of the materials comparatively easy.

a. 1885 to 1919: The German Pioneer Mission Period

Most of the materials of this period were filmed at Neuendettelsau in Bavaria for the and in Nordrhein-Westfalen for the Rhenish Mission work in the Province. The originals - in Gothic script or from typed copy - consisted of missionary quarterly reports, letters and a few diaries plus the official correspondence of the Mission Senior (Johann Flierl) with the directorate and the reports of all missionary meetings and conferences. This reporting continued throughout World War I and a surprising amount of it eventually reached the German mission societies.

b.1920 to I930: The Decade of the First Lutheran Mission Nezv Guinea under Australian Directorship

As a follow-up to the rescue operation mounted from Australia and by US Lutherans both of the German mission fields were administered in trust by director Otto Theile of Brisbane for the United Evangelical Lutheran Church of Australia and the Iowa Synod in the USA with headquarters in Dubuque. Most of the meticulously kept and voluminous correspondence of this period is in English; though right up to World War II the missionary reports and the correspondence between the trustees in Australia and the USA and their German counterparts was still in German.

c. 1931 to I940: The Decade of Resurgent Missionary Nationalism

After the final withdrawal of the Rhenish Mission Society from Madang - though most of its missionaries remained - the Lutheran area was divided 107

between Lutheran Mission Finschhafen under Neuendettelsau and the Lutheran Mission Madang under the American Lutheran Church; with UELC Australia personnel serving in both fields, and the Australian Lutheran Mission in the Rooke-Siassi group. This continued as an independent missionary church postwar until the 1970s and so its archival materials still have to be incorporated.

d. 1946 to 1972: The Second (International) Lutheran Mission New Guinea

_ With the internment of most German missionaries at the beginning of World War II the Americans and Australians had to step in again. So after the end of the Pacific War the field was fully internationalized and the missionary conference enjoyed a degree of local autonomy unknown elsewhere. This autonomy was held in trust for and after 1956 increasingly shared with the organs of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of New Guinea. During this period, Dr. John Kuder, who was both President of the Mission and the first Bishop of the Church, laid the basis for the establishment of the comprehensive national archives of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of . ' e. 1974ff: Missionary Cooperation within the E.L.C. PNG

2. Archival Procedures

a. A uniform indexing system was established by Dr. and Mrs. Reitz before filming began; and has been followed throughout for all materials filmed locally, though it could not be followed completely for materials filmed in , Germany and Australia. b. All materials filmed in PNG are fiched and indexed in the Lae archives after film processing by Kodak in Australia. The originals are then taken by courier to Dubuque, USA for copying. This is a cumbersome procedure, but it ensures that only 7 authorized copies are made. These are then distributed as follows: 1 each to the Missionswerk of the E.L.C. Bavaria and the Missionszen- trum of the Northelbian Lutheran Church; 1 each to the E.L.C. Canada and the E.L.C. America (formerly the American Lutheran Church); 1 to the L.C. Australia; 2 to the E.L.C. PNG; one being for the archives and the other for the archival study center.

c. Control of the materials lies with the respective archival source: in Germany, Australia, the USA or Papua New Guinea. Basically there are no restrictions on use of the microfilm for purposes of study, even on recent materials of a confidential nature, since their use by PNG nationals is to be encouraged.

d. Researchers making use of archival sources are asked to deposit a copy of their thesis, book or article with the archives in Lae, and, where applicable, with the archives of the respective overseas partner church. Persons quoting