The Metamorphosis of a Pietistic Missionary and Educational Institution Into a Social Services Enterprise: the Case of the Syrian Orphanage (1860–1945)

THE METAMORPHOSIS OF A PIETISTIC MISSIONARY AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION INTO A SOCIAL SERVICES ENTERPRISE: THE CASE OF THE SYRIAN ORPHANAGE (1860–1945)

Roland Löffler

Jerusalem’s legendary mayor Teddy Kollek—well-known for his con- tribution to the modernisation of the Holy City—once said that he followed in the footsteps of two historical characters who have done much more for the city planning and architecture than he himself. Those two were Herod and Johann Ludwig Schneller. Whereas archaeological research had created a vivid picture of Herod, the ‘Patriarch’ of the international Evangelical Palestine- Mission, Johann Ludwig Schneller, had fallen into oblivion. This fact is slightly surprising because judging by his achievements for Jerusalem and Palestine his place in history should be ﬁrst and foremost among those who invested their life’s work in the reconstruction of the Holy Land in the nineteenth century.1 Schneller himself and his successors

1 A comprehensive monograph on the history of the Syrian Orphanage and its manifold impulses for the modernisation of Palestine as well as biographical stud- ies on the leading characters Johann Ludwig, Ludwig, Theodor and Hermann Schneller still remains a desideratum. One reason for this deficiency can be seen in the fact that the Schneller Archive just recently found an appropriate home— after having been parked in Cologne, Erpfingen, Reutlingen—in the Landeskirchliche Archiv Stuttgart (LKA Stuttgart). The sources are in general good. The Jerusalem files are missing, and some of the German material seems to have been destroyed when the Cologne headquarter of the Schneller Association was struck by a bombshell during World War II. However, the Schneller Archive includes more or less all protocols of the meetings of the “Kuratoriums” and the Board of the “Evangelischen Vereins Syrischen Waisenhauses e.V.” in Köln-Marienburg, and all issues of the quarterly magazine Bote aus Zion, as well as private, official and economic corre- spondences, and a large photo collection. As to material from the Third Reich the possibility that some politically ambiguous files have been “cleansed” cannot be excluded. The historiography of the Syrian Orphanage was for a long time led by propagandist purposes in order to inform and keep in touch with the friends and sponsors of the Jerusalem institutions. Most publications were written by Ludwig Schneller and his deputy secretary Hans Niemann. Cf. e.g. L. Schneller, Wünschet Jerusalem Glück! Festschrift zum 50jährigen Jubiläum des Syrischen Waisenhauses in Jerusalem (Münster, 1911); and from the same Vater Schneller. Ein Patriarch der evangelischen Mission im Heiligen Land. Mit einem Lebensbilde von Frau M. Schneller (Leipzig, 1925) or 152 roland löffler created and extended the largest Protestant missionary and educational institution in the country, if not in the entire Middle East—the Syrian Orphanage (SyrO). In its heyday the Schneller compound—today located near the Jewish quarter of Mea Shearim—was larger than the entire Old City of Jerusalem. In his book on the history of Jerusalem, the Israeli historian Yehoshua Ben-Arieh emphasizes that the Syrian orphanage was “one of the most important focuses of construction outside the Old City” and a decisive factor for the devel- opment of the New City.2 The name ‘Syrian Orphanage’ is in itself a curiosity. How could a ‘Syrian’ Orphanage be founded in Jerusalem? And how did it develop? What sort of educational and theological concepts had been transferred from Germany to the Holy Land? What did it bring about, and what did it mean for the modernisation of the country in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries? To answer these questions, I will try not only to contribute to the history of the intercultural exchange between Germany and the Holy Land. I would also like to provide some new aspects of the religious and missionary history of Israel/Palestine. Following the ideas of Werner Ustorf from Birmingham University, I understand missionary history as part of the regional history of those territories, which were deeply influenced by missionary activities, provoking a most

H. Niemann, Redet mit Jerusalem freundlich! Bilder aus fünfundsiebzig Jahren Geschichte und Arbeit des Syrischen Waisenhauses (Köln 1935). Academic research has started since the 1970s, cf. the PhD dissertations by S. Hanselmann, Deutsche Evangelische Palästinamission. Handbuch ihrer Motive, Geschichte und Ergebnisse (Erlangen, 1971); by S. Akel, Der Pädagoge und Missionar und seine Erziehungsanstalten (Bielefeld, 1978); by A.-R. Sinno, Deutsche Interessen in Syrien und Palästina 1841–1898. Aktivitäten religiöser Institutionen, wirtschaftliche und politische Einﬂüsse (Berlin, 1982); by M. Raheb Das reformatorische Erbe unter den Palästinensern. Zur Entstehung der Evangelisch-Lutherischen Kirche in Jordanien (Gütersloh, 1990). For the early days of J. L. Schnellers in Jerusalem cf. A. Carmel, Christen als Pioniere im Heiligen Land. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Pilgermission und des Wiederaufbaus Palästinas im 19. Jahrhundert (Basel, 1981). The following text is an English version of my paper: “Die langsame Metamorphose einer Missions- und Bildungseinrichtung zu einem sozialen Dienstleistungsbetrieb. Zur Geschichte des Syrischen Waisenhauses der Familie Schneller in Jerusalem 1860–1945”, in D. Trimbur (ed.), Die Europäer in der Levante. Zwischen Politik, Wissenschaft und Religion (19.–20. Jahrhundert). Des Européens au Levant. Entre politique, science et religion (19.–20. siècle) (München, 2004), 77–106. Also cf. my two short articles “Schneller, J.L.” and “Syrisches Waisenhaus”, in H.-D. Betz, D. S. Browning, B. Janowski, E. Jüngel (eds.), Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart4, vol. 7 (Tübingen 2004), 945 and 2007. 2 Cf. Y. Ben-Arieh, Jerusalem in the 19th century. Emergence of the New City ( Jerusalem, New York, 1986), 70.