Mueller, Konrad F. (1919–2012), and Erna F
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Mueller, Konrad F. (1919–2012), and Erna F. Mueller (1919–2006) JOHN OKPECHI John Okpechi, B.A., studied theology at Babcock University, Nigeria. He worked for one year as a Greek and Hebrew teacher at the Federal College of Education, Pankshin, Jos, Nigeria. Later, he worked as pastor for three years. He is currently a graduate student at Friedensau Adventist University, Germany. There he also works as student research assistant for the ESDA project in the EUD. Konrad F. and Erna Mueller served as missionaries and teachers. Konrad served as a pastor and evangelist in the Seventh-day Adventist Church on different continents and in difficult times. Early Life, Education, and War Konrad Mueller and family. Experience Photo courtesy of General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists Archives. Konrad F. Mueller1 was born on May 3, 1919 in Schlangen, Lippe district, near Detmold, in the present- day state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, to Heinrich and Marianne Mueller. In 1925, at the age of six, young Mueller moved with his family to Bad Lippspringe, in North Rhine-Westphalia. There he attended the public primary school from 1926 to 1933. In 1933 he proceeded to Weida, Thuringia, where he completed an apprenticeship as a baker in 1936. That same year, seventeen-year-old Konrad enrolled at the Friedensau Mission School (present day Friedensau Adventist University) near Magdeburg. In May 1937, he was baptized into the Seventh-day Adventist Church at Friedensau. His studies were interrupted in the spring of 1939, when he was conscripted into military service as World War II broke out. He served as a paramedic in the 111th Infantry Division of the German Army.2 In the midst of the war, Mueller was married to his Friedensau schoolmate, Erna Fredrika Hermann, on November 4, 1942, at Sachsendorf, Germany. Erna was born on May 7, 1919, in Chicago to Seventh-day Adventist parents Susanna and P. H. Hermann, who were emigrants from Austria-Hungary. Her parents were missionaries, and she spent her early years in Romania and Germany. In Romania, she attended the public primary school from 1926 to 1934, before proceeding to the Institutue Biblic (S.D.A.) in Brasov between 1935 and 1936. She then went to a music school in Cluj from 1936 to 1938. Afterwards, she went to the mission school in Friedensau, where she studied for a pre-nursing degree between 1938 and 1939. She proceeded to the Robert-Koch School of Nursing, Berlin, studying nursing from 1939 to 1942. Erna had been baptized on June 9, 1936 by E. Manea in Brasov. In the heat of the war in 1944, she returned to the United States and took additional courses at White Memorial and Loma Linda Hospitals in 1953.3 While serving in the war, Mueller was seriously wounded by a bullet that passed through his lung on the retreat of the German army after the battle of Stalingrad. After his nine-month recovery he was sent back to the battlefront in Bessarabia in the summer of 1944. There he fell into Russian captivity, being imprisoned in deplorable and life- threatening conditions in Astrakhan, from which he was released in May 1949.4 The scars of war did not efface Mueller’s interest in the ministry as he took up a ministerial internship with the Hessia-Westphalia Conference from June 1949 to September 1950. During this period, he engaged in pastoral and evangelistic work in the city of Gelsenkirchen.5 American Sojourn and Further Education Mueller emigrated to America in 1950 and was reunited with his wife after a separation of more than six years. They settled in Loma Linda, Southern California. He then studied for a B.A. in theology at La Sierra College (now La Sierra University) from 1951 to 1954. During this time, the Muellers had two daughters, Ulrike Renate and Helga Leonore. Meanwhile, Erna Mueller worked at the Loma Linda Sanitarium and Hospital from 1948 to 1954. Her training was to be valuable in the couple’s later missionary endeavors.6 The Muellers moved to Washington D.C. in 1957. While there, Mueller enrolled at the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary and was awarded an M.A. in 1955 and a B.D. in 1957, in which he majored in practical theology. Erna again worked as a nurse – at the Washington Sanitarium and Hospital, Takoma Park, between 1955 and 1957.7 Missionary Work in West Africa and Sojourn to England Mueller was ordained as a minister on October 16, 1957, in Washington D.C. in a ceremony led by A. V. Olsen. Just three days after Mueller’s ordination, the couple and their two little daughters left New York City to answer a missionary call to Nigeria, West Africa. They were sent to the East Nigerian Training College (today’s Clifford University), Ihie, in present day Abia State. His primary assignment was that of a Bible teacher and college pastor while Erna served as the school nurse, kindergarten teacher, and kitchen supervisor. She also wrote music for Igbo songs. In 1959 Mueller became the acting principal of the college and served as the Principal Manager (1962-1963). In 1964 the missionary family moved to the western part of Nigeria to the newly established Adventist College of West Africa (today’s Babcock University), Ilishan-Remo, in present-day Ogun State. There he served as a Bible teacher (1964-1966) while Erna worked as a school nurse (1961-1962).8 Subsequently, Konrad took a study leave from the mission field to pursue doctoral studies at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany, between 1966 and 1968. His emphasis was on the history of doctrine, and his Doktorvater was Prof. Wolfgang Philipp. While completing his studies, he took up a part-time job as a Bible teacher at Seminar Marienhöhe in Darmstadt, between 1966 and 1968. In 1969, he was awarded a PhD degree after completing his thesis entitled “The Early History of the Seventh-day Adventists until the Church was founded in 1863, and Its Importance for Modern Irenics.”9 Meanwhile, in 1968, Mueller had become head of the theology department at the Adventist College of West Africa. This was a challenging period because a civil war had broken out in Nigeria between the eastern region (the defunct Republic of Biafra) and the Nigerian state between 1967 and 1970. During this time, Mueller was a representative for reorganization and relief work to the East. It was a life-threatening task, but he felt connected to the East, having labored there before.10 Mueller was also engaged in evangelistic outreach during his missionary years.11 In 1972 Mueller and his family moved to another West African State, Liberia, where he served as president of the Liberian Mission.12 There they worked as missionaries until 1975, when Mueller was called to join Newbold College, Bracknell, Berkshire in England13 as lecturer in Church and Ministry.14 His other teaching specialties were personal evangelism and Ellen White writings.15 When Mueller first came to Newbold, his basic assignment was to teach Bible, but the tragic death of Pastor Paul Steiner in December 1974 led to Mueller’s appointment to the curatorship of the Ellen G. White writings and Seventh-day Adventist Research Centre (Europe) in March, 1975. This center was housed on the college campus and was to serve the then Northern Europe-West Africa and Euro-Africa Divisions. For Mueller, curatorship was more than a job. He believed fervently in the writings for which he was responsible.16 In August 1985, after 10 years at the Ellen G. White Centre17 and as a lecturer at Newbold, Mueller retired from active ministerial service. Later Life Although retired at age sixty-six, Mueller remained active. He returned to Loma Linda with his wife, from where he made missionary trips to Russia and Africa. His trip to Astrakhan, located on the Volga River was remarkable. This was the place where he had been held as a prisoner of war for five years. In 1994 he returned there as an evangelist to conduct the first public meetings in this former communist territory. He met a nurse, Paulina, who had worked with him in the prison fifty years before. She was one of those who committed their lives to Jesus. More than 120 converts were baptized, and a new church was established.18 He repeated this evangelistic visit seven times.19 In 1996 he was appointed pastor of the German Adventist Church in Los Angeles and regularly engaged in preaching and speaking assignments.20 After the death of Erna in 2006,21 with whom he had been married for over 60 years, he was remarried after some time, to Emma.22 On June 26, 2012, Mueller died after a short illness at the age of 93 in Loma Linda, California. Until his death, he was pastor of the Los Angeles Adventist Church, the last German Adventist Church in the United States.23 Contributions The Muellers can be credited for their pioneering work at two Nigerian colleges that later transformed into universities. The East Nigerian Training College Ihie, where they worked first, later became Clifford University.24 The Adventist College of West Africa, Ilishan-Remo, where Mueller headed the theology department, became Babcock University, with 10 schools and over 50 undergraduate and graduate degrees awarded. The little college clinic in Ilishan-Remo, where Erna worked, later became an exquisite medical school and teaching hospital. Babcock is home to over 20,000 students compared to a little above 100 students in Mueller’s time.25 The incipient gospel and educational seeds sown in Nigeria by Mueller and other selfless missionaries have yielded bountifully.