Franz Heinrich Kleinschmidt

Who was Franz Heinrich Kleinschmidt?

Franz Heinrich Kleinschmidt was a German missionary and linguist who worked in southern Africa, now in the region of Namibia. He founded the missionary station and town of Rehoboth and together with Carl Hugo Hahn set up the first Rhenish mission station to the Herero people in Gross Barmen. Kleinschmidt is known for his scientific work on the Nama language.

Kleinschmidt was born on 25 October 1812 in the village of Blasheim, today a suburb of Lübbecke, then in the Kingdom of Prussia. He was a trained carpenter and blacksmith.

Kleinschmidt became a missionary with the Rhenish Missionary Society, which sent him to Southwestern Africa in response to the request of Jonker Afrikaner, chief of the Oorlam tribe residing there. He arrived in Windhoek in October 1842. When Wesleyan missionaries arrived in 1844, also at the invitation of Jonker Afrikaner, Kleinschmidt and his colleague Carl Hugo Hahn moved northwards into Damaraland in order to avoid conflict with them.

Hahn and Kleinschmidt arrived at Otjikango on 31 October 1844.