North - Lutheran Neukirchen Mission - Malango, Kitui Aug 1900

Drumkey 1909 - Evangelical Lutheran Mission of Leipzig

EA Diary 1903 - Rev. G. Sauberlich

EAHB 1904 - Kitui Residents - Sauberlich, Revd. Gunther - Missionary, Mulanga, Kitui

EAHB 1907 - Rev J. Sauberlich - Kitui

EAHB 1905 - at Mulango

Evangelical Lutheran missionary Günther Albin Sauberlich (1846-1964) had first arrived in East Africa, in 1888, working in missions at Jumba and amongst the Wakamba at Ikutha. After a year’s vacation in Germany Sauberlich returned with his new wife in 1897 and in June 1899 undertook the trip into the interior to establish a station in Mulango where they stayed, with one year’s break for vacation, until 1912 but were unable to return after a second break, due to the outbreak of war.

He assembled collections of objects which were donated to museums.

Wikipedia Günther Albin Säuberlich was born as the second of five children of the cantor Gustav Traugott Säuberlich and his wife, Franziska Theodore Henriethe, née Kirst, in Kleinliebringen on July 20, 1864. In 1870, Säuberlich was enrolled in the one-class elementary school with 30 to 40 children in Kleinliebringen, where his father was a teacher, with his friend, the farmer's son Berthold Heyder. At Easter 1877, he went to the secondary school in Rudolstadt, which he attended until 1880. He then lived in his parents' home until 1883 and helped his father in the village school. During this time, he improved his piano and violin playing in Stadtilm . In 1881, he passed an examination in Rudolstadt to become a school aspirant. The aim was to teach young men in Africa the doctrine of German Lutheranism . He passed the exam and was ordination in Hersbruck and Reichenschwand on August 2, 1888. He then traveled to East Africa . On September 9, 1888, he reached the Jumba mission station. Three missionaries trained in Neuendettelsau were active in the region from that time on. They had to learn the languages ????usual in the region in order to be able to communicate. Only then did the work according to the gospel begin, he reported to his friend in Kleinliebringen. Giving up habits from his homeland was necessary in order to work according to the living conditions of the local population. In January 1891, he and the missionary Christoph Niedermeyer prepared for a caravan to the center of Wakambaland. In February 1891, they founded another missionary station near Ikutha. The journey from Jumba to Ikutha took 20 days. They had to overcome every possible obstacle presented by nature in this area. In the midst of the thickest darkness of paganism, the two missionaries built a stone house as a mission building. Despite this, the Wakamba did not want God's word. With Säuberlich's medical knowledge, they made contact with the locals and with the protection he offered the Maasai tribe. Säuberlich stayed until the spring of 1896. He founded a school. In 1893, nine boys between the ages of 6 and 15 came to school. In August 1896, Säuberlich left East Africa and returned home on vacation. A young Wakamba youth, the chief's son Bario, came along. This was a great experience for the residents of the Deube region. On 8 June 1897, Säuberlich married Elisa Mohr from Schwarza near Rudolstadt in the church in Thälendorf. He returned with his wife in October 1897.
From 1897 to February 1898 he worked in Mbungu, then in Ikutha until May 1899. In Ikutha his wife gave birth to their son Ernst Paul on May 29, 1898. He died on June 29, 1899. On May 16, 1899 the missionaries G. Säuberlich and Fickert set out from Ikutha with 200 porters on a journey into the interior of the country to set up a station in Mulango. It was ready for occupancy on November 1. Several buildings and a cistern were built. The problem was food supplies in this area because there had been a bad harvest. The surrounding population and caravans lived off the food provided by the missionaries. On March 15, 1900, Fickert fell ill with blackwater fever. Säuberlich was then transferred to Kilimanjaro. He and his wife were now alone in the outpost. But a young missionary joined them. In May 1905 he was on leave. From December 1906 the Säuberlichs were back in Mulango. It was not until six years later that they were on leave again. The outbreak of the First World War meant that re-importation into a British colony was no longer possible. During the World War he did temporary work in Zwötzen, and later in a home for the disabled in Alteneichen in Stellingen near Altona. In 1917 he took over the management of the mission publishing house in Leipzig. Säuberlich worked in the secretariat of the Leipzig mission until his retirement on July 1, 1934.