18 Facts About Johann Flierl

Johann Flierl was a pioneer Lutheran missionary in New Guinea.

Johann Flierl established mission schools and organised the construction of roads and communication between otherwise remote interior locations.

Johann Flierl founded the Evangelical Lutheran Mission in the Sattelberg, and a string of filial stations on the northeastern coast of New Guinea including the Malahang Mission Station.

Johann Flierl was educated at the mission seminary in Neuendettelsau, in the Kingdom of Bavaria.

Johann Flierl was born in rural Germany, in Buchhof, a tiny farmstead, near Furnied, in the vicinity of Sulzbach, in the Oberpfalz, Kingdom of Bavaria.

For four years, Johann Flierl worked on his father's farm and continued his education informally; he learned to knit and reportedly he could knit a sock in a day.

Johann Flierl finally enrolled in the seminary in 1875; when he was half through the program, he heard about an opportunity for mission work in a mission founded by Old Lutherans and, after his consecration in April 1878, left for Australia.

Johann Flierl spent his first seven years of missionary life working on Lutheran Killalpaninna Mission Station at Cooper Creek.

Johann Flierl was a pioneer missionary for Southern Australian Lutheran Synod and the Neuendettelsau Mission Society.

Louise Johann Flierl arrived later in 1889, but told her husband she would not stay unless he found a healthier place to live than the mosquito-infested delta lands around Simbang; upon further exploration, he identified a promising site at 700 metres in the highlands.

Johann Flierl petitioned the synod in Australia frequently for new missionaries, and in 1899, it sent Christian Keyser, who, it turned out, offered the spark needed for the great breakthrough in 1905.

Johann Flierl took an extended trip to Europe, Australia, and the United States, extending his contacts outside of Germany, and developing the mission's financial resources.

Johann Flierl did this by sending artefacts and letters to like-minded Lutherans; some of these artefacts are collected in a museum at the Wartburg Theological Seminary in Iowa, which awarded Flierl an honorary degree.

Johann Flierl was incarcerated in Australia, and after the war he was repatriated to Germany.

Johann Flierl eventually made his way back to New Guinea, via Texas, in 1927.

Konrad Johann Flierl was only 13 when his older cousin left for Australia, and he entered the Neuendettelsau preparatory program the following year.

Johann Flierl was sent as a missionary to the United States in 1885.

Johann Flierl retired in 1930, age 72, and returned with his wife to her hometown in Australia.