26 Facts About Moritz Hall

Moritz Hall was a Polish Jewish-born Christian missionary, metalworker, timber merchant, and hotel proprietor.

Moritz Hall was born in the then tripartitely controlled Free City of Cracow, in 1846 annexed to the Austrian Galicia and Lodomeria, and served briefly in the Russian Army before emigrating to Ethiopia.

Moritz Hall worked with the London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews in Ethiopia and the Chrischona Brethren and married Walatta Iyasus Zander, an Ethiopian-German.

Moritz Hall was rescued by the British Expedition to Abyssinia and afterwards moved to the Middle East.

Moritz Hall settled in Jaffa where he became a mission station manager, timber merchant and hotel proprietor.

Moritz Hall was friends with the Nobel Prize-winning author Shmuel Yosef Agnon and was included as a character in his 1945 historical novel Temol Shilshom.

Moritz Hall was born in Cracow, which was then in the Austrian section of partitioned Poland, on 14 March 1838.

Moritz Hall was the son of Johann Jakob Salomon Hall and Sofia Rebeka Babette Hall.

Moritz Hall later lived in the Russian section of Poland and was conscripted into the Russian Army.

Moritz Hall is said in some later reports to have deserted from the army.

Moritz Hall afterwards spent some time in Germany and England and converted from Judaism to Christianity.

Moritz Hall arrived in Ethiopia by the early 1860s, it is possible he arrived with no aim in mind other than to seek adventure but he may have been appointed a servant to a missionary posted to the country or a travelling military officer.

Moritz Hall soon became involved in German and British missionary activity, particularly with the London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews in Ethiopia which sought converts from the Ethiopian Jews.

Moritz Hall settled at the remote and poor mission station of Gaffat, to the east of Lake Tana.

Moritz Hall ordered the Gaffat mission to produce artillery pieces for his army; the missionaries complained they had no knowledge of such matters but were compelled to start work.

Moritz Hall's metal casting experience was put to good use and he made a mortar and ammunition, one of the first weapons produced at the station.

Moritz Hall married Wolete-Iyasus Zander, the 14-year-old daughter of an Ethiopian aristocrat mother and an Anhalt-born German artist father Eduard Zander, at Gaffat on 17 May 1863.

Moritz Hall initially resided at a mission house owned by the London Society but was closely involved with the Protestant Temple Society.

In 1883, Moritz Hall was appointed to manage the London missionary society's colony at Artouf, west of Jerusalem, which was used to house potential Jewish converts to Christianity.

Moritz Hall was dismissed in 1885 and returned to Jaffa.

Moritz Hall hosted Wilhelm II, German Emperor at the hotel during his 1898 visit to Jaffa.

Moritz Hall served as a lady-in-waiting to the Royal Court and became an influential friend of Empress Taytu Betul.

Moritz Hall served as an honorary dragoman for the German consulate at Jaffa.

Moritz Hall became friends with the Nobel Prize-winning author Shmuel Yosef Agnon who included him as a character in his 1945 historical novel Temol Shilshom.

Moritz Hall died of a stroke on 27 January 1914 and was buried at the Templar Cemetery in Jaffa.

Moritz Hall's remains were transferred to the Templar Cemetery in Jerusalem in 1952.