Bruno Gutman
| Father Bruno Gutman | |||||||
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| Born | 1876 | ||||||
| Died | 1966 | ||||||
| Residence | Moshi, Kilimanjaro, Tanganyika Territory [1931] | ||||||
| Occupation | church | ||||||
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Contents
Notes
Office Notes
House Notes
1931.02.24 The following were suggested as Local Correspondents: J.C. Abraham (West Africa), Mrs Hoernle (S. Africa), Revd. Bruno Guttman (Kilimanjaro), G.W.B. Huntingford (Kenya)
1936.02.25 The following were reappointed Local Correspondents, their appointment dating from 1936: ... Father Bruno Gutman (Kilimanjaro) ...
1939.02.21 The following names were removed from the list of Local Correspondents: ... Father Bruno Gutman,...
Notes From Elsewhere
Bruno Gutmann was a missionary ethnographer in East Africa. A native of Dresden, Saxony, he had a difficult childhood before he applied for admission to the Leipzig Mission seminary. At Leipzig he came under the influence of diverse social philosophy of his own and later supplied the motivation for ethnographic research. Gutmann served as a missionary from 1902 to 1938 among the Chagga people in the Kilimanjaro area of what is now Tanzania and became justly famous for his studies on Chagga religion, society, and customs, which remained unsurpassed in spite of their methodological shortcomings. Gutmann attempted to identify ethnic “life power” among the Chagga as determinative for the incorporation of tribal “primeval links” into the community of Christ. As a corollary, he expressed violent opposition to the power of modern civilization, fearing that it would destroy the tribal order of creation which, in his view, had not been affected by human sin. While his ideas proved successful in the congregations at Old Moshi and its surroundings, they could not but lead to misgivings regarding the encounter of Chagga Christians with the postwar world. As he was unable to return to Africa during 28 years of retirement, much as he wished to do so, he had no opportunity to adjust his views to changed conditions. [Hans-Werner Gensichen]
Bruno Gutmann was born in Dresden in 1876. He comes from a family of farmers and landholders. After the death of his mother in 1882, Gutmann grew up with his grandparents. Moreover, he became member of the YMCA in Dresden. Between 1895 and 1901 he studied in Leipzig, preparing for his theological examination and his mission work abroad. Wilhelm Wundt and Karl Grau were among his teachers.
In 1902 Gutmann had passed his theological examination and took up a one-year vicarage in Bavaria. Eventually he was sent to Eastern Africa to do service there. During the following years he lived both at the eastern and western slopes of the Kilimanjaro mountain. Among the Chaga people Gutmann began to do research not only about their social structure but also on their cosmological and religious beliefs. Moreover, he started to learn their language.
Due to health problems Gutmann came back to Germany in 1908, where he published his work about the Chaga. Gutmann eventually returned to Africa and became head of a missionary station near Masama. He continuously published books about the Chaga culture, for example a collection of their fables and fairy tales as well as a book on their law system.
Due to the Treaty of Versailles Gutmann had to return to Germany in 1920. After living in Berlin for some time he resettled in a franconian village, where he kept working on his scientific material. In 1924 the Theological Faculty of the University of Erlangen awarded him an honorary Doctorate of Theology. Two years later the University of Würzburg granted him the Doctorate of Law.
Gutmann was able to return to his missionary in Eastern Africa, where he lived and worked until 1938. The same year he presented a translation of the New Testament in Chaga language.
Bruno Gutmann died in Ehingen in 1966. (text written by Vincenz Kokot 2011; photo source: http://www.lmw-mission.de/de/missionar-2.html)
Publications
External Publications
Among Gutmann’s major works are Dichten und Denken der Dschagganeger (1909), Das Dschaggaland und seine Christen (1925), Christusleib und Nächstenschaft (1931), and Die Stammeslehren der Dschagga, 3 vols. (1932, 1935, 1938). The preferred modern account of Gutmann and his work is J. C. Winter, Bruno Gutmann, 1876-1966: A German Approach to Social Anthropology (1979). See also Ernst Jäschke, Bruno Gutmann: His Life, His Thoughts, and His Work (1985), and Jäschke’s essay in Gerald H. Anderson et al., eds., Mission Legacies (1994), pp. 173-180.
