Gutmann, Bruno (1876-1966)

Missionary ethnographer in East Africa

A native of Dresden, Saxony, Gutmann had a difficult childhood before he applied for admission to the Leipzig Mission seminary. At Leipzig he came under the influence of diverse social science theories that helped him to form a 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, “Gutmann, Bruno,” in Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions, ed. Gerald H. Anderson (New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 1998), 271-2.

This article is reprinted from Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions, Macmillan Reference USA, copyright © 1998 Gerald H. Anderson, by permission of Macmillan Reference USA, New York, NY. All rights reserved.

Bibliography

Primary


Gutmann, Bruno. Dichten und Denken der Dschagganeger: Beiträge zur ostafrikanischen Volkskunde. Leipzig: Evangelical Lutheran Mission, 1909. Also Nendeln, Liechtenstein: Kraus Reprint, 1973.

_____. Amulette und Talismane bei den Dschagganegern am Kilimandscharo. Leipzig: [Evangelical Lutheran Mission], 1923.

_____. Das Dschaggaland und seine Christen. Leipzig: Evangelical Lutheran Mission, 1925.

_____. Das Recht der Dschagga [Chagga Law]. Munich: Beck, 1926. Also New Haven, CT: Human Relations Area Files, 1963.

_____. Christusleib und Nächstenschaft. Feuchtwangen: Frankenverlag Sommer & Schorr, 1931.

_____. Die Stammeslehren der Dschagga. 3 vols. Munich: Beck, 1932, 1935, 1938.

_____. “The African Standpoint.” Africa: Journal of the International African Institute 8 no. 1 (January 1935): 11-19.

Secondary


Bendtz, N. Arne. “Lutheran Strategies in World Missions.” Augustana Seminary Review 9 no. 4 (1957): 23-30.

“Bruno Gutmann before the First World War.” Studies on Religion in Africa 14 (1996): 28-48. [No author indicated]

Fiedler, Klaus. Christianity and African Culture: Conservative German Protestant Missionaries in Tanzania, 1900-1940. Leiden and New York: E.J. Brill, 1996.

_____. Gospel Takes Roots on Kilimanjaro: A History of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Old Moshi-Mbokomu (1885-1940). Zomba, Malawi: Kachere Series, 2006, esp. 20ff.

Flatt, Donald C. An Ethnological Approach to Mission: Bruno Gutmann in Kilimanjaro. New York: Missionary Research Library, 1972.

Jäschke, Ernst. Bruno Gutmann, His Life, His Thoughts, and His Work: An Early Attempt at a Theology in an African Context. Erlangen: Verlag der Evangelical Lutheran Mission, 1985.

_____. “Bruno Gutmann, 1876-1966: Building on Clan, Neighborhood, and Age Groups.” In Mission Legacies, edited by Gerald H. Anderson, et al., 173-80. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1998.

Kamfer, Pieter P. Die Volksorganiese Sendingmetode by Bruno Gutmann. Amsterdam: Swets & Zeitlinger, 1955.

Richter, Julius. “A Review of Die Stammeslehren der Dschagga.” Africa: Journal of the International African Institute 5 no. 4 (1932): 522-23.

Shao, Martin F. Bruno Gutmann’s Missionary Method and its Influence on the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania, Northern Diocese. Erlangen: Evangelical Lutheran Mission Pub., 1990.

Stahl, Kathleen Mary. History of the Chagga People of Kilimanjaro. London: Mouton, 1964.

Studer, Erich. Der Missionar Bruno Gutmann (1876-1966): seine volksorganische Missionsmethode. Basel: Freie Evang. Theol. Akad, 1984.

“The Test of Missionary Cultural Conservatism: Bruno Gutmann at Old Moshi 1926-1938.” Studies on Religion in Africa 14 (1996): 112-35. [No author indicated]

Winter, Jürgen Christoph. Bruno Gutmann, 1876-1966: A German Approach to Social Anthropology. Oxford: Clarendon Press; New York: Oxford University Press, 1979.


Ernst Jäschke, “Gutmann, Bruno” in Occasional Bulletin of Missionary Research 4 (October 1980): 165-69; reproduced at the online Dictionary of African Christian Biography. No pages.

Adam Jones (Leipzig University), “Collecting and preserving the records of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania in Moshi, Tanzania.” Project outcomes and list of places where digital copies, on 98 DVDs, have been deposited.