ABSTRACT
This chapter presents examples of Richard Wilhelm’s and Wilhelm Schüler’s private letters and published reports, including a sermon delivered by Schüler Qingdao in commemoration of fallen German soldiers. It argues that, through a careful process of editing and selective publication of some of this material in the home board’s signature journal, Zeitschrift für Missionskunde und Religionswissenschaft (ZMR), the missionary society was able to deflect the potential impact that the Boxer catastrophe might otherwise have had on its missionary enterprise. Instead of excusing the violence of the foreign response as a means of chastising the Chinese in preparation for the gospel, as other missionaries had done, the Weimar Mission ultimately positioned itself as a source for peace and cross-cultural understanding within a context dominated by violence and racism. In particular Richard Wilhelm’s significant role as a cross-cultural communicator between China and Germany began with his mission as peacemaker in the midst of the Boxer unrest.
