ABSTRACT
In the fifty or so years before the First World War about 100 German missionaries, their wives and helpers of both protestant and catholic denominations came to Australia, New Guinea and neighbouring islands attempting to convert the indigenous population to Christianity. It was also well known that the missionaries' task was a dangerous one. Many were to live among 'unruly and dangerous people', some were even to face 'man-eaters and cannibals', and indeed stories of missionaries losing their life in encounters with irate native people were not uncommon. It was not surprising that the Lutheran community in South Australia should have turned to Louis Harms for assistance, because they, too, were a relic of an age that knew little religious tolerance. Missionary work at Hermannsburg was continued by Karl Albert who, like Strehlow, assisted the Aborigines in their fight for survival.
