Johann Valentin Haidt, “Zinzendorf als Lehrer der Völker des Erdkreises” [Zinzendorf as Teacher of the Peoples of the World] (c. 1747)

Abstract

The oil painting “Zinzendorf als Lehrer der Völker des Erdkreises” [Zinzendorf as teacher of the peoples of the world] by Johann Valentin Haidt, painted in circa 1747, depicts the migration of members of the Herrnhut Brethren Church (also known as Moravian Church) as a missionary movement. Count Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf (1700-1760) traveled to the Baltic States as a preacher and missionary and worked in England, North America and the Caribbean. He is depicted in the right foreground of the picture as he receives the divine light on his forehead, mouth and heart to preach equally to indigenous people, African enslaved people and European settlers. Those who have already been converted are in the middle ground of the scene. In the background, the town that grew from this religious community can be seen as a result of the mission.

Source

Source: Zinzendorf als Lehrer der Völker des Erdkreises by Johann Valentin Haidt, circa 1747. Courtesy of the Moravian Archives, Herrnhut, Germany.

Gisela Mettele. Weltbürgertum oder Gottesreich? Die Herrnhuter Brüdergemeine als globale Gemeinschaft 1760-1857, Göttingen:  Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 2009.

Carola Wessel. Delaware-Indianer und Herrnhuter Missionare im Upper Ohio Valley, 1772-1781, Tübingen: Verlag der Franckeschen Stiftungen im Niemeyer Verlag, 1999.

Johann Valentin Haidt, “Zinzendorf als Lehrer der Völker des Erdkreises” [Zinzendorf as Teacher of the Peoples of the World] (c. 1747), published in: German History Intersections, <https://germanhistory-intersections.org/en/migration/ghis:image-99> [December 01, 2023].