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Pastor Matthias Göthe
On
19th March 1850 Pastor Matthias Göthe arrived on the Clifton and soon
started work in Sydney as Professor of Maths and Modern Languages at Dr John
Dunmore Lang's "Australian College" (Dr Lang, whom Göthe had
met in England, was supportive of German immigrants). He also preached to a
small German congregation in Sydney. Due to ill-health he went to Melbourne
in December 1852 and on March 1st 1853 was inducted as Melbourne's first permanent
Lutheran minister, based first at the Scots Church, and then later at the bluestone
Dreifaltigkeitskirche (Trinity Church) in East Melbourne once it was
completed. Matthias Göthe worked hard visiting congregations outside of Melbourne,
and establishing new Lutheran schools and congregations. He was the go-between
for these schools in their dealings with the Government Denominational Schools
Board, gaining for them government grants to help pay for teachers and textbooks.
Göthe also conducted the first Lutheran church service on the Bendigo goldfields
on Sunday 24th February 1856 in the Anglican school-room in View Street. On
January 29th 1862 he wrote to the Government asking for a pay-cut from £100
down to £92.10s, and that the remainder be sent to Pastor Haussmann for the
building of a Lutheran church at Castlemaine. In 1867 Göthe migrated to California,
USA, where he started Sacramento's first Lutheran congregation. After 8 years
in California, he moved (apparently for health reasons) south to Mexico City,
where he preached in German, English and Spanish, and died there in 1876 aged
49.
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German Australia © D. Nutting 2001