Pastor August Kavel
Born in Berlin, Prussia
Son of Albrecht Christian Kavel and Charlotte Sabine (Filgraf) Kavel.
Husband of Johanna Beate (Irrgang) Staudenmayer — married 1851 in Adelaide, South Australia (Australia)
Brother of Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Kavel, Johann Wilhelm Ferdinand Kavel, Maria Charlotte Sabine (Kavel) Fiedler and Daniel Samuel Kavel
Died at age 61 in Tanunda, South Australia (Australia)
August Kavel was born in Berlin, Prussia in 1798 to parents Albrecht Christian Kavel (c. 1766 – 20 August 1842) and (Charlotte) Sabine Kavel, née Fillgraf, (25 December 1767 – 1852).[1] August trained at Berlin University where he studied theology and in 1826 he was appointed as pastor to the Lutheran church at Klemzig, a village located near the city of Züllichau in then southeastern Brandenburg in the German state of Prussia. [2]
Rev. August Kavel was pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church at Klemzig in Prussia from 1826 to 1835, when he resigned in consequence of his conscientious objections to the liturgy by which the Prussian Government sought to unite the Reformed and Lutheran Churches, and which they forced on the unwilling congregations of both creeds. Mr. Kavel’s flock desiring to follow their pastor to some new sphere, where freedom of worship would be insured, he made preliminary arrangements with The South Australian Company for their emigration to that colony. The Prussian Government, however, refused passports, and owing to the delay, the negotiations fell through. Mr. Kavel first saw Mr. Angas, the chairman of the company, on the subject in April 1836, and after waiting patiently for over a year the members of his congregation presented a petition to the King, with the result that he instructed Dr. Strauss, a councillor of the Consistory in Berlin, to proceed to Klemzig, and use his best endeavours to bring the people back to the Established Church. His mission totally failed, the people remaining stedfast and immovable. Many of the ministers and philanthropists of London joined together to expedite matters, and proposed to call a meeting to ventilate the whole question. But Mr. Kavel declined to be present, or to accept the well-meant intervention, on the ground that claiming the political interference of a foreign power was contrary to the Lutheran belief in the teaching of Scripture, although it was not inconsistent for them to leave a country where their religious freedom was endangered. The proposed meeting was therefore abandoned. Not so the scheme of emigration, which Mr. Angas ultimately agreed to provide for at his personal expense, chartering the Prince George for the purpose. The passports being at last forthcoming, two hundred of Mr. Kavel’s people embarked at Hamburg on the Prince George, which finally left Plymouth in July 1838, arriving at Adelaide in November. The people were settled on Mr. Angas’ land, on the north bank of the Torrens, where they founded a settlement called after their old home, Klemzig.
The expatriated Lutherans were eager to make their settlements models of prosperity; but in doing so they omitted to make corresponding efforts to discharge their pecuniary obligations to Mr. Angas, who was placed in a most difficult position in consequence. Pastor Kavel grieved at the scandal of having under his care a congregation who had emigrated for conscience’ sake, showing so little regard to their conscientious duty, adopted the stringent measure of refusing to administer the Lord’s Supper to any who were failing to make faithful efforts to pay their debts.
For a time he was a pastor almost without a flock, but the lesson he taught his people resulted in their honourably fulfilling their engagements and expressing their gratitude to Mr. Angas for his generous and timely aid.
Mr. Kavel, who took his parents to the colony with him, died in 1859. He published a pamphlet setting forth the advantages of South Australia as a field for settlement, which had a wide circulation in Germany. [3]Family
August Kavel married Anne Catherine Pennyfeather, an English woman, on 28 March 1840. She died on 25 December 1841 after giving birth to a stillborn son and was buried in the tiny Klemzig cemetery (Kavels parents would also be buried there). Kavel married again in 1851, to Johanna Beata Irrgang; they had no offspring. His sister Maria Charlotte Sabine Kavel (2 August 1806 – 6 April 1880) emigrated aboard Prince George in 1838 and married (Johann Friedrich) August Fiedler (21 February 1796 – 17 September 1880). Three brothers Johann Wilhelm Ferdinand Kavel, Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Kavel, and Daniel Samuel also emigrated on the same voyage.
Migration from Prussia to Australia
Religious Motivations
King Frederick William III wanted to unite the Lutheran and Protestant churches into one unified religion. Paster Kavel and his followers pushed against the unifed religions and became known as the Old Lutherans. As the threat of persecution intensified Kavel sought emigration options for himself and his church to practice Lutheranism in freedom. He went to London, England and met with George Fife Angas, who at that time was the chairman of The South Australian Company which was searching for emigrants to settle in South Australia. [1]
Emigration to Australia
Arrived in South Australia on board the ship Prince George on the 20 November 1838 with a large group of his congregation.[4] They were escaping religious persecution. Kavel and the parishioners settled in Klemzig, named after their hometown in Prussia. August founded the Lutheran Church there.[5]
Settler and Colonist
Kavel built the village Klemzig in South Australia, and also built the first Lutheran Church and School. [6] The Klemzig congregation was the start of many Prussian Lutheran settlements in South Australia, and was the beginning of the spread and formation of the Lutheran Church of Australia.
The memorial, erected over the grave, commemorates Pastor August Kavel (1798 – 1860), founder of the Lutheran Church in Australia. The monument was unveiled at the cemetery in 1938, the centenary of the landing of the landing of the first German settlers in Australia and the foundation of the Lutheran Church.
Pastor August Kavel was the inspirational leader in taking his Lutheran southern Prussian group from their initial South Australian settlement at Klemzig to the Barossa Valley. Kavel negotiated with South Australian Company chairman George Fife Angas’s agent Charles Flaxman for his group to settle Klemzig, north of Adelaide, in 1838.
Named after one of Kavel’s German parishes and on land owned by Angas, Klemzig soon proved inadequate for Kavel’s group to fulfil their obligations to Angas, who had loaned the cost of their sea journeys to South Australia, and to provide for themselves. Inspired by the enthusiasm of German geologist Johannes Menge, Kavel negotiated with Flaxman, who has sailed out with them, for the group to buy a much larger area in the Barossa valley. .
With their valley land bought on a tough deal of £20 an acre with 5% interest, members of the Kavel’s group impressed with their solid sober industriousness, propelled by a strong religious faith. The traditional German waggon was used for everything, from family coach to wedding coach and hearse, to hay and grape carrier, heavy transport, caravan and water cart. Tents, dugouts and wattle-and-daub huts were soon replaced by trick-walled homes and spired churches from stone quarried locally.
Langmeil and Bethany were the first German towns, followed by others such as Tanunda, Gnadenfrei, Hoffnungthal, New Mecklenburg, Siegerdorf, Neukirch, Nuriootpa, and Seppeltsfield.
