Gotthard Daniel Fritzsche

German-born and educated Lutheran pastor, Gotthard Daniel Fritzsche emigrated rather than conform to the King of Prussia’s attempt to enforce unity among his kingdom’s Lutherans and Calvinists. In 1841 Fritzsche and about 200 lay people arrived in South Australia, settling at Hahndorf in the Adelaide Hills. Fritzsche’s theological disagreements with the Lutheran leader August Kavel resulted in two separate Lutheran synods despite Fritzsche’s efforts to heal the breach. Devoted to education, Fritzsche encouraged Lutherans to build schools as well as churches. He was a devout and conscientious pastor, an eloquent preacher, a dignified controversialist, and a gifted theologian with a great love of music and nature, and an almost obsessive fear of worldliness in his congregations.