Friedrich Wilhelm Gottlieb Viehe was a Germanmissionary of the Rheinische Missionsgesellschaft and an early settler in present-day Namibia. He was born in Mennighüffen,. His first exposure to missionary work in Africa was in 1867 at the settlement of Otjimbingwe where he worked with the Ovaherero. In 1870 he moved to Omaruru and established a small school for children of European settlers. In 1872, he built a mission house in Omaruru, and soon after translated the New Testament into the Otjiherero language. In 1885, Viehe constructed the first meteorological station in the newly formed colony of German Southwest Africa at Omaruru. In 1890, he moved to Okahandja, where he was head of the Augustineum. It was here he had a confrontation with Theodor Leutwein, commandant of the Schutztruppe, who accused Viehe of "mild treatment" in regard to his relations with indigenous Africans.
Childhood and education
Viehe spent his youth from 1844 to 1861 in Indiana, United States, where his parents had emigrated. He returned to Germany to train as a missionary at the Rhenish Missionary Institute in Barmen. On August 16, 1866, he passed his examination, on October 17 he was ordained, and in December he was dispatched by the RMS to South West Africa.
In May 1867, Viehe began his stay in Otjimbingwe, where he taught at the Augustineum with Carl Hugo Hahn and learned the Herero language. On June 17, 1869, he married Minette Vogt of Gütersloh in Otjimbingwe. The marriage produced three children: Heinrich, Gottlieb en Dorothee. In 1870, he moved to Okozondje, established in 1868 by Herero from Otjimbingwe and others from Otjikango, once the localDamara people fled to Okombahe. Omaruru was home to many European merchants and hunters, including Axel Wilhelm Eriksson. Viehe also founded a school for the local Herero, but the one he founded for white and mixed-race children closed within six months. In 1871, after Manasse Tyiseseta joined the staff of the Herero school, Viehe opened a school for eight Swedish children and taught English. His evening classes for boys and young men did not last long. He preached to the natives, and each Sunday held two services, one for Herero and one for white settlers. In the evenings, he studied. In Omaruru, Viehe built a house and church, which he inaugurated in 1874. He returned to Germany in 1887, but in 1889, he came back to Africa to supervise the move of the Augustineum to Okahandja, where he welcomed 12 pupils on April 14, 1890. He built his own rectory there, opening on November 14, 1890. Until his death, he was the praeses of the Rhenish Missionaries operating among the Herero.
Other interests
Viehe concerned himself not just with missionary work but also with the reserve and land issues handled by the German authorities. His views on the future of the reservations contrasted with the official position. For example, he believed the central missions should become native population centers, while the government policy had been to push them to the periphery. Viehe was an avid student of and specialist in Herero culture. He wrote "Some customs of the Ovaherero," with a foreword by W.C. Palgrave, in the first edition of the Folk-Lore Journal. Other publications include the second edition of Peter Heinrich Brincker's hymnal Omaimburiro oozombongo zovaherero puna Okatechismium katiti ; "Grammatik des Otjiherero nebst Wörterbuch", vol. 16 ; Omambo Uomahihamisiro nongokero ja Muhona Jesus Christus ; and Omaitonge uokutjanga nonkulesa otjiherero la . Viehe worked with Brincker and Carl Gotthilf Büttner on translating the New Testament into Herero. Gerald McKiernan and Hans Schinz both testified to Viehe's animated personality. A description of him and his first pupils can be found in Julius Baumann's Van sending tot kerk . There is also a description of Viehe in August Wilhelm Schreiber's Fünf Monate in Süd-Afrika and Johannes Spiecker's Er führt mich auf rechter Strasse. According to the Suid-Afrikaanse Biografiese Woordeboek, after Viehe's death in 1901, his widow Minette continued his missionary work as the first "missionary sister" in South West Africa, but according to the inscription on her gravestone in the Rhenish Missionary Cemetery in Okahandja, she died on December 13, 1894, seven years before her husband.
