Christian Keyser

Christian Gottlob Keyser (also spelled Keysser, Kaiser) was a Lutheran missionary of the Neuendettelsau Mission Society. He served for almost 22 years at the Neuendettelsau Mission Station in the Finschhafen District of New Guinea, which had been founded in 1892 by Johann Flierl. He controversially proposed the evangelization of tribes, rather than individuals, the concept known as Volkskirche (Congregation Church). An avid linguist, he compiled one of the first dictionaries of a Papuan dialect: Dictionary of the Kâte Language, a Papuan community (Wörterbuch der Kâte-Sprache; Eine Papuagemeinde). He also maintained a regular correspondence with the German Geographical Society in Berlin, reporting on his naturalist findings in New Guinea. He published his memoirs (1929), as well as over 300 essays and pamphlets and ten books. An intrepid explorer, he ascended the Saruwaged Range massif in 1913 and collected many important natural history specimens there.