When a small number of Germans called Palakkad home

Most people heading to the KSRTC bus stand in Palakkad would not cast a second glance at a building that is a unique mix of German Lutheran and Kerala architecture. The maroon building, which houses the Basel Evangelical Mission Higher Secondary School, dates back to the early part of the 20th century.

Established in 1859 as an English school by a German missionary named J Stroebel, the school underwent several upgrades since its founding. If its walls could talk, imagine the stories they would tell of German Protestant missionaries who came and settled down in Malabar.
Records indicate that the Germans first arrived in Calicut in 1834 before moving up to Mangalore in the north and Palakkad (then spelt Palghat) in the south.

“In their zeal for spreading education, abolishing slavery and forced labour, fight for women’s liberation and eradication of caste difference and untouchability, they became precursors of social reform movements in Kerala,” Baiju K. Nath, assistant professor at the University of Calicut and Varada K, a student at the university, wrote in a 2018 paper. “Although the activities of Christian missionaries aimed primarily at either the protection of the interest of the European capitalists or the proselytization of the members of the backward community to Christianity, their activities did spread enlightenment among certain sections of society.”

A photo in the University of Southern California’s collection shows one Inspector Frohnmeyer laying the foundation of a church in Malaparamba on November 27, 1910. The photo shows at least ten adults with Germanic features and four children. One can assume that these people were spread out in Malabar and South Canara.

The names of these missionaries, as mentioned on the university’s website, are Schrenk, Hauer, Knobloch, Benner, Scheuer, Peter and Kühner. In the photo, they are all dressed in fine suits for this special occasion. It’s quite hard to imagine them being dressed like this as they went about their daily activities.

The reverend in the photo was an Indian man named Henry Menzel. A deep dive into the Indian archives revealed that he was a pastor at the mission in Palghat. His son Lawrence taught at the school in 1912 for a salary of Rs 40 per month, but having completed his BA from Madras Christian College he was keen to get a job as a lecturer.

The 24-year-old wrote a letter to the eminent lawyer and statesman PS Sivaswami Iyer (then a member of the Executive Council of the Governor of Madras), requesting his help in finding a job. The letter written in 1912 had three references, including one from J Maue, who was the manager of the school.

Several websites say that one T Maue designed the school building in Palakkad. It’s difficult to ascertain whether these two were brothers or the same person. In the recommendation. J Maue called Lawrence Menzel “honest and trustworthy” and of “noble character.” The manager added, “He intends (on) leaving the school on his own accord as he does not find much scope for his special aptitude.”

Since, for practical reasons, the school’s medium of instruction was English, the only German that was spoken in Palghat would have been by this small number of missionaries. A photo in the Basel Mission Archives is titled “Palghat Missionhaus.” It shows a few adults and a group of children, all dressed in European clothes, standing in front of a colonial bungalow with Mangalore tiles.
The most famous German from the Basel Mission was noted Malayalam scholar Hermann Gundert, the grandfather of Herman Hesse.

This writer has not come across any documentary evidence that suggests that Gundert lived in Palghat. The Basel Mission’s footprint goes well beyond schools in Kerala. The Mangalore tiles were the brainchild of another German member of the mission, Georg Plebst, in the 1860s.

It would be fascinating to know what the few Germans who lived in Palghat thought of the town and its people. In 1840, English bishop George Trevor Spencer compared the town and its surroundings to Italy. It is possible that the German missionaries coming from a cold country might have had the same kind of impressions as Spencer. Perhaps the Basel Mission’s archives contain a diary or notes jotted down by one of the Germans who called Palakkad home in the 19th and early 20th centuries?