Heinrich Plütschau
A German Lutheran from Mecklenburg who sailed to Tranquebar with Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg in 1706 and took charge of preaching and catechizing in Portuguese.
The English editor of the Tranquebar letters says that Plütschau was born at Wesenberg in Mecklenburg and, like Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg, was educated at Berlin and at Halle (Ziegenbalg, Propagation of the Gospel in the East, preliminary discourse, sections 42–43). Ziegenbalg calls him his “dear Brother and Fellow-Labourer” (Ziegenbalg, Propagation of the Gospel in the East, Part I, p. 18) and reports that the two divided the work, Plütschau catechizing for two hours a day in Portuguese (Ziegenbalg, Propagation of the Gospel in the East, Part I, letter 9, pp. 67–68). A letter from the mission of December 1713 thanks its English friends for their kindness to him during a stay in England (Ziegenbalg, Propagation of the Gospel in the East, Part III, close of the letter of 11 December 1713). See the Tranquebar Mission.
In the timeline
- 9 July 1706, firm dateThe Tranquebar Mission
Two German Lutherans trained at Halle, sent under the protection of the king of Denmark, land at Tranquebar in South India in July 1706. They learn Tamil and Portuguese, baptize converts, build a church, open schools and begin to translate and print the New Testament in Tamil.
Primary sources
Propagation of the Gospel in the East
- Ziegenbalg, Propagation of the Gospel in the East, preliminary discourse, sections 42–43archive.org
- Ziegenbalg, Propagation of the Gospel in the East, Part I, p. 18archive.org
- Ziegenbalg, Propagation of the Gospel in the East, Part I, letter 9, pp. 67–68archive.org
- Ziegenbalg, Propagation of the Gospel in the East, Part III, close of the letter of 11 December 1713archive.org