Dr Karl Gutzlaff

Biographical notes:

Dr Karl (Charles) Frederich August Gutzlaff was born in Pomerania in 1803. He attended Janicke's Mission School in Berlin, 1821-1823, and studied at Berlin University. He then travelled to Holland and joined the Netherlands Missionary Society, 1826-1828. Having spent some time working in the Chinese Diaspora he left the Netherlands Missionary Society to work as an individual missionary in China. In 1844 he established his own Chinese Union at Kwangtung with which he was involved until his death in 1851. Whilst pursuing his missionary work, Gutzlaff was also employed as an official of the British Government, having been appointed in 1834 interpreter for the British Commercial authorities and Chinese Secretary of the Department of Trade. He was also responsible for a programme of Bible translation and printing, rendering Biblical scripture into Chinese and Japanese which he disseminated as part of his missionary work. He also published monographs, and contributed to monthly periodicals.

Reference: University of Birmingham, Special Collections Department, Online Archive Catalogue (http://calm.bham.ac.uk/DServeA/). Accessed April 2002.

From the guide to the Dr Karl Gutzlaff Collection, 1827-[185-], (University of Birmingham Information Services, Special Collections Department)