The first wave of German settlers in London were merchants. The second wave brought artisans, mainly in sugar refining, confectionery and later the meat trade, but there were also bookbinders and sellers. Many settled in East London, remaining until the First World War: at one time there were 16,000 Germans in the area. Most were Protestants (Lutheran and Reformed), but some were Roman Catholics and later, of course, many Jews fleeing poverty and persecution.

German Lutheran Church: St George's

There were few links between these congregations, which were 'little republics', though the two Savoy congregations exchanged preachers and had an annual church feast in which followers of Luther and Calvin joined together so peacefully and cheerfully that you would think they were one congregation.

St George's was founded in 1762 by Dietrich Beckmann, a wealthy sugar refiner. His workers formed most of the original congregation, together with East End merchants from the Hamburg church. Most of the original interior of the Alie Street church survives, including the ground floor and gallery box pews and the double-decker pulpit and sounding board. On the wall above hangs a pre-1801 coat of arms of King George III and two carved timber Commandment Boards in German. The Royal Arms, obligatory at the time in Anglican churches and adopted by others as a mark of loyalty, recall the connection with Queen Victoria's mother, the Duchess of Kent, who was patron of the schools from 1819 (see below). Like the other churches, which do not survive, it was very similar to Anglican parish churches being built at this time (see P. Guillery St George's German Lutheran Church, Whitechapel in the Georgian Group Journal 14 (2004) pp89-96).

The first pastor (1763-99) was Gustav Anton Wachsel, Beckmann's cousin, appointed at the age of 26. He was born in Halberstadt in East Frisia, on the eastern edge of the Harz (in former East Germany) around 1735. His father was a partisan against the 'French invaders' of the area and was shot by them in 1761. At the conclusion of the Seven Years War (1756-63), a committee in London petitioned Waschel's alma mater, the Georg August University of Göttingen, for a recognition of the help he had given to escaping refugees:

In the summer of 1764 Pastor Wachsel appealed in the press for help for a group of 600 Germans from the Palatines and Würzburg who were attempting to make their way to the islands of St John and St Croix in the Virgin Islands, had been abandoned in London without money or resources, and could not speak English; 200 were confined on their ship, unable to pay for their passage, and the rest were camping out in Goodman's Fields by St George's Church (sketch drawings of the campsite are extant). The Tower of London provided 200 tents to protect them from the heavy rains and a collection of £4000 was raised from 1200 donors. King George III intervened and enabled them to travel, in October of that year, to South Carolina (at that time British territory) instead, setting sail from Gravesend on three ships: the Dragon, the Union and the Planters Adventure. The Committee Minute booklet of 1765, printed by Haberkron, along with many contempoary newspaper articles, give more details. Family websites of descendants, now spread across the USA, chronicle the help they were given by the relief committee, led by Wachsel. See here and here for examples, relating to the group's time in London. The University of Göttingen granted him an honorary doctorate in 1765.

During his time, a 'curious custom' arose of having the beadle stand with his mace outside the altar rails during the reading and prayers - no-one knew why, unless it was to quieten the children. Wachsel published an edition of Luther's Shorter Catechism in German and English. In 1767 the church had 430 members. A school was established in 1765, aiming to populate the congregation in the future; it became St. George's German and English Elementary School in 1805, offering a full range of subjects, and supported by voluntary contributions. There was a tension here: many German settlers assimilated quickly, marrying English wives and generally becoming 'British'. When Wachsel attempted to introduce English services for second generation and 'mixed' families (as did the other German congregations) there were protests: his wages were stopped, he was locked out, and a 25-year battle ensued, ending with a court verdict that he could only hold services in German. There were also struggles about the church constitution: he was conservative and autocratic, but his north German members wanted rules and participation. And they also objected to music in worship, fearing that the church might become a 'playhouse' [see Goodman's Fields]. So numbers fell.

His successor, from 1799 until his death in 1843, was Dr Christian A.E. Schwabe, who rebuilt the congregation, to between 400 and 500. He was Queen Victoria's German tutor. In 1806 a Society of Friends of Foreigners in Distress was established. There was also a Ladies' Clothing Society, providing clothing for nearly a hundred poor German children a year. School numbers in 1838 were 75 boys and 35 girls.

Dr Louis Cappel was the next pastor. In his time the churchyard and crypt were closed (1853) and there were no further burials. In 1864 he ministered to Franz Müller [pictured right], a tailor who was convicted of the murder of Mr Briggs on the North London Railway. The trial, and public execution, aroused great public interest. He denied the charge, and a 'German Protection Society' was created to plead for clemency. Cappel was with him on his last day when he went to the scaffold, at which point he confessed; reports say that a fuller confession would have followed if the hangman had not been so anxious to proceed. See further George H. Knott Trial of Franz Müller (Read Books 2006).

School numbers swelled in this period, and a new building was opened in 1877, designed by E.A. Gruning, the pastor's son-in-law [left - with a rear view of the infant school behind]. It was financially supported by Wilhelm Heinrich Göschen, and others such as George Frederick Vorwerg whose will created a charitable trust (and who also left an engraved picture of the creation of the world, and £5 for a mourning ring, to Louis Cappel). It was the only German school with a nursery, for children over the age of two, to enable poor mothers to work. Relying on donations from wealthier members, it survived until 1917. The 1886 religious census of London recorded attendances of 102 (morning) and 83 (evening).

A new, and characteristically German, organ was installed the the firm of Walcker in 1886, using the 1794 case by John England. It was rebuilt in 1937, and restored in 2004, and is used for regular recitals.

Goerg Mätzold was the pastor from 1891 to 1930. He brought nurses from Germany in 1903 (when the church had 166 in the congregation), and founded Ostdiakonieverein, a social welfare organisation for the East End. The school canteen provided meals for pupils and also some parents. Julius Rieger followed him (1930-53); during the Nazi period he set up a relief centre for Jewish refugees from Germany who were provided with references to travel to England. He founded the church magazine Der Londoner Bote.

Sunday worship was transferred to St Mary's in Bloomsbury in 1996, though there is a monthly midweek service and special events - including a 2006 BBC Songs of Praise to mark the centanery of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's birth, and the premiere of Richard van Schoor's Mass, on texts by Bonhoeffer.

The pastor from 1822 to 1858 was Johann Gerhard Tiarks (1794-1858), who published A Practical Grammar of the German Language (1834). He came from a large and distinguished family and studied at the University of Heidelburg, and married an English wife; several of his descendants became Anglican clergy, and Captain Mark Philipps was his great-great-grandson. In his time schools for boys (1832) and girls (1852) were established. Sunday worship was advertised for 10.45am and 6pm, with the Lord's Supper at Christmas, Easter, Whitsunday and the first Sunday in October - seats to be had in the vestry.

Heinrich Deicke was pastor from 1905.  From 1933-35 the theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer [right] was pastor at St Paul's, before he returned to Germany and set up the Confessing Church seminary, and became involved in the plot to assassinate Hitler. (He is arguably the greatest theologian and pastor ever to have ministered within the confines of our parish.) The church was bombed in 1941, and it merged with St George's Lutheran Church. The Goulston Street site is now part of London Metropolitan University, and in 2009 a blue plaque commemorating Bonhoeffer was unveiled there in memory of Bonhoeffer, who is commemorated in the Anglican calendar as 'Lutheran pastor and martyr' on 9 April.
This is the American Episcopalian collect for his day:

In 1903 the Pallottine Fathers took charge of the church; in that year, there were 670 attending worship. Slightly damaged by a Zeppelin raid in 1917, the mission continued, and the church was consecrated by the Archbishop of Cologne in 1925.

But it was destroyed in the Blitz in 1940, and worship continued in temporary accommodation until a fine new church, by Plaskett Marshall & Partners, was consecrated in 1960. It has a distinctive campanile, and the Wynfrid Centre provides residential and conference accommodation. The church has also for many years been the base for chaplaincy to the Maltese community who first settled in and around Cable Street.

See here for a fuller account of this church's history.

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