THE FOUR MISSION HOSPITALS
3. Challenges to the Existence of the Hospitals
3.2. The Introduction of Doctors in Hospitals
3.2.2. The Pioneering Mission Doctors and their Service
3.2.2.2. Dr. Magdalene Schiele of Emmaus
Dr. Magdalene Schiele, born Tcheuschner, was already married to missionary candidate Bernhard Schiele when she completed her medical studies in Harmburg.
The Berlin Mission Society (BMS) supported Magdalene’s career, although her father was still expected to carry some of the costs for his daughter’s training.135 That was the case especially when she was in England (London) to take her examination for service in one of the British colonies, South Africa.
133 Corruption of “Gaborone”, the capital of Botswana.
134 Ulrich Schmidt interviewed by Radikobo Ntsimane at Faeri Glen, Pretoria on 26 February 2002.
135 Letter from BMS to Mr. Tcheuschner dated 27 July 1927. (ELAB MBW/1-9253).
It is not easy to capture the thoughts and voice of Dr. Schiele in the correspondence with the BMS leadership leading to her direct connection with the mission. The reason is that it was her husband who was connected directly to the mission initially, as its employee. Only later when she was employed at Emmaus Mission Hospital, did Dr. Schiele write a few letters directly to the BMS. Her husband was, from the tone of the letters and reports, a very strong person who did not hesitate to speak his mind to the mission leadership. For example, in 1929 due to a financial misunderstanding while he was serving in Mbabane Swaziland, he reminded the BMS leadership that his wife was not sent into the mission field as a medical missionary.136 Missionary Bernhard Schiele could easily be mistaken for the missionary doctor by the level of his involvement in the hospital matters, especially at Emmaus after the Second World War from 1947.
While in Swaziland, the status of Dr. Schiele as a missionary was always a contested one. A decision was taken to close KaShile Hospital for a year in order to give the Schieles a year of furlough after ten years of service in the mission field.
Superintendent Pakendorf wrote to Mission Inspector Schoen that the hospital should be closed, as Dr. Schiele was not a medical missionary.137 In the light of this letter it was obvious that the BMS did not recognize the value that KaShile Hospital had brought to the overall work of BMS. As a matter of fact the BMS did not even support the medical mission work done by Dr. Schiele in Swaziland. An organization called Swaziland Freundekreiss, which comprised friends of the Schieles and some Lutherans congregations in Germany, supported the KaShile and later the Emmaus medical mission initiatives. In 1937, when in Germany for their furlough, Dr. Schiele was strongly challenged when she opted to spend time in a hospital in Magdeburg- Sudenburg to learn new things in her profession.138 While the doctors and nurses were powerful within mission hospitals, the mission boards and committees above them
136 Letter of B. Schiele to BMS dated 28 November 1929. Kept in the BMS Archives in Kreuzburg, Berlin in Germany. (ELAB MBW/1-9254).
137 “Da Frau Dr. Schiele nicht Missionärtzin.” Letter of Superintendent Pakendorf to Mission Inspector Schoen dated 25 January 1936. Kept in the BMS Archives in Kreuzburg, Berlin in Germany. (ELAB MBW/1-9262).
were more powerful. As employers, they often had the final word in matters related to the mission societies and their employees.
Mission Director Knak refused to grant permission to Dr. Schiele to promote medical work on a particular day while in Germany because, although the medical work was important it was not more important than a meeting of missionaries. While in Swaziland, Dr. Schiele’s position as medical missionary of the BMS was unclear and contested. As mentioned earlier, after being interned in the British concentration camps in Salisbury in Southern Rhodesia and in Tanganyika (present Tanzania), 139 during the Second World War,140 the Schieles took over Emmaus, both as medical mission doctor and as congregation missionary supported by the BMS.
The dedication of Dr. Schiele as a doctor was seen mainly in the camp in Tanganyika.141 Despite being in “captivity” under stressful and vulnerable conditions she continued to perform her duties as a doctor. Although she could not work freely, she dispensed her duties where there was need and suffering. Such dedication resonates with the Hippocratic Oath of old that compelled doctors not to refuse to help wherever they could, and in the case of Dr. Schiele, even to serve while living under unconducive conditions.
In Norton, Southern Rhodesia, the Schieles learnt that they were not allowed to return to Swaziland142 but they could work in South Africa, thanks to the Smuts government’s good will.143 Before returning to South Africa to serve at Emmaus, the Schieles served in the Mochudi Hospital of the Dutch Reformed Mission in the then-
139 Letter of B. Schiele to Mission Director Knak dated 13 November 1942 in folder B. Schiele File Vol. 2 (1942-1956). Kept in the BMS Archives in Kreuzburg, Berlin in Germany. (ELAB MBW/1- 9259).
140 Information regarding this period is contained in letters found in folder identified as B. Schiele File Vol. 2 (1942-1956), kept in the BMS Archives in Kreuzburg, Berlin in Germany. (ELAB MBW/1- 9259).
141 Letter of Herman Schiele to Mission Director Knak dated 22 March 1943. Kept in the BMS Archives in Kreuzburg, Berlin in Germany. (ELAB MBW/1-9259).
142 Letter of Dezernant to Knak dated 1 January 1947. Kept in the BMS Archives in Kreuzburg, Berlin in Germany. (ELAB MBW/1-87).
143 Letter of B. Schiele to Knak written from Norton and dated 20 May 1947. Kept in the BMS Archives in Kreuzburg, Berlin in Germany. (ELAB MBW/1-9261).