Van Imhoff.info


Gottlob (Karl) Weiler

Survivor | 11 December 1889 | Missionary with the Basler Missionsgesellschaft

Gottlob (Karl)  WeilerBorn 11 December 1889 in Schlierbach. Starts his professional career as factory worker, but decided to join the Basel Mission in 1908 (student number 1862). He marries Johanna Hermine Ulshöfer and have one child: Ernst Gerhard

In 1914 he is sent out to Ghana for missionary work. But he never reaches the country because, being a German, he is interned (in ...?...) and deported (?) to a soldiers’ home in Turkey from 1916-1919.

After WW1 he is sent to Kalimantan in NEI where he is interned in 1941 because of his German background. Deported in January 1942 on the Van Imhoff. He survives the disaster and reaches Nias with the other survivores. He appears in the Nias group picture

According to some sources, Gottlob ends up in further internment in Dehra Dun in India up to 1945. This fact may be based on mistaken identity as Germans were not deported by the Japanese during the war.

Back in Germany 1947, Gottlob Weiler works on his personal account of the Van Imhoff affair which is published in 1952 under the title: Der Untergang der "van Imhoff" : Ein Augenzeugenbericht. Auf den Straßen der Welt. Missionshefte der Jungen Gemeinde, Nr. 16, Evang. Missionsverlag, Stuttgart 1952.

In the early 1960-ies he is approached by NEI historian C Van Heekeren together with Albert Vehring (planter from Irian and on Java), J Grasshoff (ship steward from Padang), E Fischer (merchant from Surabaya), E. Kempf from Pontianak, H. Sack (nurse from Sabang), K Seemann from Banjarmasin and W Schweikert (piano builder from Semarang). They become key witnesses to the sinking of the Van Imhoff, the struggle of the survivors at sea and the landing and follow-up on the island of Nias. Their accounts are well reflected in the early account of the Van Imhoff affair by Van Heekeren (Title: Batavia seint: Berlijn. Published by Bert Bakker, Den Haag 1967)

In 1964 Gottlob Weiler is interviewed by Dutch journalist Dick Verkijk for his tv documentary on the Van Imhoff affair as commissioned by the VARA broadcasting corporation. The film was never broadcasted but the full story was made public in the newspapers instead.

Gottlob dies on 4 August 1975

Question: Is this street in Bruckmuehl named after Gottlob Weiler? http://www.meinestadt.de/bruckmuehl/stadtplan/strasse/gottlob-weiler-str.

http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/ref/collection/p15799coll123/id/21316



Submit additional information about this person

Back to list