St Michael's Lutheran Church - Hahndorf - Adelaide Hills

LOCATION: Corner Balhannah Road and Church Street, Hahndorf

Heritage Listing No. 26049

State Heritage ID: 21249 - This outstanding Lutheran Church building was constructed by the followers of Pastor Fritzsche in 1857-8 on the site of Hahndorf's first church, and is the place of worship for Australia's oldest Lutheran congregation. (Mount Barker Heritage Survey 2004).

St Michaels in 1920 at the 90th Anniversary of the Hahndorf Lutheran congregation, and the 70th of the church building.This church was opened in 1859 and named St. Michael as the foundation stone was laid on St. Michael’s Day, 29 September 1858. St Michael’s Lutheran Congregation was originally established in 1839 and is the oldest surviving Lutheran congregation in Australia. In 1840 a mud-walled church was built on the site of the present church and dedicated by Pastor Kavel. However, the congregation split in 1846 when doctrinal differences between Pastor Kavel and Pastor Fritzsche became official. Pastor Fritzsche and his followers retained the original church property while those of Pastor Kavel built a small brick church at the southern end of Hahndorf which became the home of St Paul’s United Evangelical Lutheran Congregation. In 1966 the rift between the two churches was healed when they both became members of the Lutheran Church of Australia.

Additional Information

Addition information is available regarding the history of St Michael's Lutheran Church.

Early Ownership

Information from The Hahndorf Allotments Database compiled by Reg Butler.

Old Lot No.	New Lot No.	Street No.	Street Name
Farm 13	N.H. 30	18	Church Street

Year Sold	New Owner	Occupation	Owner's Home	Personal
1839	Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hahndorf		Hahndorf
1857	Christian Thiele Friedrich Thiele Wilhelm Wittwer jun	farmer farmer miller	Hahndorf Hahndorf Hahndorf	Trustee GRO title Trustee St Michael's Lutheran Trustee Congregation.
1931	Ferdinand Altmann Gottlob Jaensch Christoph Liebelt Heinrich Storch Hermann Storch Heinrich Thiele	farmer butcher farmer farmer farmer farmer	Balhannah Hahndorf Hahndorf Grunthal Grunthal Hahndorf	Trustee LTO title Trustee Trustee Trustee Trustee St Michael's Lutheran Trustee Congregation.
1939	Alfred Altmann Leslie Hill Gottlob Jaensch Christoph Liebelt Edgar Liebelt Friedrich Liebelt Heinrich Paech	farmer labourer butcher farmer farmer farmer farmer	Balhannah Hahndorf Hahndorf Mt Barker Hahndorf Mt Barker Hahndorf	Trustee Trustee Trustee Trustee Trustee Trustee St Michael's Lutheran Trustee Congregation.
1977	St Michael's Lutheran Church Hahndorf

Notes:

NH 30: The street numbers No 5 Balhannah Road; No 7 Balhannah Road; No 9 Balhannah Road; No 11 Balhannah Road have also been given to this allotment. St Michael's Lutheran Church owns all of this undivided allotment.
The site of St Michael's Lutheran Church & cemetery, Hahndorf.
1839 – Hahndorf Lutheran School near the German Arms.
1840 – Hahndorf Lutheran School held in Hahndorf's first Lutheran Church on this site.
c1850 – Hahndorf Lutheran School shifted to No 62 Main Street.
4127/215 Metric title

The following Information has been added as part of the overall Zebra-Project

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To see John MUELLER's Collection of Hahndorf Church related photographs

All photographs by author March 2024 unless specified


Alfred Ernest BRAUER at St Michael's 1901-1922		Karl Friedrich Adolph STREMPEL at St Michael's 1855-1901

Pastor BRAUER' 1901

'Pastor STREMPEL' Glen LIEBELT Photographic Collection & Archival Material John MUELLER Photographic Collection & Archival Material

John MUELLER Photographic & Other Archival Materials Collection





Photo by Edmund DIEDERICH	Photographers stamp of Edmund DIEDERICH

Were any of your relatives buried at St Michael's before 1885?





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St Michael's Cemetery

In the early days members of the congregation who died were buried in the church cemetery in the church grounds. This arrangement continued until 1885 when the cemetery was permanently closed due to an outbreak of typhoid fever. A new cemetery was opened just out of the town. In the 1950's the congregation levelled most of the area which forms the present car park and placed the names of those known to be buried in the church cemetery on bronze plaques which were fixed to the new memorial arch in 1959. A few graves in relatively good condition were preserved, the earliest date on a tombstone being 1796. (Extract from St Michael's website)