Canada’s east coast is breathtaking. We marvel at the unspoilt mountain slopes as they pass by. It gives us goosebumps. Nature seems so untouched that we find ourselves wondering whether any of these mountains have ever been climbed at all, and how likely it is that we might encounter polar bears.

We are now on a different continent – a continent that long existed outside the European sphere of awareness and has developed its own social structures. The First Nations and the Inuit had already been living and hunting here for many millennia before the first contacts with Europeans took place.

Around the year 1000, the Vikings became the first Europeans to arrive in Newfoundland and established a settlement with a longhouse. This settlement was eventually abandoned.
In 1473, an expedition commissioned by the Danish king and supported by the Portuguese royal family undertook a voyage of discovery to the coast of Labrador. The expedition leader, Didrik Pining from Hildesheim, and Captain Hans Pothorst from Hamburg sailed along the Labrador coast, coming from the north via Greenland.
In 1540, the first Basque whalers arrived and established a whaling station at Red Bay in southern Labrador. The number of whalers continued to grow. In the years that followed, up to 50 whaling ships carrying as many as 2,500 seamen arrived on the coast in a single season.
Over the following decades, there were repeated conflicts between the whalers, the traders, the colonial powers and the Inuit.
In 1752, the first missionaries from Germany, members of the Moravian Church, arrived and began to settle in Hoffnungstal/Hopedale. This first attempt at settlement failed due to conflicts with the Inuit. The missionaries withdrew back to Europe.
In 1771, through the mediation of Mikak, a woman held in high esteem among the Inuit, a new mission station was successfully established. With the support of the British Crown and Jens Haven from Herrnhut, Mikak succeeded in establishing a mission station in Nain. The missionaries learnt the Inuit language, taught the Inuit and passed on various craft techniques. They also engaged in trade. This enabled the mission station to finance both its own livelihood and the goods arriving from Europe. In the years that followed, this trade sparked numerous conflicts with the Inuit and the trading companies.
In 1782, another mission station was established at the very spot where the first attempts at settlement had failed in 1752 at Hoffnungstal/Hopedal. In the years that followed, mission stations were set up in Okak, Hebron and Zoar.
In 1880, Adrian Jacobson was commissioned by Carl Hagenbeck, the founder of Hamburg Zoo, to recruit an ‘Eskimo family’ for a ‘human exhibition’ at the zoo. With many promises, the Ulrikab family from the Hebron mission station and another family from the surrounding northern area were persuaded to come to Europe. There, they lived in Hagenbeck Zoo in extremely cramped conditions, frequently harassed by visitors. The ‘exhibition’ was a great success, so much so that this human spectacle went on to tour Berlin, Prague, Frankfurt, Darmstadt and Paris. The families’ wish to return home as soon as possible was not granted. Both families died of smallpox at the turn of the year 1880/81. They were denied the smallpox vaccination that had actually been recommended and arranged for them.

We are continuing our journey southwards – following in the footsteps of German immigrants and missionaries. We hope that we will have the opportunity to meet people and enjoy good conversations along the way.

Alex