Georg Maria Stenz
| Georg Maria Stenz | |
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Georg Maria Stenz
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| Born |
22 November 1869 Horhausen, Westerwald |
| Died |
23 April 1928 (aged 58) Techny, Illinois |
| Cause of death | stroke |
| Nationality | German |
| Other names | Chinese: ; pinyin: |
| Occupation | missionary in Shandong |
| Years active | 1893 to 1927 |
| Organization | Society of the Divine Word |
| Known for | Juye incident, Jietou incident |
| Parent(s) | Jacob Stenz and Maria Stenz (née Dasbach) |
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Georg Maria Stenz (Chinese: ; pinyin: , 22 November 1869 – 23 April 1928) was a Catholic missionary of the Society of the Divine Word in Shandong during the period from 1893 to 1927.
Georg Stenz was involved in two major incidents where force was used against Catholic missionaries in Shandong, the Juye incident and the Jietou incident. The Juye incident was an attack on Stenz's mission station in Zhang Jia Village on November 1, 1897 in which two German missionaries were killed. Stenz, who was the likely target of the attack, managed to hide and escaped unharmed. The incident was used by the German Empire to justify the occupation of Qingdao. In the Jietou incident, Stenz and a group of Chinese Christians were mistreated and held prisoner in the village of Jietou (Chinese: 街头镇; pinyin: Jiētóu zhèn, Rizhao) for three days (8–11 November 1898) resulting in German military intervention and compensation claims.
Born in Horhausen, Westerwald, Georg Stenz was the son of the elementary school teacher Jacob Stenz and his wife Maria (née Dasbach). He was the oldest of 4 children (2 boys and 5 girls) of which only he and his sister Maria (born 1878) lived to adulthood. He attended the elementary school in Horhausen, where his father was a teacher from 1875 to 1880. From 1880 to the fall of 1881, he was given private lessons by a chaplain in Horhausen, possibly for health reasons. In the fall of 1881, he entered the second year (quinta) of a secondary school (gymnasium) in Montabaur where he lived in a residence (konvikt) of the diocese Limburg. In February 1887, he requested admission to the mission Divine Word Missionaries in Style, where he continued his education from April 25, 1887 onwards in the missionaries' secondary school ("Styler Lyzeum"). He graduated from the Styler Lyzeum (matura) after two years. Since the degree from the Styler Lyzeum was not recognized by the German state, he also gained a high-school diploma from the Montabaur secondary school in 1889 as an external student. He became a novice and studied theology at the St. Gabriel mission house of the Divine Word Missionaries in Maria Enzersdorf to the southwest of Vienna. He made his temporary vows at St. Gabriel on November 21, 1891 and was ordained as a priest in the same place on June 25, 1893. He was sent on mission to China on September 17, 1893 together with Joseph Hesser (1867-1920) and Josef Schneider (1867-1896) who had been ordained as priest with him. The three traveled to Genoa via Cologne, Basel, Luzern, and Milan. On September 25, 1893, the three missionaries boarded the steamship Bayern of the shipping company Norddeutscher Lloyd in Genoa. After a voyage via Naples, Port Said, Suez, Aden, and Colombo, they arrived in Hong Kong on October 25. After a few days stay in Hong Kong, Stenz traveled on the Bayern to Shanghai, where he arrived on October 29, 1893.
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