Herrmann Moegling

Hermann Friedrich Mögling (1811–1881), also spelt Herrmann Friedrich Moegling, was a German missionary from the Basel Mission who spent most of his career in the western regions of the state of Karnataka, India. He is credited as the publisher of the first ever newspaper in the Kannada language called as Mangalooru Samachara in 1843. He was awarded a doctorate for his literary work in Kannada called as Bibliotheca Carnataca. He also translated Kannada literature into German. Mögling is acknowledged by Kannada writers and linguists as the first modern Kannada writer, as he produced nearly 36 literary works, considered to be ground-breaking and exceptional Kannada literature, in a short period of 20 years.

He was the founder-principal of BEM Theological Seminary, later renamed as Karnataka Theological College. He and his wife Pauline(Nee Bacmeister) laid the foundations for the Evangelical parish and Anandapur, a village made out of jungle in the interior of Karnataka.

Hermann Mögling was born in 1811 in the town of Brackenheim in the Kingdom of Württemberg, Germany. He studied theology in the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen and joined the Basel Mission. He came to the city of Mangalore in Karnataka as a missionary of Basel Mission in 1836. In 7 years, in 1843, Mögling had mastered Kannada, and went on to start the first Kannada newspaper - Mangalura Samachara.

Mögling, being a Christian missionary, was involved in missionary related work in Mangalore but he also learnt the native Kannada language and contributed significantly to Kannada literature. One of his pioneering works was the publication of the first Kannada newspaper, Mangalooru Samachara (meaning Mangalore News).

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