Count Nicolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf
God’s Acre in Niesky
Over the entrance to God’s Acre in Niesky is the verse from John 14:19, “I live and you shall live also.” In this graveyard is the grave of George Schmidt. Upon his gravestone is inscribed the following:
Georg Schmidt
first missionary among the
Hottentots in South Africa
from 1735 to 1744.
Born the 30th Sept. 1709
at Kunwald
in Moravia.
Gone home the 2nd August
1793
He and a fellow missionary, Melchior Nitschmann, were imprisoned for six years by the Jesuits when they tried to visit the brothers and sisters in Moravia in 1728. It is said that he died on his knees praying for the missions.
