August Kavel's group in Barossa Valley splits from Daniel Fritzsche Adelaide Hills' Lobethal, Hahndorf Old Lutherans

Pastor Augustus Kavel (at left) led his group of German Lutheran settlers from Klemzig to the Barossa Valley. Pastor (Gotthard) Daniel Fritzsche set a separate doctrinal branch of the Lutheran church based on Lobethal and Hahdorf in the Adelaide Hills.
Images courtesy State Library of South Australia and Monuments Australia at Lobethal Archives and Historical Museum

Splits between early German Lutherans in South Australia grew from a geographical and doctrinal divide that would spread to the whole of Australia.

Pastor August Kavel, who had led the the first group of Old Lutheran refugees from Prussia to South Australia in 1838, had come from a poor background in Germany.  He tended towards the millennial end-of-the-world doctrine. He led out the group from the Prussian village of Klemzig – the name given to its first South Australian settlement north of Adelaide before moving to the Barossa Valley. 

Pastor Gotthard Fritzsche, who brought out the 1842 Old Lutheran group that founded Lobethal in the Adelaide Hills, Bethanien (Bethany) in the Barossa Valley and other villages, looked after “southern” Lutherans including Hahndorf in the Adelaide Hills. He was a respected theologian, who had graduated from Breslau University,

Starting with ill feeling over whether Hahndorf men should leave and share in developing the Barossa Valley, a split erupted between Kavel and Fritzsche at the Bethany synod in 1846 over doctrine: notably, the chiliasm (or end-of-the world) belief. The Fritzsche/Kavel schism saw Kavel evicted from the Hahndorf Lutheran manse by order of the South Australian supreme court.

The split between Kavel and Fritsche created separate synods (Langmeil-Light Pass and Bethany-Lobethal). This divide would extend to Lutheran bodies elsewhere in Australia. This brought about the separate United Evangelical Lutheran Church of Australia and Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Australia being formed. They didn't amalgamate until 1966.

Despite their differences, Kavel and Fritsche had special qualities. Kavel led his congregations with moral authority. He encouraged early naturalisation and kept his group together in rural work until they prospered. Fritzsche was devoted to education. He encouraged settlements to support schools and build churches. At Lobethal in 1842, he started Australia’s first Lutheran theological seminary. He encouraged music in his congregations.