The successor of Steinkopff, Dr. Carl Wilhelm Schoell, served forty years as pastor, 1859 to 1899. There were momentous events during his term. First, there was a renovation of the Church building (this being the second space since the Church was founded). The Duchy of Lancaster, under the control of the Crown, wished to demolish the whole of the Savoy Palace to gain space for building the Embankment. It was several years before the plan was executed. As a part of the project, the Crown was to erect some new buildings church, parsonage, school, and teacher's house for the congregation. When the time for the move came, the congregation had to meet temporarily in a rented hall. A suitable piece of ground was found on Cleveland Street in the West End and the promised buildings were built over a two-year period by 1877. The cemetery at the Savoy was relocated to the Great Northern Cemetery.
Schoell ordered that the school teachers be trained in a German teacher's training college except for the instructors in the English language work. In 1884 he introduced the school outing and a Christmas tree for the pupils complete with small presents for them. Later school prizes were awarded at Easter time.
Schoell preached the 200th anniversary sermon. While he lauded their many accomplishments, he noted that the children had become more English than the English themselves. Again, there was an appeal not to forget the Fatherland. A few years later Schoell died in the post of pastor.
The successor to Schoell, Friedrich Wilhelm Carl Wardenberg, had been the pastor of the German congregation in Liverpool for a few years. One of his first observations was that the cost of living in London was much higher than in Liverpool. He agitated for an increase in the salary which had been fixed at 300 pounds per year. Because inflation had hit Great Britain around the turn of the century, the Church Council relented and gave him a small increase.
In 1904, a lively topic of discussion is whether all of the German Lutheran Churches in Great Britain should unite. Late that year, the school was inspected by Prof. Dr. Muench from Berlin. As a result of the inspection, several serious physical problems in the plant were noted. To continue receiving a grant from the German Emperor, these had to be remedied.
There was an annual conference of the German Evangelical Pastors in Great Britain. In 1904, Wardenberg spoke against the federation of the German Churches. As one of the oldest congregations, they feared the loss of her independence. A year later, they did join the federation. Also, in 1904 the Church celebrated its 25th anniversary in the Church building. At the celebration meeting in the Church, more than one thousand Germans attended.
(18 Mar 05)
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.