Carl Sylvius Völkner

Carl Sylvius Völkner (c. 1819–1865) was a German-born Protestant missionary in New Zealand who was hanged and decapitated at his church grounds on the east coast of the North Island in what became known as the Völkner Incident.

Völkner was born in Kassel, Electorate of Hesse (now Germany) c. 1819 and was one of several missionaries sent to New Zealand by the North German Missionary Society after training at the missionary college at Hamburg.

He arrived in New Zealand in August 1849 and worked initially with fellow German Protestant missionary Johann Riemenschneider, in Taranaki. In 1852 he offered his services to the Church Missionary Society (CMS). For several years he worked as a lay teacher in lower Waikato.

He married Emma Lanfear, sister of a CMS missionary on 29th of June 1854. In 1857, he became a naturalised citizen. Völkner was ordained a deacon in 1860. In 1861, he became a priest and took charge of the CMS mission station at Ōpōtiki in August that year. There he worked among Te Whakatōhea, who built a church and a school for him.

On 19 May 1864 Völkner recorded that four of the 16 Christian teachers of the Ōpōtiki district had accompanied a Pai Mārire (Hauhau) campaign to Maketu, although not as active participants in the fighting. He went to Auckland during 1864 and again in January 1865. He was then warned by members of Te Whakatōhea not to return to Ōpōtiki.

Ignoring the warning, Völkner returned to Ōpōtiki on 1 March 1865 and was apprehended by the Pai Mārire led by Patara, a chief, and Kereopa Te Rau, a Pai Mārire prophet. Völkner was hanged the following day from a willow tree near the church by his own Whakatōhea congregation. He was taken down and decapitated, and his eyes were gouged out and swallowed by Kereopa Te Rau. The Revd Thomas Grace, who was also in Ōpōtiki, was also taken by the Pai Mārire, although he was rescued.

The Anglican church in Ōpōtiki was reconsecrated as St Stephen the Martyr in memory of his death on 21 November 1875. His bible, chalice and paten are still held at the church. After pardon was later granted to those involved in Völkner’s death, the church was renamed again as Hiona St Stephen’s on 5 June 1994

Te Paepae o Aotea, also known the Volkner Rocks, are named after him.