Christian was born on the 24th July 1934 at Nesse in Upper Silesia and baptised on the following 13th August in the Church of St Jacques. He began primary school in 1941. After three years he wanted to go to a secondary school. However, as the war had just ended, Silesia was integrated into Poland and secondary school education was forbidden to German children. This meant that Christian, at the age of 11 years, worked on the roads instead of continuing his education. In 1946, his parents and their five children took refuge in the West. They installed themselves first of all in Niedernstöcken, and then moved to Mandelsloh, both places located in Lower-Saxony. It was not until 1950 that the family moved to a permanent home in Eislingen in Baden-Wurttemberg. Despite all the coming and going and being educated in five different schools, Christian was to complete his education in the Hohenstaufen secondary school thanks to his strength of character more than anything else.
After obtaining his baccalaureat, Christian began training as a marketing person in an oil company which he finished brilliantly after three years. His father had died in a road accident in 1955 and Christian, at 21 years, had to take over as head of the family as he was the eldest child. A year later, Christian began to feel called to missionary life. His family was very supportive of his wish. Already in 1950, his father had contacted the White Fathers at Haigerloch as he was looking for a place in a secondary school for Christian. Christian renewed contact with the White Fathers at Haigerloch in July 1956 and asked for information on admission to the Society. In October of the same year, he arrived at Langenfeld to begin his postulancy. He entered the novitiate in Hörstel in August 1957. At the end of his novitiate, he took his first Temporary Oath on the 9th August 1959. He then went to the Brothers’ Training Centre in Mours, France until 1961.
He arrived at the language centre at Bukavu in the Congo in May 1963. He began working at the Institut Social Africain in 1964 as a teacher. Events in the Congo forced a return to Germany in 1967, but he was back again within a year. He continued teaching in Bukavu until 1970. Following independence in many countries and the fact that many senior civil servants from Europe left their posts without preparing people to take their place in the administration, the Society opened three social training centres in Africa; in Bukavu, (Congo), Upper Volta (Burkina Faso) and in Mwanza (Tanzania). On the 8th August 1965, Christian took his Permanent Missionary Oath in Murhesa near Bukavu.
After home leave in Germany in 1971, Christian returned to the Congo and worked in several building projects in Walungu, Kabare, Burhale, Ciherano and Walikale. He asked for exclaustration for three years in 1973 but remained in close contact with the confreres. He found work with the German Technical Cooperation Agency (GTZ) and worked for them in the Congo until 1976. The Agency wanted to extend his contract but Christian decided to re-join the Society, which he did in June 1976.
Christian then spent a year at the Ecole de Foi in Fribourg, Switzerland followed by the Session/Retreat in Jerusalem in October 1977. He then studied English in Dublin for six months. During this time, he was also asking himself some questions about becoming a priest. After consulting his superiors, he decided to remain a Brother. Moreover, he decided to return to Africa. In June 1978, he arrived in Tamale, Ghana and took on the job of bursar in the Major Seminary. At the beginnings of the 80s, doctors diagnosed heart problems. After treatment and rest, he was able to return to Africa but to Zambia this time with its gentler climate. In October 1984, he arrived in Kashikishi in the Diocese of Mansa to take charge of the building works. He had a bad fall of four metres that resulted in a complicated fracture of the knee, which meant an urgent return to Cologne for treatment. However, his Calvary was not yet over; in April 1989, he had to undergo another operation on his heart.
Nothing daunted, he returned to Zambia in February 1993. This time to Isoka in Mbala-Mpika Diocese. He was again supervising construction projects. In January 1995 at the age of 61, he accepted to go to Wukro in Ethiopia again to supervise a building project. He returned to Germany in May 1996 to take up a job in the bursar’s office in Frankfurt. However, in September 2000, he returned to Zambia for maintenance work in Kasamba and the novitiate in Kasama. In July 2002, he returned to Haigerloch where he worked as a carer in our retirement home there. In August 2009, he celebrated the Golden Jubilee of his oath. From his childhood years, Christian felt he was a foreigner in his own country and he suffered a lot because of this. These constant movements were part of his life and are signs that he was looking for a home which he finally found with the Father on the 9th August 2017 at the age of 83 in Balingen, Baden-Wurttemberg.
Hans Vöcking, M.Afr.