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Krüger, Erna (Steinmann) (1907–1999)

By John Okpechi

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John Okpechi, B.A., studied theology at Babcock University, Nigeria. He worked for one year as a Greek and Hebrew teacher at the Federal College of Education, Pankshin, Jos, Nigeria. Later, he worked as pastor for three years. He is currently a graduate student at Friedensau Adventist University, Germany. There he also works as student research assistant for the ESDA project in the EUD.

First Published: August 13, 2021

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Erna Krüger served the Adventist Church in Egypt and North Africa for almost 60 years, ensuring the welfare of many orphans.

Early Life and Education

Erna Steinmann was born in 1907 to the Friedrich Steinmann family in Coburg, Germany. In 1913, when Erna was just six years old, an Adventist evangelist conducted a tent meeting in her hometown, and her family became Adventists. She determined early in life to become a missionary nurse,1 and this propelled her to pursue a nursing training course at the Berlin Sanitarium (Waldfriede). While studying there, Erna became attracted to an Adventist schoolmate, Emil Krüger, and that acquaintance rekindled her mission desire since Emil was also passionate about mission.2 When Erna finished her nursing training in 1927, she was already engaged to Emil Krüger, and both were willing to serve God. Soon, Erna worked as a nurse in Germany for five years.3

Missionary Sojourn

In 1931, Emil Krüger was called to the mission field in the Middle East to open an institute for hydrotherapy and massage in Cairo, Egypt.4 The following year, Erna was asked by the mission board to join Emil in Cairo, where she was to take charge of the women’s ward.5 That same year, in a simple service held at Advent Villa, Matariah – a suburb near Cairo – Emil and Erna exchanged marital vows. In a little over a year, they were blessed with a son. In 1934, irreparable harm caused by two events altered Erna’s life permanently. First, her husband died and, after a couple of months, their son also passed away. Mrs. Krüger had a decision to make regarding whether to remain in Egypt or return to Germany.6

Krüger had originally come to serve with her husband, but she decided to continue alone. Although her missionary family had been snatched away by death, her mission zeal did not wane. She had already developed love and interest for the people of the Nile, and from 1934 to 1947, she went from home to home on bicycle offering treatment to the sick.7

Children Welfare and Orphanage Ministry

During this time, leaders of the mission work in Egypt felt that something in providing welfare had to be undertaken to better public relations with the government and to justify Ingathering campaigns. The many orphans and the poverty of the country convinced them that they should establish a home for orphan children.8 In 1947, under the leadership of Neal Wilson and Gordon Zytkoskee, the leaders of the mission work in the Nile Union, the Adventist Mercy Home in Matariah was established. Children from underprivileged homes who had lost one or both parents were accepted in the home. Twenty-seven children made up the number of the initial intake. Providentially, Krüger was asked to become the first matron of the home, marking the beginning of a long and meritorious record of service in the welfare of children.9 She mastered the Arabic language and could converse in it fluently, with only a minor accent. This helped her reach the heart of the children and many other people.10

The Adventist Mercy Home

The story of this home is a story of transformation and hope. Hitherto hopeless and poor children came to the home to be transformed and sent back into society as agents of hope. Space soon became a problem.11 The Egyptian government expressed great satisfaction with the conduct of the work and the transformations wrought. Krüger was the only overseas worker serving in the Egypt Section at one point. It was because of her dedication to the task of running the orphanage that the government continued to grant her annual visas to remain in the country.12 Over time, she became popularly known as “Mamma Krüger”;13 Krüger was, in effect, Cairo’s Mother Teresa.14

The Thirteenth Sabbath Offering overflow of 1961 provided the funds necessary to initiate the building of a new structure that could accommodate more children. A new home for the boys and girls of the Matariah Mercy Home was formally dedicated in 1964.15

Recognition for Outstanding Service 

In 1966, during the General Conference session in Detroit, Krüger was recognized for her lifetime of service in the care for orphaned children.16 During a special service at the General Conference session in Vienna, Austria, on Tuesday, July 15, 1975, Krüger was one of the many women who were honored for their meritorious contributions to humanity.17 During the Association of Adventist Women’s 14th annual convention in Riverside, California, on November 2, 1996, Krüger received a Lifetime Achievement award with a standing ovation for her many years of service.18

Krüger also worked temporarily, for a few months in 1957, at the Benghazi Hospital in Libya because of the critical nursing shortage there.19 Krüger continued her selfless service as head of the Mercy Home in Cairo even during her senior years. She only returned to Germany in 1989 and lived in Bad Aibling until her death on October 4, 1999, at age 92.20

Contributions

Krüger’s outstanding service in children’s welfare became her lifetime calling. Her name became legendary in many Adventist circles. Krüger’s lifelong ministry focused on the care of orphaned children. The one who had lost her husband and only child became a mother to many. One day as she read her Bible, she was inspired by the promise in Isaiah 54:1: “More are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife.” She wrestled with God in prayer and wondered how this promise could be fulfilled in her life now that she was widowed in a foreign land.21

For almost 60 years, Krüger gave her life, material resources, and skills as a nurse for the welfare of hopeless and abandoned children, influencing them to become prominent people in society. Many of the Mercy Home graduates, trained under Krüger, now serve the Adventist Church both in Egypt and abroad as university professors, pastors, editors, medical doctors, and treasurers. One of them, a professor at Middle East College, stated that her last greetings to him were always the same – “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life” (Revelation 2:20).22

That Krüger could lead over 50 of those children to join and remain with the Adventist Church,23 even in an Islamic nation, explains the weight of her contribution. Without theology degrees, Krüger changed the world around her even when it seemed her own world had fallen apart when her husband and son died too soon.

Sources

Beach, B. B. “The Day in Detroit.” ARH, June 22, 1966.

Brannan, Heather and Nabil Mansour. “Erna ‘Mamma’ Kruger Dies in Germany.” on Adventist News Network. November 1, 1999. https://news.adventist.org/en/all-news/news/go/1999-11-01/erna-mamma-kruger-dies-in-germany/ Accessed June 1, 2020.

Branson, Roy. “Those Who Remember Can Heal.” Spectrum, September 1996.

Brauer, C. V. “A Visit to Adventist Mercy Home.” Missions Quarterly 50, no. 1 (First Quarter 1961): 17-19.

Douglass, Herbert. “The Day in Dallas.” ARH, May 1, 1980.

Faraq, Wadie. “Mother of 42 Children.” Missions Quarterly 48, no. 2 (Second Quarter 1959).

“Honored Women of the Church.” ARH, August 7-14, 1975.

“In Brief.” ARH, March 14, 1957.

Krüger, Erna. “When Sobhi’s Eyes Were Opened.” World Mission Report 60, no. 2 (Second Quarter 1971).

“New Matariah Mercy Home Dedicated.” Middle East Messenger, November-December 1964.

Roth, Don A. “Cairo Orphanage Operated by Dedicated Missionary.” ARH, December 9, 1971.

Spalding, Whitefield Arthur. Christ’s Last Region. Washington, D. C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1949.

Thomas, Jean. “Egyptians Call Camp a Spiritual Feast.” ARH, September 25, 1980.

Watts, Kitts. “AAW Six Women.” ARH, January 23, 1997.

Notes

  1. Herbert Douglass, “The Day in Dallas,” ARH, May 1, 1980, 8.↩

  2. Wadie Faraq, “Mother of 42 Children,” Missions Quarterly 48, no. 2 (Second Quarter 1959): 4.↩

  3. Erna Krüger, “When Sobhi’s Eyes Were Opened,” World Mission Report 60, no. 2 (Second Quarter 1971): 7.↩

  4. Faraq, “Mother of 42 Children,” 4.↩

  5. C. V. Brauer, “A Visit to Adventist Mercy Home,” Missions Quarterly 50, no. 1 (First Quarter 1961):17.↩

  6. Faraq, “Mother of 42 Children,” 4.↩

  7. Ibid., 5.↩

  8. Brauer, “A Visit to Adventist Mercy Home,” 18.↩

  9. Krüger, “When Sobhi’s Eyes Were Opened,” 18.↩

  10. Heather Brannan and Nabil Mansour, “Erna ‘Mamma’ Kruger Dies in Germany,” Adventist News Network, November 1, 1999. Accessed June 1, 2020, https://news.adventist.org/en/all-news/news/go/1999-11-01/erna-mamma-kruger-dies-in-germany.https://news.adventist.org/en/all-news/news/go/1999-11-01/erna-mamma-kruger-dies-in-germany/https://news.adventist.org/en/all-news/news/go/1999-11-01/erna-mamma-kruger-dies-in-germany/https://news.adventist.org/en/all-news/news/go/1999-11-01/erna-mamma-kruger-dies-in-germany/https://news.adventist.org/en/all-news/news/go/1999-11-01/erna-mamma-kruger-dies-in-germany/https://news.adventist.org/en/all-news/news/go/1999-11-01/erna-mamma-kruger-dies-in-germany/https://news.adventist.org/en/all-news/news/go/1999-11-01/erna-mamma-kruger-dies-in-germany/↩

  11. Brauer, “A Visit to Adventist Mercy Home,” 18.↩

  12. Don A. Roth, “Cairo Orphanage Operated by Dedicated Missionary,” ARH December 9, 1971, 18.↩

  13. Jean Thomas, “Egyptians Call Camp a Spiritual Feast,” ARH September 25, 1980, 22.↩

  14. Roy Branson, “Those Who Remember Can Heal,” Spectrum, September 1996, 2.↩

  15. This dedication was done by Elder C. L. Torrey, the then treasurer of the General Conference. “New Matariah Mercy Home Dedicated,” Middle East Messenger, November-December 1964, 1.↩

  16. B. B. Beach, “The Day in Detroit,” ARH, June 22, 1966, 2.↩

  17. “Honored Women of the Church,” ARH, August 7-14, 1975, 26.↩

  18. Kitts Watts, “AAW Six Women,” ARH, January 23, 1997, 21.↩

  19. “In Brief,” ARH, March 14, 1957, 26.↩

  20. Brannan and Mansour, “Erna ‘Mamma’ Kruger Dies in Germany.”↩

  21. Ibid.↩

  22. Ibid.↩

  23. Watts, “AAW Six Women,” 21.↩

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Okpechi, John. "Krüger, Erna (Steinmann) (1907–1999)." Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists. August 13, 2021. Accessed April 22, 2025. https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=BH8L.

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Okpechi, John. "Krüger, Erna (Steinmann) (1907–1999)." Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists. August 13, 2021. Date of access April 22, 2025, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=BH8L.

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Okpechi, John (2021, August 13). Krüger, Erna (Steinmann) (1907–1999). Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists. Retrieved April 22, 2025, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=BH8L.

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