Hort, Georg Friedrich Adolf (1871–1944)

Georg Friedrich Adolf Hort, an Adventist pioneer in Brazil, was born August 31, 1871, in the city of Brusque, Santa Catarina state, Brazil. Son of David Hort (1833-1894) and Anna Elizabeth Von Stallnburg (1834-1918), both German. He had eight siblings, of which we have record of the names of three: Maria (b. 1859), Germano (b. 1861) and Carlos Hort (b. 1863). A Lutheran family, the Horts moved from Europe to Brazil in 1869, and settled in Brusque, Santa Catarina.¹

As a child, Hort witnessed the arrival of the Adventist message in Brazil. The history of Adventism’s beginnings in Brazil is still incomplete due to the lack of detailed records. According to oral history collected by F. H. Westphal, E. H. Meyers and Germano Streithorst, the packages containing Adventist literature arrived in the country between 1879 and 1884.² However, the most reliable narrative is the one collected by Streithorst, which assumes that the package could have arrived in 1880. Streithorst personally interviewed Hort, who stated that he was nine years old (which precisely supports the date 1880), and that his mother, while reading Stimme der Wahrheit, “cried upon the damages caused by the flood.” The Great Flood of Itajaí happened in September 1880, thus placing the arrival of the Adventist package from this date on.³

The story begins around 1879, when a young man named Borchardt committed a crime in Brusque, Santa Catarina, and, intending to run away, he found a job on a German ship that made connections between Europe and South America. On the way, he met Adventist missionaries, to whom he gave the name and address of his stepfather Carlos Dreefke, who lived in Brusque, to send him religious literature.⁴

At the Itajaí Port, Santa Catarina, the ship docked, carrying copies of the German Adventist magazine Stimme der Wahrheit [Voice of Truth], addressed to Dreefke. Days later, the package arrived at Hort’s warehouse Kaufladen, where the local mail was delivered. Hort was present at the opening of the package that represented the beginning of the Adventist message in the country.⁵

At first, Dreefke was afraid to receive the order, fearing that he would have to bear its cost. Seeing that they were magazines, he distributed them to interested people and continued to receive them for a while. Again afraid, he decided to stop receiving the deliveries, but at the request of a teacher named Chikiwidowsky, passed on to him the responsibility for the material. Reports say that the latter also lost interest, handing over the responsibility to a drunkard named Dressler, who sold them for cash.⁶ Subsequently, the dispersion of Adventist literature resulted in the conversion of Guilherme Belz, the first in Brazil to develop a deeper interest in Adventism.⁷

The literature received at David Hort's grocery store did not attract his attention, but Anna, his wife, was impressed by reading an article that spoke of the signs of Jesus' return. She remembered the overflowing of the Itajaí-Mirim River in 1880, causing damage to the city of Brusque. However, she only became an Adventist some years later, together with her son Adolf Hort.⁸

On June 25, 1891, Hort married Emma Kräft (1874-1946), daughter of the German immigrants August and Caroline Wiedenhöft Kräft. They met when they were still young, when Emma went to work as an assistant in the family’s housework. From the union were born Ludvina, Carolina, Elizabeth,⁹ August David Karl (1891-1969),¹⁰ Herman, Bertoldo (d. 1970),¹¹ Arthur, Erica, and Augusta Hort.¹²

Years later, Adolf Hort became interested in the Adventist message and started studying the Bible with his wife. They studied until late, even into the night, in the light of kerosene lamps. By this time David Hort had died and Anna Hort lived with the couple. By practicing the new knowledge they had acquired, they began to suffer persecution from their family, and moved from Brusque to Blumenau, in the same state. In August 1896, Adolf was baptized with his mother and wife by Pastor Huldreich F. Graf, becoming one of the first baptized Adventists in the country.¹³

In addition to his testimony, Adolf served the Adventist Church as an administrator. In 1907 he joined the administrative committee of the Santa Catarina-Paraná Association, organized in 1906, and whose president was W. Ehlers. In 1911 he accepted the invitation to be treasurer of the Santa Catarina Association, serving there until 1913.¹⁴

Holt worked as a carpenter and helped build the city's first Adventist Church in the 1930s. Later, due to his advanced age, he returned to Jaraguá do Sul with his wife, where he lived with his son Bertoldo. He spent his last years helping take care of his son's grocery store and preaching the Adventist message to his neighbors.¹⁵ He died February 9, 1944, at age 72, in Jaraguá do Sul, and was buried in the Evangelical Cemetery.¹⁶

Georg Friedrich Adolf Hort is a character of historical importance to the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Brazil. The son of a grocery store owner who received the first denominational magazines, he witnessed the opening of the package that represented the arrival of the Adventist message in Brazil, at a time when there were no Adventist missionaries in the country. Although his family was not interested in religion, years later he was baptized and became an important witness in the state of Santa Catarina.

Sources

Augusto Anniess. “A Segunda Conferência da União Brasileira.” Revista Adventista, March 1912.

Boehm, J. H. “Elizabeth Hort.” Revista Adventista, December 1918.

Borges, Michelson, A Cheda do Adventismo ao Brasil. 1^st edition, Tatuí, SP: Casa Publicadora Brasileira, 2000.

Certidão de Óbito de David Hort. In: National Adventist Memory Center Archive/Ellen G. White Research Center: UNASP-EC, Engenheiro Coelho, Stand: 2. Shelf 13. Folder “Hort, David.” Accessed December 19, 2019.

Greenleaf, Floyd, Terra de Esperança: o crescimento da Igreja Adventista na América do Sul. 1st edition, Tatuí, SP: Casa Publicadora Brasileira, 2011.

Germano Streithorst. “O Início de Nossa Obra.” Revista Adventista, March 1958.

Hort, Georg Friedrich Adolfo. In: National Adventist Memory Center Archive/Ellen G. White Research Center: UNASP-EC, Engenheiro Coelho, SStand: 2. Shelf 13. Pasta: “Hort, Adolfo.” Accessed December 19, 2019.

Mesquita, Ricardo Moreira de. “No século 19, enchentes já faziam parte do cotidiano.” Folha de São Paulo (Online), November 28, 2008.

Moura, Marcelo M. M. “A Origem do Adventismo no Vale do Itajaí, 1880-1895.” M.A. diss., Centro Universitário Adventista de São Paulo, 2015.

Nigri, M. S. “Nas Pegadas dos Pioneiros.” Revista Adventista, December 1956.

O. B. “Adolf Hort.” ARH, April 1944.

Orlando G. de Pinho. “Assim se passou a história.” Revista Adventista, March 1954.

“Relatorio da Conferencia Realizada em Brusque Nos Dias 1-5 de Abril de 1925.” Revista Adventista, June 1925.

“Relatório da Conferencia de S; Catharina do 1º trimestre de 1912”, Revista Adventista, May 1912.

Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook. Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1908, 1912 and 1914.

Werner A. Weber. “Hort.” Revista Adventista, March 1970.

Werner A. Werner. “Hort.” Revista Adventista, December 1970.

Notes

1. O. B, “Adolf Hort,” Revista Adventista, April, 1944, 25; Hort, Georg Friedrich Adolfo (National Adventist Memory Center Archive/Ellen G. White Research Center: UNASP-EC, Engenheiro Coelho, SP), 1; Certidão de Óbito de David Hort (National Adventist Memory Center Archive/Ellen G. White Research Center: UNASP-EC, Engenheiro Coelho, SP); Certidão de Óbito de Elisabetha Hort (National Adventist Memory Center Archive/Ellen G. White Research Center: UNASP-EC, Engenheiro Coelho, SP); J. H. Boehm, “Elizabeth Hort,” Revista Adventista, December, 1918, 16; “David Hort,” National Adventist Memory Center Network, January 12, 2016, accessed December 19, 2019, http://www.memoriaadventista.com.br/wikiasd/index.php?title=David_Hort.↩

2. Floyd Greenleaf, Terra de Esperança: o crescimento da Igreja Adventista na América do Sul (Tatuí, SP: Casa Publicadora Brasileira, 2011), 25; E. H. Meyers, “Uma Recapitulação dos Começos na América do Sul,” Revista Mensal, October 1928, 4-5; Henry Francisco Westphal, Pionero em Sudamérica (Libertador San Martín, ER: Universidad Adventista del Plata, 1997), 26; Germano Streithorst, “O início de nossa Obra,” Revista Adventista, March, 1958, 29-30.↩

3. Germano Streithorst, "O início de nossa Obra," Revista Adventista, March, 1958, 29-30; Marcelo M. M. Moura, “A Origem do Adventismo no Vale do Itajaí, 1880-1895” (M.A. diss., Centro Universitário Adventista de São Paulo, 2015), 90; Ricardo Moreira de Mesquita, “No século 19, enchentes já faziam parte do cotidiano,” Folha de São Paulo, November 28, 2008, accessed April 13, 2020, https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/fsp/cotidian/ff2811200805.htm↩

4. Streithorst, 29-30; Meyers, 4-5.↩

5. Meyers, 4-5; Greenleaf, 25; Streithorst, 29-30; de Pinho, Orlando G, “Assim se passou a história,” Revista Adventista, March 1954, 9; M. S. Nigri, “Nas Pegadas dos Pioneiros,” Revista Adventista, December 1956, 11.↩

6. Meyers, 4-5.↩

7. L. H. Olson, “Progressos da Obra na América do Sul,” Revista Adventista, September 1956, 3-4; G. Streithorst, “Santa Catharina,” Revista Adventista, December 1924, 10; Greenleaf, 25; Michelson Borges, A chegada do Adventismo ao Brasil (Tatuí, SP: Casa Publicadora Brasileira, 2000), 59-61.↩

8. Borges, 56; Streithorst, “O Início de Nossa Obra,” 29; “Enchentes de Brusque,” Brusque Memory Network, 2018, accessed December 19, 2019, https://www.brusquememoria.com.br/site/colecao/colecao/Enchentes-de-Brusque::3. ↩

9. Georg Friedrich Adolfo Hort, (National Adventist Memory Center Archive/Ellen G. White Research Center: UNASP-EC, Engenheiro Coelho, SP), 2.↩

10. Werner A. Weber, “Hort,” Revista Adventista, March 1970, 34.↩

11. Weber A. Werner, Revista Adventista, December 1970, 34.↩

12. Hort, 1.↩

13. Orlando G de Pinho, “Assim se passou a história,” Revista Adventista, March 1954, 9; Nigri, 11; O. B, “Adolf Hort,” Revista Adventista, April 1944, 25; Hort, 2.↩

14. “Santa Catharina and Paraná Conference,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1908), 124; “Santa Catharina and Paraná Conference,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1912), 140; “Santa Catharina and Paraná Conference,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1914), 147.↩

15. Hort, 3.↩

16. O. B., “Adolf Hort,” Revista Adventista, April 1944, 25.↩