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Johannes August Winter (17 December 1847 – 7 April 1921) was a German Lutheran missionary for the Berlin Missionary Society (BMS) who played an important role in the formation of the Lutheran Bapedi Church in South Africa at the turn of the 19th century, against a backdrop of competing political and economic power struggles between British, Afrikaner and native tribal interests.

Early life
Johannes's father, the Reverend August Wilhelm Winter, and mother, Anna Schüttge (also from a missionary family in Lusatia), came from Berlin to Bethany, Free State in 1839 to assist fellow missionary Carl Wuras. In 1847 August established a new BMS mission at Pniel in the Orange Free State, where Johannes and his siblings were born. The whole family returned to Germany in 1851 due to August's ill health, but the children all returned to South Africa after receiving their education in Germany.

Education
After successfully completing his schooling in Germany, Winter was admitted to the Berlin Missionary Society's seminary on the recommendation of inspector. He excelled academically and was admitted to a fully funded degree in theology at the University of Berlin, on the recommendation of the dean of the faculty, Dr. J.A. Dorner.

Early career at Botshabelo
In 1873 Winter returned to South Africa to commence his career at the Botshabelo mission station in the district of Middelburg in the then ZAR, originally established in 1865 by another well-known BMS missionary, Alexander Merensky, father of the well-known South African biologist, Hans Merensky. In 1878 he became the head of the national helpers' seminary at Botshabelo.

Marriage
In 1876 Winter married Elisabeth Wangemann, daughter of the influential Hermann Theodor Wangemann, who had become director of the BMS in Berlin in 1865.

Thaba Mosego
In 1880 the Winters were asked to establish a mission station at Thaba Mosego, the vanquished capital of the Pedi king, Sekhukhune, who had been defeated the year before by an army of British, Boer and Swazi soldiers. In 1881 Sekhukhune was released from prison by the British and returned to his old domain, where a working relationship developed between him and Winter. However, in 1882 Sekhukhune was assassinated by his brother, Mampuru, a crime for which Mampuru was captured and hanged in 1883 by the Boer government that had recently taken over from the British. Sekhukhune was succeeded by his brother, Kgoloko, who ruled for the next decade, maintaining mutually beneficial relationships with both Winter and Abel Erasmus, the ZAR's "native commissioner" for the area.

Lutheran Bapedi Church
In 1889 a prominent native evangelist, Martinus Sewushane, and around 500 of his followers decided to secede from the Berlin Missionary Society and form the Lutheran Bapedi Church (LBC), asking Winter to join them. Through his relationship with Erasmus, Winter arranged for formal recognition of the new church by the ZAR government. After the Second Boer War, Winter returned to the Bapedi, settling on the farm Onverwacht near Schoonoord, which he had been given by Transvaal Consolidated Land and Exploration Company (TCL), a massive company owned by the powerful mining company, Corner House, as a bonus for discovering asbestos in the area.

Retirement and Death
Winter retired from the LBC in 1917, spending his last few years with his oldest son, Christian, on the farm Mecklenburg in the Lydenburg area, still regularly conducting church services. He passed away on 7 April 1921 from heart failure.

Published works

 * "The History of Sekwati" (1913).
 * "The Phallus Cult Amongst the Bantu; Particularly the Bapedi of Eastern Transvaal" (1914).
 * "The Mental and Moral Capabilities of the Natives, Especially of Sekukuniland (Eastern Transvaal)" (1914).