Carl Sylvius Völkner (; â 2 March 1865) was a German-born Protestant missionary active in the North Island of New Zealand during the mid-nineteenth century. He is famous for being tried and executed for espionage by members of the Pai MÃÂrire faith at his church in à Âpà Âtiki, in the Bay of Plenty. This later became known as the Völkner incident, an important event in the New Zealand Wars.
Völkner was born in the town of Kassel, in the Electorate of Hesse, Germany, around 1819. He trained at the missionary college at Hamburg. He was then sent to New Zealand by the North German Missionary Society, along with several other missionaries. He arrived in the country in August 1849 and was sent to Taranaki, to work alongside another German missionary, Johann Riemenschneider.
In 1852 Völkner offered his services to the Church Missionary Society (CMS). He married Emma Lanfear, sister of a CMS missionary on 29 June 1854. For several years he worked as a lay teacher in the lower Waikato and in 1857 became a naturalised citizen. Völkner was ordained a deacon in 1860 and the following year, in August, he became a priest and took charge of the CMS mission station at à Âpà Âtiki. The local iwi (tribe) was Te Whakatà Âhea and soon a church and school were built in the area.
On 19 May 1864 Völkner recorded that four of the 16 Christian teachers of the à Âpà Âtiki district had accompanied a Pai MÃÂrire (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 Whakatà Âhea not to return to à Âpà Âtiki.
Ignoring the warning, Völkner returned to à Âpà Âtiki on 1 March 1865 and was apprehended by the Pai MÃÂrire led by Patara, a chief, and Kereopa Te Rau, a Pai MÃÂrire prophet. Völkner was hanged the following day from a willow tree near the church by his own Whakatà Âhea congregation. He was taken down and decapitated, and his eyes were gouged out and swallowed by Kereopa Te Rau. Kereopa apparently proclaimed that the left eye represented Parliament, and the right represented British authority as he did so, to ingest the mana of both. The Revd Thomas Grace, who was also in à Âpà Âtiki, was also taken by the Pai MÃÂrire, although he was rescued.
George Grey was enraged upon hearing of the execution. He proclaimed its perpetrators âÂÂfanaticsâ and in September 1865 declared martial law in the Bay of Plenty, ordering à Âpà Âtiki locals to assist government forces or face land confiscation. Once Grey's men had made successful landfall at à Âpà Âtiki, they opened fire indiscriminately at the local inhabitants, forcing them to retreat into nearby forest. Rather than pursue them, the Crown troops looted the pÃÂ, before burning it to the ground. Mokomoko, unaware he was the prime suspect behind the orchestration of Völkner's death, surrendered in à Âpà Âtiki on condition that no punishment be inflicted upon Te Whakatà Âhea. Instead, he and four other men were arrested for murder and tried in Auckland. The rope used to hang Völkner was deemed sufficient evidence for the five men to be sentenced to death. Mokomoko and the other men were executed in Mount Eden Prison on 17 May 1866. His remains were repatriated to Whakatà Âhea in 1988, after 7 yearsâ worth of Waitangi Tribunal hearings; he was posthumously given an unconditional pardon in 1992.
Kereopa Te Rau, who ate Völkner's eyes, fled into Tà «hoe country after Grey sent troops to the Bay of Plenty. He lived in secret in the hamlet of Ruatahuna for five years. After the fall of the Tà «hoe state in 1871, he was captured by kà «papa Ropata Wahawaha while he was searching for Te Kooti in the Ureweras. Kereopa was tried for Volkner's murder in Napier on 21 December, and the jury decided his fate the same day. He was executed on 5 January 1872, despite appeals for clemency. Kereopa was pardoned unconditionally in November 2014.
The Anglican church in à Âpà Âtiki 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.