Georg Maria Stenz

Georg Maria Stenz (, 22 November 1869 – 23 April 1928 ) was a Catholic missionary of the Society of the Divine Word in Shandong during the period from 1893 to 1927. He was involved in two major incidents where force was used against Catholic missionaries in Shandong, the Juye incident and the Jietou incident. The Juye incident was an attack on Stenz's mission station in Zhang Jia Village in which two German missionaries were killed. Stenz, the likely target of the attack , managed to hide and escaped unharmed. The incident was used by the German Empire to justify the occupation of Qingdao and was a contributing factor in the development of the Boxer Rebellion. . In the Jietou incident, Stenz and a group of Chinese Christians were mistreated and held prisoner in the village of Jietou (, Rizhao) for three days (8–11 November 1898) resulting in German military intervention and compensation claims.

Early life Born in Horhausen, Westerwald. Negative perceptions of Stenz among the local community are reflected in an oral tradition that accuses him of serial rape, although the historical accuracy of these claims has not been established . In particular, he describes them as cunning ("verschmitzt") and with few exceptions incapable of true friendships ("gediegene Freundschaften"), as well as irascible ("Zorn"), cruel ("Grausamkeit"), cowardly ("Feigheit"), arrogant ("Stolz"), thankless ("Undankbarkeit"), and superstitious ("abergläubisch"). He also describes the Chinese as filthy ("Schmutzigkeit"), but excuses this as a consequence of poverty.

Opinions about Georg M. Stenz Joseph Esherick has characterised Stenz as a "particularly obnoxious missionary" with "a strikingly unattractive character" who "thoroughly typified the militancy of the S.V.D. mission" .

Works by Georg M. Stenz In der Heimat des Konfuzius: Skizzen, Bilder und Erlebnisse aus Schantung, Druck und Verlag der Missionsdruckerei, 1902 Aus weiter Ferne: In Deutsch-China und Süd-Schantung. Kleine Erzählungen aus dem Leben der Missionare und Christen, Ensslin & Laiblin, 1903 In Korea, dem Lande der "Morgenstille", Ensslin & Laiblin, 1904 Ins Reich des Drachen: unter dem Banner des Kreuzes, Friedrich Alber, Ravensburg, 1906 Beiträge zur Volkskunde Süd-Schantungs, R. Voigtländer, 1907 Deutsch-chinesisches Wörterbuch, St. Franz Haver Kolleg, 1920 P. Richard Henle, Missionar in China, Druck und Verlag der Missionsdruckerei, Steyl, 1925 Chinesisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, Druck und Verlag der Katholischen Mission Yenchowfu, 1928