Death of Carl Völkner

‘Savage Dance, Pai Marire – Volkner’s Death Mar. 21st 1865’

This engraving appeared in the Illustrated London News in July 1865. Note the incorrect date for the murder. (It should be 2 March.)

Völkner’s frequent visits to Auckland had raised suspicions that the Ōpōtiki missionary was acting as a government spy. After his most recent trip to Auckland he had been warned not to return to his mission station. He ignored these warnings and returned with fellow missionary Thomas Grace on 1 March 1865. Both were taken prisoner.

Grace witnessed Völkner’s killing, describing how he ‘knelt down and prayed, and, having shaken hands with his murderers said “I am ready”, and, while they continued to shake hands with him, they hoisted him up.'

Völkner was hanged from a willow tree near his church by members of his own congregation, Te Whakatōhea. His head was then cut off and many of those present either tasted his blood or smeared it on their faces. In a final insult Kereopa Te Rau swallowed Völkner's eyes, describing one eyeball as ‘Parliament’ and the other as the ‘Queen and English law’. Grace was spared.