Mangalore: Mangalore and (missionary) Moegling seem to have fast relationship since he came from Germany rejuvenate and spread Kannada literature to Europe, said B.A.Vivek  Rai, a visiting professor in Ideology to Germany’s Wolfsburg University, while inaugurating a two-day Indo-European conference on the 200th birth  anniversary of Dr.Hermann Moegling, at Jattanha auditorium in Mangalore (Balmatta).
Karnataka Sahitya Academy of Bangalore and Kittel Foundation in Mangalore organised the event. Rev. Moegling was the editor of over 150 years old first Kannada newspaper, “Mangalore Samachara” and some dictionaries/books.
One should realize how much trouble and pains he had undertaken to learn Kannada as a foreigner, and produced newspapers and books when there was no printing press in his days, Prof. Rai pointed out. The Vice-Chancellor of Mangalore University, Prof. T.C. Shivashankara Murthy, who presided on the occasion, lauded Moegling’s singular efforts in laying foundation stone to Kannada, like Kittel. The presence of about a dozen Missionaries in Jeppu seminary took DK district citizens firmly on the path of qualitative literacy, new about 90% with a higher quality as well.
He cited the instance of a Botany book of 1870 published by Basel (Germany) Mission here, which referred in details to 500 varieties of medicinal plants on the Western Ghats stretching from Palakkad to North Kanara. The missionaries had encouraged science, right at the beginning to fit generations of students into modern developments we see in sciences, and technologies he added. Several educational dignitaries attended the 2 day Moegling conference, such as Dr. H.Cabral, Dr. R.Sadananda and H.M. Maheshwarayya.