Early Life
Johann Gerhard Oncken was born in Varel, a town in the Duchy of Oldenburg. His father was exiled for political reasons, his mother died, and his grandmother raised him. As a child, Oncken was baptized a Lutheran, and confirmed in 1814.
About that time, Oncken was apprenticed to a Scottish merchant. Oncken moved to Scotland and worked in the merchant's business, later working as a tutor in Leith (now part of Edinburgh) and subsequently moving to London.
In Scotland Oncken first attended the Kirk (Church of Scotland), whilst also reading the writings of Anglican James Hervey. When he moved to London he attended worship in an Independent church (Congregationalist). He was converted at Great Queen Street Methodist Chapel in London in 1820.
By 1823 Oncken had returned to Germany as an agent of the British Continental society for the Diffusion of Religious Knowledge over the Continent of Europe. At the time, he was a member of the English Reformed Church under the care of T. W. Matthews. The first Sunday School in Germany was formed in 1825, through the work of Oncken and a Reverend Rautenberg. In 1828, Oncken received an appointment from the Edinburgh Bible Society. He spent over half a century distributing tracts and Bibles, and in 1879 he estimated he given out over two million Bibles.
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