Kaufmann Hans Suess

The businessman Hans Suess was born in Dresden on 10th July 1889. He was probably in Kobe already before 1925 when he issued a Passport in the General Consulate Osaka-Kobe.

When the church moved to Ikutacho he was already in the Board of the Deutsch-Evangelische Kirchengemeinde Kobe in June 1929.

In January 1932 the Board of Trustees of the Kobe Union Protestant Church founded the Juridical Foundation KUPC for Maintaining the Church (Zaidan Hojin Kobe Union Protestant Church Iji Zaidan). Mr. Suess was part of the Board of Trustees from the beginning!

During the war after Roy Smith had to leave the country, he took over the chair probably in 1941. He, Mr. Outerbridge and Liemar Hennig carried the church through the war.

After the war he stepped down as chair but continued to be on the Board of Trustees until he left Japan 1961.

In 1953 after the peace agreement he initiated the foundation of the Evangelischen Kirchengemeinde Osaka- Kobe. In 1956 he received the “Bundesverdienstkreuz” (The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany).