The successes of the London Missionary Society inspired the pious inhabitants of the valley of the Rhine with an ardent wish to imitate their zeal. Under this impulse, a society was formed, in 1828, at Barmen, on the Rhine, by a union of the previously-formed societies of Barmen, Elberfield, Cologne, and Wesel.

Messrs. Gottlieb, Leipold, Zahn and Wurmb, were among their earliest missionaries. Wurmb was formerly a soldier. He fought in the battle of Leipsic as lieutenant, and obtained two medals of honor. He next studied medicine, and gained a diploma; and when he became a subject of religious influence, he laid all his honors and learning at the foot of the cross. He began his labors at Wupperthal, in South Africa, in which country are several missionaries, and four stations.