Rolf Haug

Rolf in Crete.

Rolf Haug (1933 - October 20, 2017) was a German Baha’i who was named a Knight of Bahá’u’lláh for pioneering to Crete.

Biography

Haug was born in Germany in 1933. He and his brother, Guenther, were Bahá’ís and they attended the Intercontinental Teaching Conference held in Stockholm in 1953 at which Haug volunteered to pioneer to Greece. He returned to Germany via a train travelling Stuttgart after the Conference and during the journey Adelbert Mühlschlegel advised him that the Hands of the Cause thought he should pioneer to Crete instead of Greece. Upon arriving in Germany he resigned from his job and began making preparations to move.

Haug stopped in Athens while travelling to Crete and stayed with Amín Banání and his family, who had recently pioneered to Greece, for two days later crediting Banání and the other pioneers in Greece with helping him successfully pioneer. He arrived in Iraklion, Crete, on October 6, 1953 at 8 am. He rented a hotel room and immediately used it to pray before doing anything else in Crete. He found a job with an export company later the same day that he had arrivedin the country. He found it difficult to teach the Faith at first as he did not speak English very well, and did not speak Greek at all.

In 1954 another German Baha’i, Waltraud Weber, joined Haug in Crete and in August 1954 the first local Crete resident, Manolis, declared. In 1956 Haug married a Cretan woman named Maro and she declared in 1966.

In 1963 Haug was appointed to the unpaid position of German Honorary Consul of Iraklion and Eastern Crete and he held the position until 1996 and for his service in the role he was awarded three Medals of Merit by the German Federal Republic. He attended the first National Convention of Greece in Athens in 1977.

Haug remained at his pioneer post for the rest of his life. He passed away on October 20, 2017.