Lübeck-Lauenburg Church District: Historical Bibles in Danger!

Lübeck-Lauenburg Church District: Historical Bibles in Danger!

The Lübeck-Lauenburg church district is planning to acquire two historical Bibles that come from the Berenberg printing works in Lauenburg an der Elbe and date from the 18th century. The Bibles, which represent the second edition from 1748 and the fifth edition from 1760, are being offered by a private collector who would like to close down his library due to age. Dr. Claudia Tanck, archivist for the church district, has expressed interest in this offer.

The Berenberg Bibles are among the first folk Bibles in German-speaking countries. Christian Albrecht Pfeifer founded the printing company in 1703 to make Bibles accessible to a broad section of the population. The name of the Berenberg Bible is derived from the birth name of Pfeifer's wife, Maria Berenberg. While the first edition of the Berenberg Bible was published in 1743, the Lübeck-Lauenburg church district already has a copy of the last edition from 1774.

Purchase price and restoration

The collector is asking 850 euros for the two Bibles, each of which has more than 1,000 pages. It is to be expected that additional costs will be incurred for the restoration of the books. In order to realize the purchase, the church district's fundraising team launched a fundraising campaign. Provost Philipp Graffam emphasized the importance of preserving these cultural assets for regional history. Those interested can transfer their donations to the account of the Evangelical Lutheran Church District of Lübeck-Lauenburg.

In addition to the Berenberg Bibles, there are many historical Bible editions that are documented on websites. Such a platform shows a large number of original facsimiles of printed German Bibles from the year 1800 and offers insights into the development of Bible translations in German-speaking countries, such as menorah-bible.jimdofree.com reported.

– Submitted by West-East media