1 Evangelical-Lutheran Church Libraries
Habent sua fata libelli – books have their fates. This dictum can also be applied to historical libraries. Libraries whose holdings still exist and can be used today, but also libraries whose books have long since been scattered all over the world after the death of their former owners – they have their fates. If they were not destroyed in wars or fires, they can be found today in public libraries or private collections. Auction catalogues are an interesting source for the book holdings of former private libraries that were sold by the heirs of the former owners. These are mostly scholars’ libraries. But parish libraries also have their fates. They were built up and compiled by parish priests, were or still are located in parsonages and have been passed on from one generation of priests to the next over the centuries. In the best case, they continued to grow, were increased by new publications and today provide an overview of the knowledge of several epochs of intellectual and theological history. They also allow conclusions to be drawn about the reading and study habits of their former users. Not all pastors were interested in the libraries of their predecessors, which they found in the parsonages when they took office. Some of them were forgotten, leading a shadowy existence in attics or in hiding places in the galleries of damp churches. But there were also efforts to sift through and record at least the most important and extensive parish libraries. The aim was to draw attention to the value of their book collections, as well as to provide researchers with information about the existence of rare books.
Many parish offices in the former Evangelical Lutheran Church in Thuringia have or had a historical parish library with sometimes quite different book collections. Their foundations date back to the time after the Reformation. Most of them were founded between the end of the 16th and the 18th century.1 Among the changes brought about by the Reformation in church life in Germany was a significant improvement in the educational level of the priests, which also had an impact on the education of the common people. The visitation records of the Reformation period often contain complaints about the low level of education of the priests, who were more concerned with earning a living than with preaching and pastoral care. It was not uncommon for a village priest to be able to read the Latin mass form or to sing. This was to change with the introduction of the Reformation in the parishes. From that moment on the priests were examined by the visitators not only in faith but also on their educational level and theological knowledge. During these reviews they sometimes found blatant superstition as well as a frightening lack of knowledge.
Thus, in the churches of the Reformation, it became obligatory for pastors to have attended a university in order to study theology as well as the liberal arts. In order to be admitted to the pastorate at all, they had to undergo an examination before the responsible consistory or spiritual ministry. Only then could they be elected to a pastorate or be assigned a pastorate.
Especially in the village parishes, the pastors were now mostly the only ones who had studied at a university and had some education. There, they were not only responsible for pastoral care in their parishes, but also exercised supervision over the schools. They were therefore expected to have a certain educational competence in their office, which they possessed to varying degrees.
Family, education and piety were pillars in the lives of Protestant pastors and their congregations from the Reformation period until the 20th century. Education included books as an important medium, which had become an integral part of every Protestant parsonage. But there were great differences in terms of stock and quantity. At first, every parish office was obliged to purchase certain books, which often formed the basis of a parish library.2 Apart from the altar Bible, these included above all the Concordia Book of 1580, i.e. the collection of the binding confessional writings of the churches with a Lutheran confession. This was especially true for the pastorates in the Lutheran churches in the area of the various Thuringian dominions that had united after 1918 to form the new Thuringian Evangelical Church, which name later changed to the Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Thuringia. After the successful efforts to standardise the liturgy and order of service in the territories of the Thuringian principalities in the 17th century, the parish offices also had to purchase the corresponding orders of service and agendas for daily use. The agendas contained the liturgical forms for the services during the church year, the official prayers and the templates for all official acts. The church ordinances regulated, among other things, the entire church life in the congregations, described the rights and duties of the pastor, his position vis-à-vis the congregation and the authorities, and the school system. In addition to these books, which were distributed in all parish offices, the pastors tried to acquire at least one or more postillas, i.e. collections of sermons on all Sundays of the church year.
From the end of the 16th to the beginning of the 18th century, many parishes in Thuringia will hardly have had more books than those mentioned above. Books were expensive and thus the building up of a parish library was very costly, especially as the parishes had to bear a wealth of other costs for the parish salary, the salary of the schoolmaster and the sexton, the maintenance of the church building, the rectory and the school. Often the pastors personally did not own many books. The studies were long and expensive, with the marriage, which was mostly connected with taking up the first post, the growing family had to be provided for, and the pastors, especially in the villages, did not always have the urge to expand their education once acquired at the university. In many cases, a few devotional books were enough for daily private devotion and prayer. However, there were also several pastors who strove to constantly expand their knowledge and education acquired during their studies and to apply it in certain focal points of their work or in various researches. Since its existence, the Protestant parsonage has produced a wealth of personalities who have made significant contributions to scientific research, historiography, philology, fiction and the fine arts. Most of them came from parish houses that were very devoted to education and thus also to reading. The extent to which they used parish libraries or their private libraries for their studies would have to be investigated separately.
Since the end of the 17th century, at a time when Germany and with it the various principalities in Thuringia were slowly recovering from the destruction and devastation of the Thirty Years’ War, general prosperity was growing and the pastors themselves in the villages and small towns were finding more resources, time and leisure for their own studies.
Most of the larger parish libraries that still exist today were established during that period. New currents emerged in the sciences and church life, such as the Enlightenment and Pietism, which were also reflected in general education, understanding of the world and faith. The new knowledge was found in books and many pastors probably saw it as their task not only to acquire this knowledge but also to make it accessible to others. Among other things, this demand was probably the impetus for the founding of the larger parish libraries in Thuringia, for example in Stedtfeld near Eisenach or in Gerstungen, which have a considerable stock of books. A complementary factor was also the personal scholarly interests of their founders. For the most part, parish libraries arose from the endowment of individual parish priests. They bequeathed their own book possessions to the parish with the stipulation that they be preserved and, if necessary, increased. In addition, there were various other donations. For example, noble landowners in various Thuringian villages donated old and new books to the parish and thus ensured the multiplication and expansion of the parish libraries, which also expanded their spectrum with non-theological literature through such gifts. This is how some extensive parish libraries came into being, such as the ‘Hoffmannsche Bibliothek’ (Hoffmann’s library) in Gerstungen, at whose history and holdings we are going to take an exemplary look.3 The already existing book collection was increased by various purchases from around 1670 by the pastor Johann Adam Arnold (c.1629–1696) and his successor in office Johann Christian Sesemann (1657–1725). These purchases were mainly theological works, such as Clavis Scripturae by Matthias Flacius Illyricus (1520–1575) or the works of Hieronymus Weller (1499–1572).
The parish library in Gerstungen was then considerably enlarged by the donation of the priest Johann Heinrich Christoph Hoffmann (1692–1773), whose name it bears today. He had already begun collecting books in his student days. That he was an avid reader is evidenced by the many marginal notes in his books, which he left to the church and his successors in office for their use after his death. Hoffmann also left numerous manuscripts to the library, his own lecture transcripts, but also copies of printed books and a wealth of sermon dispositions. Johann Heinrich Christoph Hoffmann was intensively involved with the new theological trends of his time, Pietism and the Enlightenment. This is shown by the books he brought into the parish library of Gerstungen, writings from the late 17th and early 18th centuries by Martin Chemnitz (1522–1586), Johann Gerhard (1582–1637), Johann Arndt (1555–1621), August Hermann Francke (1663–1727), Joachim Lange (1670–1744), Johann Anastasius Freylinghausen (1670–1739) and others. He also studied the poet Barthold Heinrich Brockes (1680–1747) and the theosophist Jacob Böhme (1575–1624), whose writings are also in Hoffmann’s library.
Johann Heinrich Christoph Hoffmann was succeeded in 1774 by his nephew Johann Heinrich Hoffmann (1735–1785). He created a Catalogus of the parish library in Gerstungen, which was named ‘Adjunctur-Bibliothek’ (Adjunctur Library) from 1781. After his death, only occasional books made their way into Hoffmann’s library in the late 18th and 19th centuries. It survived the turmoil of the wars of the 19th and 20th centuries unscathed. For a time, it was in the attic of the vicarage, later in the gallery of the church in Gerstungen. In 2018, it was finally deposited in the Regional Church Archives of the Evangelical Church in Central Germany (EKM) in Eisenach, where it was re-catalogued. If you take a look at the holdings of the ‘Hoffmannsche Bibliothek’ in Gerstungen, which contains over 900 volumes, you will notice that the books come from many fields of science. Theological writings make up a large part, including Bibles, commentaries on books of the Bible, dissertations, writings on dogmatics, church history, collections of sermons, hymnals and devotional books in German and Latin. In addition, there are books dealing with historical and philosophical questions, but there are also various works on geography and natural sciences. Various reference works and periodicals round off the collection. The ‘Hoffmannsche Bibliothek’ is a good example of an extensive parish library of the 18th century, whose holdings also reflect the scientific interests of its founder. It was important for Hoffmann to acquire a good and broad general knowledge, to be able to have a say in the theological discourse of his time, but also to have an overview of other areas of knowledge and literature. He passed this on to the following generations, who were able to use the library in different ways.
2 Ministerial, Church Congregation, and Superintendence Libraries
In the late 16th and 17th centuries, what is now the federal state of Thuringia disintegrated into a plethora of small states with their own princely governments, administrations and regional churches. The sovereigns as supreme bishops of their respective regional churches delegated church supervision and administrative church management to consistories, which passed this on to the superintendents. The consistories consisted of lawyers and theologians. They watched over the pastors, their preaching and conduct of office. In regular visitations, they checked whether the pastors led a life appropriate to their office and administered it properly. Special emphasis was placed on whether their sermons were comprehensible and in keeping with the Lutheran confession, how they organised the school system, and what topics they dealt with in addition to their official duties. The members of the consistories mostly lived and worked in the residence towns, where they had access to larger libraries for their work.
In many Thuringian towns, especially in the residential towns, ministerial and superintendency libraries were established from the 16th century onwards. On a larger scale, they contained a similar stock of books to those found in larger parish libraries. This also applies to the ministerial library in the former royal seat of Eisenach, which will be briefly presented here as an example.4 If one trusts the information provided by the Eisenach cantor and school teacher Johann Conrad Geisthirt in his Schmalkaldia Literata of 1720,5 then the library in the church of St. George (the later Ministerial Library of Eisenach) was founded by the former Eisenach deacon and later pastor of Stedtfeld Sebastian Khymäus (1535–1614). This emerges from a footnote in his above-mentioned work. Geisthirt refers here to Christian Franz Paullini’s Annales Isenacenses of 1698, in which it is mentioned that Sebastian Khymäus established the library in 1596. As Paullini then goes on to note, Sebastian Khymäus’ successor, Johann Himmel (1546–1626), rendered great service to its later expansion. This information on the founding of the Eisenach Ministerial Library can also be found in Johann Limberg’s Das im Jahr 1708 lebende und schwebende Eisenach… He tells the story of the Ministerial Library in more detail. He reports that at first only a Gospel book and an Agende or Missale (missal) were found in the sacristy of St. George’s Church: “Mr. Kymaeus, however / pastor at Stettfeld / has for the first time Lutheri Bible next to his Postilla and gave a donation to buy books from it.” Once the library was founded, it grew steadily. Limberg describes how it came to have more books: “The Duke / together with the Duchess / the lords councillors and noblemen / and several rich citizens / have subsequently also contributed to it.”6 The services of the deacon Johann Himmel are remembered, as well as the priest from Sundhausen, Magister Wiener, whose bequeathed books were added to the library in the Church of St. George in Eisenach. In 1708 it contained 565 volumes. In the course of the next few years, the book collection was steadily expanded, so that today books from five centuries can be found in the Eisenach Ministerial Library. The oldest ones date back to the early days of printing, the most recent ones came into the library at the beginning of the 20th century. It was mainly pastors who donated books for them. In quite a few of them, the previous owners are noted, and some belonged to famous theologians. For example, there is a Latin edition of the works of St. John Chrysostom (c.345–407) that belonged to the well-known theologian Abraham Calov (1612–1686), whose writings of course also belong to the holdings of the Ministerial Library of Eisenach.
The Ministerial Library received significant additions with the takeover of the Eisenach School Library, also called the Gymnasium Library. In 1708, this library already comprised 463 volumes, only some of which, however, found their way into the Eisenach Ministerial Library. Other books from the possession of the Dukes of Saxony-Eisenach also found their place here after the Duchy was united with Saxony-Weimar. The books that once belonged to Duke Johann Wilhelm (1530–1573) are particularly striking. His beautifully engraved bookplate can be found in them. When the Thuringian Seminary for Preachers was founded in Eisenach after the First World War, the books of the Eisenach Ministerial Library were united with its library. With the dissolution of the Eisenach Preacher’s Seminary, the library was then returned to St. George’s Church, increased by a wealth of books that had apparently been donated to the Preacher’s Seminary by other Thuringian congregations. Among them are also some valuable prints of Martin Luther’s writings, mostly in anthologies. Some interesting books have now been added from the former Eisenach Bible Society, which had previously been stored for years in an attic, later in the prince’s box of the St. George’s Church in Eisenach. In 2011, the books of the former Eisenach Ministerial Library were initially moved from the tower of the St. George’s Church, where they had previously been stored, to rooms in the Superintendent’s Office and re-catalogued. Since 2014, they have been archived in the Archive of the EKM in Eisenach.
The library from the tower of St. George’s Church, now stored in the church-archive in Eisenach
Photo Johannes RöderThe ministerial and superintendence libraries, and this also applies to the Eisenach libraries, were intended to help the clergy in their theological work. Books were an expensive acquisition. For the members of a consistory, the superintendents and the pastors of a city and the surrounding area, it was therefore very convenient to have access to an extensive library for their own studies, but also for the preparation of sermons or the writing of expert opinions and disputes. Especially in the times of the confessional conflicts between Protestantism and Catholicism, it was important to know and be able to study the writings of the theological opponents. It is therefore not surprising that the works of the most important Catholic controversial theologians can also be found in the Eisenach Ministerial Library. They are contrasted by the great works of Lutheran orthodoxy by Johann Gerhard, Martin Chemnitz and others. For the preparation of sermons, pastors needed and still need not only Bible editions in the original text and in various translations, but also commentaries on the biblical books. Thus, there is a wealth of Bibles and commentaries from over five centuries. Among the Bibles are some rare and remarkable editions, for example a Czech translation from the end of the 16th century and a Dutch one from the beginning of the 17th century.
The books of the Eisenach Ministerial Library naturally also reflect a great deal of theological history. In addition to the Bibles and commentaries on the biblical books of the Old and New Testaments, it contains the great dogmatic standard works of Lutheran orthodoxy, the Complete Works also known as “Summen” (totals), which in the 17th century still comprised the entire theological knowledge of the time. However, not only the writings of orthodox theologians are found here, but also those that bear witness to a new spirit in theology and philosophy of religion in the 17th and 18th centuries. Here, for example, the works of the Dutchman Hugo Grotius (1583–1645) are worthy of mention. When we go far back in the history of theology to late antiquity, we can see that the great Church Fathers are also very well represented in the Eisenach Ministerial Library. The works of Augustine, Basil, Ambrose, Tertullian, Origen and others are available here in various editions. Among them, the editions of the Froben printing house in Basel from the 16th century are particularly outstanding.
A large space is taken up by various representations of church history. In addition to the controversial theologically oriented centuries of the 16th century, there are also more recent representations of church history. For example, there is a whole wealth of works by the Pietist church historian Gottfried Arnold (1666–1714). In addition, there are extensive periodicals on church history such as the Acta Historico-Ecclesiastica published in Weimar by Johann Christian Bartholomäi, which provide an overview of 18th-century church history, some of which is very detailed. In addition to these scholarly works, there are also a great many volumes of sermons, especially postils. Enlightenment and rationalism have left their books and writings in the Eisenach Ministerial Library, theological, religious-philosophical and moral treatises and sermons. A collection of writings by religious socialists from the beginning of the 20th century that has been preserved deserves special mention.
It is sufficiently well known that many pastors in the past were not only concerned with theology, but also tried to gain an overview of the entire knowledge of their time. The Eisenach Ministerial Library bears witness to this in the presence of large works of review. For example, it owns all volumes of the Acta Eruditorum published until 1748, the first scientific journal in which books from all fields of knowledge from all over Europe were discussed and reviewed. The Acta Eruditorum appeared from 1682 and later as Nova Acta Eruditorum and Nova Acta Eruditorum Supplementa respectively in Leipzig until 1782. From the beginning of the 19th century, the Jenaische Literaturzeitung and the Neue Jenaische Literaturzeitung are available, in which the new publications of many important books from all fields of science were also reviewed. Of course, the most important review organs for theological literature in the 18th and 19th centuries also found their way into St. George’s Library and are still more or less complete today, such as Johann August Ernesti’s (1707–1781) Theologische Bibliothek or Johann Christoph Döderlein’s (1746–1792) Auserlesene theologische Bibliothek.
The Eisenach Ministerial Library is only one of a whole plethora of extensive ministerial, congregation and superintendent libraries in Thuringia that have significant historical book collections. In this context, the library of the Church in Arnstadt or the library of the Protestant ministry in Erfurt should be mentioned, which admittedly each had a different history of origin than the Eisenach ministerial library.
Politically, there were major territorial changes in Thuringia after the end of the Congress of Vienna in 1815, at the end of which eight small states remained. During this time, the Protestant churches remained an integral part of these small states. The pastors in the congregations fulfilled their theological mission against the backdrop of changing political events throughout the 19th century. The most drastic event occurred after the end of the First World War, when the six remaining Thuringian princely houses resigned from government in November 1918, ushering in the end of these churches. After the separation of church and state, the first negotiations for a merger of the individual state churches in Thuringia began in the same year. After this process was completed, the church leaders voted on the merger to form the new Thuringian Protestant Church, which came into effect on 13 February 1920. A constitution for the new regional church was drawn up and put into effect by 1924. During this time, an independent church organisation with central leadership was established in the city of Eisenach. During these events, a central registration of the larger libraries and book collections existing in the church area was also carried out in 1924. The books were to be registered through directories and made more accessible through exchange. Since the focus of this paper is not on this era, I will only briefly touch on the period of National Socialism. After the National Socialists came to power in 1933, the Thuringian Regional Church was also affected by internal tensions. This conflict has gone down in history under the generic term Kirchenkampf (church struggle). In essence, it was about questions of faith in the relationship between the church and the National Socialist dictatorship as well as church resistance in dealing with state ideology. In writing, this conflict was disputed with books, essays, journals and pamphlets that found an echo in the libraries of the time. In this conflict over theological sovereignty of interpretation, an ideologically influenced hymnal was produced and even a new translation of the Bible was worked on.
Independent of these efforts, the office of the ‘Church-Archivist’ (Kirchenarchivwart) of the Thuringian Protestant Church was established in 1938. This office was responsible for the supervision of all archival holdings and libraries in the parish archives throughout the whole territory. With the help of information events, this archivist provided training in the management of archives and libraries. In addition, through consistent training of archivists, important holdings in the parishes could be secured. Regrettably, however, this position was abolished without replacement in 1959.
3 Church Libraries and Theological Literature in the German Democratic Republic
With the founding of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) after the Second World War, the book trade was reorganised and adapted to the new economic system and state objectives. Three aspects are of particular importance: book production, book import / book smuggling and censorship measures. In the GDR, the entire literary production and distribution apparatus was adapted to state goals in the course of the socialist cultural revolution.7 In particular, the majority of publishing houses were transformed into ‘Volkseigene Betriebe’ (publicly owned companies) or run by social organisations. The central commission bookshop in Leipzig was responsible for supplying the entire book trade. The planned economy structure of the book market limited book production through long-term printing deadlines and paper quotas.8 The constitution of the GDR guaranteed freedom of opinion and freedom of the press on paper. In reality, publications were controlled by state agencies in the form of approval procedures and quality controls, for example via the Ministry of Culture.9
In the ecclesiastical sector, the larger libraries of the Regional Church Council and the Preacher’s Seminary with a total of about 35,000 books were located in Eisenach.10 In addition, there were a large number of parish libraries in the church area of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Thuringia. A basic distinction must be made between official libraries, which were only accessible to certain groups of people, and public community libraries as well as private libraries of church officials. The Allies’ Control Council Order No. 4 of 1946 decreed, among other things, that literature with a National Socialist or military character be removed from public and private libraries. On this basis, there were several state inspections of church libraries in the following years. In 1958, for example, the library of the Altenburg Superintendency was audited by state forces. The audit focused particularly on literature published in the West since 1945 and separated out books.11 Books with fascist or military content, political expansionist ideas, racial doctrines or which opposed the Allies were to be withdrawn from use in libraries. They were only allowed to be made available for scientific work under special conditions. The constitution of the GDR at the time guaranteed the church independence and the freedom of its scientific work. Literature with a clearly ecclesiastical reference was therefore formally unobjectionable, but there was a list of forbidden books with ecclesiastical content. These books were allowed to be preserved, but had to be treated as classified information and only released under special conditions.12
The procurement and securing of theological literature remained an important issue until the end of the GDR. Because of the takeover of books from school and state libraries, there were negotiations with state authorities in this connection.13 In addition, book donations from Germany and abroad were of particular importance. In 1950, for example, the relief organisation of the Protestant Church in Germany arranged for a donation of books from the Missouri Synod. These theological books were not available in the territory of the GDR and were therefore much sought after.14 The donation was distributed to libraries via the regional church. Book shipments from West Germany were subject to control by state organs, and literature was excluded and confiscated according to certain criteria. Since the legal framework was not clear, there was a fluid transition between legal import of literature and book smuggling. In the area of fiction and specialist books, ecclesiastical literature at times took first place among confiscated books, accounting for two-thirds.15
Active book smuggling, for example by vehicles, meant a high risk through penalties, with GDR citizens naturally facing a greater risk. The expansion of the inner-German border in the 1960s blocked many transport routes, making shipping by post increasingly important. About 420,000 printed works were withdrawn from circulation via postal controls in the 1960s.16 This practice caused disputes with state authorities over the confiscation of books, especially on the basis of content assessments.17 The regulations for receiving books listed anti-democratic content, war promotion or a general orientation against the interests of the GDR as exclusion criteria, among other things.18 The Thuringian Regional Church acted as an intermediary for book donations from abroad. This mostly involved specialist theological literature, which was cleared through customs as a gift consignment with a special permit. In the 1960s, various book shipments arrived at the Headquarter in Eisenach in this way, which were then distributed to the recipients by the church.19 Book requests from church employees were collected centrally and taken into account in this procedure. The church also issued certificates with which special permission could be requested to import foreign, scientific literature.20 The printed matter of the church press had a special status in this system but was also subject to state control and in some cases was not released for delivery. This procedure caused increased protests through repeated confiscations towards the end of the 1980s.21
Confiscation protocol for theological books from 1959
Beschlagnahme von Schriftgut, 01.08.1959, Generalakten, Teil 2, A 860-32, p. 114, Landeskirchenarchiv EisenachApart from book procurement, the church had its own needs for printed works and publications. The following section will look at the political and economic impact of the church’s book trade. In 1945, the first negotiations for the resumption of the printing of religious literature were started with the Soviet State Office for Literature.22 The first result was the publication of a Christian home calendar for 1946. In the same year, the first larger book orders from Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Thuringia began.23 In the following years, further larger book orders reflected the high demand for specialised theological literature. Also in 1946, the Regional Church Council initiated a reading circle, in which magazines were obtained through the Regional Church Office and then distributed in the church area.24 This circle was intended to be a source of information in a time of limited information possibilities and was continued until 1951.
The two most important own publications of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Thuringia since the 1920s were the Amtsblatt for official church announcements and the weekly church newspaper Glaube & Heimat. For the re-implementation of these publications, an agreement was made with a publishing house. This was a publisher named Wartburgverlag, which was based within the church territory and had been founded in 1947. Wartburgverlag published the literature of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Thuringia, especially the church newspaper Glaube & Heimat and the official gazette. On the basis of licences issued to the Church in Thuringia, this publishing house was authorised to publish Christian Protestant literature.25 In addition to the production of these regular church publications, there was also book production. In the early 1950s, there was a great need for religious literature in the church congregations, which the Church wanted to meet through its own publications.26 However, the licensing of these books was not covered by the licences proved to the Church and therefore took place in cooperation with the Evangelische Verlagsanstalt in Berlin. This publishing house held a special licence for theological literature in the GDR.27 Manuscripts could be submitted by the publisher, evaluated by a state expert and approved or rejected. Regardless of questions of licensing, the procurement of paper as material remained part of the production process. This could mean cutbacks if sufficient paper could not be provided as planned. In this context, there were repeated difficulties in publishing church literature due to a lack of material.28
For the church, the printing of Bibles is a special focus. For the church territory in Thuringia, this was done through the Altenburg Bible Institute. This was an old institution and able to resume its printing activities immediately after the Second World War when it received its first licence for a religious book as early as 1945. The Thüringer Bibelwerk was restructured in 1950 as an ecclesiastical institution with headquarters in Eisenach and was to promote the distribution of the Bible. Furthermore, spiritual literature such as hymnals and catechisms were to be printed. The institution was divided into the Bible Institute of Altenburg, which was to produce and procure spiritual literature, and the Bible Societies of Altenburg, Eisenach and Weimar, which were to be dedicated to distribution. By 1957 it had published about three million Bibles, Bible parts and religious books.29 After the Evangelische Verlagsanstalt in Berlin became the only licensed Protestant publishing house, the Altenburg Bible Institute had to adhere to this institution with its publications.
4 Ecclesiastical Structural Changes and Their Consequences for the Historical Parish Libraries
The books in the small and larger historical parish libraries also reflect the history of the respective parishes. However, since they hardly receive any professional care, there is a risk of neglect. The merging and dissolution of parish offices in the area of the Protestant Church in Central Germany and especially in the area of the former Evangelical Lutheran Church in Thuringia often result in further negative consequences for the historical parish libraries and their book collections. These external conditions of storage rarely meet the requirements for historical books and manuscripts. In recent years, professional advice and the renovation of parsonages have changed things for the better. The awareness of the value of historical book collections in churches and parsonages has grown overall. However, new problems for parish libraries have arisen due to the merging of parishes and parish offices. Parsonages, the places where pastors live and work, are being repurposed or sold. In such cases, parish libraries have to be relocated and reorganised. Various projects support parishes in dealing with their historical book collections. For example, the cooperation with large research institutions, such as the Gotha Research Library of the University of Erfurt, has proven to be successful. This important indexing work is coordinated and accompanied by the Regional Church Archive in Eisenach. If no suitable place can be found or created for the storage of the historical parish libraries in the still existing parish and congregation houses, it is possible to transfer them to the Archive as a deposit. There they are stored under optimal conditions, are available for research and are re-catalogued if necessary. However, they remain the property of the respective church congregation. It is to be expected that more and more parishes will make use of this possibility in the future.
The current situation of the libraries is worrying in many cases. The reasons are manifold and cannot be reduced to a few, simple explanatory patterns. In November 2021, the Synod of the Evangelical Church in Central Germany officially approved the funds to address this matter accordingly. The official title for this project is “Historical manuscripts and book collections in church ownership on the territory of the Evangelical Church in Central Germany.” The area of responsibility covers more than a thousand book and manuscript collections in different locations on that territory and is going to start its work in 2022. As a first step there is going to be the establishment of a coordination office in combination with a scientific advisory board. Together they will develop standard procedures for the implementation of the work. This project is about securing, indexing and making the books and manuscripts generally usable. Other tasks consist of providing advice and support for proper storage of the historically valuable books. Secure accommodation, care and cataloguing are prerequisites for the preservation and use of a library. Circumstances however vary from region to region and require individual approaches. The exact total number of books at this point is unknown and has yet to be determined, but estimates put the number at least 200,000. During the implementation, librarians and archivists are going to be consulted for support and ensure the professional competence of this project. Comprehensive public relations work will accompany the project and document the activities, special features and finds. Thereby, these libraries will finally receive the necessary attention, from which not only the respective parishes as owners will benefit. In the end, a systematic record will be available to the public while at the same time the secure long-term safeguarding of the books on site will be guaranteed. This ten-year project has the potential to initiate a change of perspective and change the way we deal with this historical heritage.
5 Historical Value of Parish Libraries
In the area of cultural assets, the Protestant church libraries take up the largest share.30 For pastors, their books and libraries represented an important pillar of intellectual self-assertion, especially in educationally deprived environments, in the villages and small agricultural towns of Thuringia. If a larger parish library was found in the rectory, for many pastors this meant a very fortunate improvement of their own education and the education of their children. In the past, the libraries were also a source for imparting knowledge in the school sector, over which the parish priests, especially in the villages of the Thuringian states, were in charge until 1918.
Every church library, from large institutions to the smallest parish, has its own history of foundation and growth, which can be very different and peculiar. An important role is played by the interests, personal imprint and piety of the pastors and other benefactors who founded them or further increased them through donations. Thus, the respective historical book collections not only reflect important epochs of church, theological, and intellectual history since the 16th century, but also provide an insight into the interests and studies of their users. As a source for researching the history of education in the Thuringian dominions and states, they represent an enormous historical value. The measures and projects initiated are an encouraging sign for the preservation and strategic expansion of these historic parish libraries. Five hundred years after Martin Luther translated the Bible at Wartburg Castle in Eisenach, the value of a parish library cannot be better appreciated.
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