Stuttgarter Kepplerbibel 1936

This past weekend I went to the annual Really Good, Really Big, Really Cheap Book Sale hosted by the Greenville Literacy Association. This is one of three major used book sales I attend every year. I can usually buy about 30 books for as many dollars, which is great for a bibliophile and broke college student like me. Most of the books I find, both new and old, are interesting for their content, but there are always a few which prove to be little time capsules containing artifacts from another person’s life and time. Then I have the privilege of playing “history detective” to discover as much as I can about the book’s former owner. This sale did not disappoint in that regard.

My latest find is a 1936 edition of a pocket New Testament called the Stuttgarter Kepplerbibel. Let’s examine it and see what we can learn!

The Testament

This copy is unfortunately a bit weathered, especially the spine which is almost completely detached. But it is 82 years old and was obviously used frequently.

Opening the Bible, we find the owner’s name handwritten at the top: “Kaiser” being the surname, with another letter or two for the first name which I can’t make out. It’s probably impossible to determine whether this name belongs to the original or a subsequent owner of the Bible. However, if a handwriting expert could identify the style of script such as Kurrent or Sütterlin, which would have been taught in schools at different times, we might have a clue.

Next is the frontispiece, which shows a Dürer painting of Jesus on the cross, above him God the Father and the Holy Spirit as a dove, representing the Holy Trinity. On the other side we have the title page, which says “The New Testament, Stuttgarter Kepplerbibel, revised and annotated by Professor Dr. Peter Ketter.”

Let’s pause here to find out more about this translation of the New Testament. The Stuttgarter Kepplerbibel came into being in 1915 through Paul Wilhelm von Keppler (1852-1926), a Catholic bishop in Rottenburg am Neckar, which is a town in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. (The southern part of Germany is staunchly Catholic).

Keppler was a conservative theologian who saw dangers in modernism. He referred to the compromising religious approach of the Reform Catholics as “margarine” Catholicism and contrasted the so-called “rational” Catholics with the “believing” Catholics. He wanted to grow and protect this serious, down-to-earth Catholicism, primarily through daily contact with the Lord in the Holy Scriptures. In his view, no one was so erudite or so uneducated that they could do without the Bible. That’s why this New Testament was printed in a handy format and was called a Volkstestament or “people’s Testament.” The subtitle was “Translated for the Catholic people” (by local clergy). About 100,000 copies were printed in Stuttgart.

Other editions were printed in 1932 and 1934 with the same imprimatur from Rottenburg. Then we get to the 1936 version, which had a new imprimatur from Trier instead of Rottenburg. (Trier is not located in Baden-Württemberg, but in the modern state of Rhineland-Palatinate, formerly the Prussian Rhineland). Stuttgart printed another 100,000 copies.

There are several more editions of this Testament (1937, 1948, 1950, 1961, and 1969), but that’s beyond the scope of our investigation. Let’s move on to the next pages…

Franz Rudolf Bornewasser

The bishop’s full name is Franz Rudolf Bornewasser (1866-1951). Like other Catholic clergy, he wanted to preserve the Church’s identity and institutions in the face of Nazism. Beginning in 1929, he publicly criticized Nazi ideology. Nazis would interrupt his sermons and the Gestapo watched him. In 1935, he negotiated with Reichskommissar and Gauleiter of the Palatinate-Saar, Josef Bürckel, for the return of the Saarland to Germany. However, Bürckel also wanted to come to an agreement that would curtail the rights of the Church to engage in youth work and preach sermons against the new paganism, while allowing dual memberships in the Church and Nazi party (expressly against the Reichskonkordat concluded in 1933). Unsurprisingly, Bürckel decided to act unilaterally in the name of the Third Reich.

Critics accuse Bornewasser of complicity with the regime. For example, on Hitler’s 50th birthday on April 20, 1939, the Bishop issued celebration instructions to all the parishes in his diocese. On June 25, 1940, he sent a telegram to Hitler, congratulating him on the successful occupation of France. In addition, Bornewasser did not speak out against the persecution and murder of the Jews. On the other hand, he did keep in touch with the former Chief Rabbi of Trier, Adolf Altmann, until the latter fled to the Netherlands in 1938 and was eventually deported to Auschwitz, where he died along with his wife and two children in 1944. Bornewasser also supported the invasion of the Soviet Union, likely due to the fear, commonly held among Germans, that Bolshevism (Communism) was something evil which must be prevented from spreading into Christian lands.

While this Testament is fascinating of itself, I discovered a few pocket-sized secrets concealed within…

Pope Pius XI

First we have a small card commemorating the death of Pope Pius XI, who died in February 1939.

Pius XI is probably most famous for concluding the controversial Reichskonkordat with Nazi Germany in 1933, a few months after Hitler gained control of the government. It was designed to safeguard the rights of the Catholic Church in Germany and keep Catholic clergy and organizations out of the political sphere. However, the Nazis had little respect for the Church other than as a means to an end. The Reichskonkordat served to legitimize Hitler’s seizure of power (after all, you have to recognize a government to make a treaty with it) and took away any political power the Catholic leaders might have used to oppose the regime. In spite of the Reichskonkordat, the Nazis arrested, imprisoned, and killed members of the Church. They also closed or “converted” Catholic schools and censored the Catholic press.

Appalled by the Nazi violations of the Reichskonkordat, Pius XI issued the encyclical Mit brennender Sorge (“With Burning Concern”) in March 1937. The letter was written in German instead of Latin. Around 300,000 copies were produced and smuggled into Germany so that it could be read in all the Catholic churches on Palm Sunday. Infuriated, Hitler ordered the Gestapo to confiscate all the copies they could find. The Nazis’ attacks on the Church intensified as well.

Heinrich Feurstein

Next we have a card celebrating the 40th anniversary of the ordination of Dr. Heinrich Feurstein, city pastor of Donauschingen, a town in the Black Forest in Baden-Württemberg, on August 12, 1939. Only a few weeks later, Germany would start World War II by invading Poland.

When the First World War broke out, Feurstein was not content to sit behind the lines, so he volunteered for the front in 1914 and earned the Iron Cross, 2nd Class. Under the Nazi regime, he advocated against the Germanization of the Catholic liturgy. He also publicly denounced the murder of the mentally and physically ill in the Nazi euthanasia program, Aktion T4. When his church bells were confiscated on December 7, 1941, Feuerstein preached about martyrdom and about the priests and laymen who were languishing in prison and concentration camps for their beliefs.

Feuerstein had been watched by the Gestapo since 1939. On January 1, 1942, his gave his last two sermons, in which he condemned the war as a complete mockery of the Christmas message. He spoke about terror of conscience, persecution of the church, hatred of priests, and storming of monasteries. On January 7, he was arrested by the Gestapo and sent to Dachau concentration camp. He died a few months later in July.

Karl Schlageter

The next item is a death card for a German solider named Karl Schlageter. He was a member of a Gebirgsjäger (mountain troops) regiment fighting in the Caucasus. Born on May 13, 1923, he was killed on February 19, 1943, about three months before his nineteenth birthday.

Schlageter’s regiment is not identified, nor is his exact location in the Caucasus. It is likely he was a member of either the 1st Mountain Division or the 4th Mountain Division, which both operated in the region.

The 1st was formed in 1938 in Garmisch Partenkirchen, a skin town in Bavaria, and consisted mainly of Bavarians and Austrians. The division took part in the invasion of Poland, France, and Yugoslavia, as well as of the Soviet Union. In May 1942, the division fought in the Second Battle of Kharkov and then participated in the offensive through southern Russia and into the Caucasus (Operation Edelweiss). In early 1943, around the time Schlageter was killed, the German troops started to withdraw into defensive positions due to Soviet breakthroughs. During its campaigns the 1st committed war crimes in Poland and Yugoslavia.

Another possibility, the 4th was formed in 1940 and participated in campaigns in the Balkans and Russia.

We may never know whether Karl Schlageter was a son or relative of the Testament’s owner. Death cards were given to family members and visitors at the funeral. Nevertheless, it is sad to see a young life cut short before it could even begin. There were millions of boys like Karl on both sides of the war.

Pope Pius XII

Next we have a prayer card showing a picture of Pope Pius XII (who succeeded Pius XI after the latter’s death in 1939). On the back is his “Prayer for apostolic spirit,” with an imprimatur of February 2, 1952 in Freiburg.

Ulrika Nisch

Then we have two copies of a prayer card showing a picture of Franziska (Ulrika) Nisch, a member of the Sisters of Mercy of the Holy Cross of Ingenbohl. The inner pages contain a biography and quotations, while the back offers a “Prayer for the glorification of God’s servant, Sister Ulrika Nisch”.

Born in 1882 in Mittelbiberach-Oberdorf in Baden-Württemberg, she was the first of eleven children of a very poor family. In 1903 she contracted a serious form of erysipelas (bacterial skin infection) and was hospitalized, where she met the Sisters and realized her true calling. In 1907 she took her vows and adopted the name “Ulrika”. She worked in the kitchen of the Bühl convent and in St. Vincent’s House in Baden-Baden, where she remained for four years until August 1912. In May of that year, she was diagnosed with tuberculosis and admitted to the infirmary at the convent of Hegne, where she died on May 8, 1913 at the age of 31. Because of her Christ-like service and the evidence of a miracle performed through her intercession, the process began to beatify her in spring 1952, which is likely the reason behind this card. She was eventually proclaimed blessed by Pope John Paul II in 1987.

Hermann-Josef Kast

Lastly, there is a card commemorating the 40th anniversary of the ordination of Hermann Kast, rector of the Mariahof Boys’ Home in Hüfingen, a town in Baden-Württemberg, on July 2, 1952.

Founded in 1843, Mariahof still exists today. Hermann-Josef Kast took over the diocese’s charity association which sponsored the home in 1920 and remained director until 1962. He was a gifted pedagogue and made a lasting impression on the home with his progressive teaching methods.

Final Thoughts

In conclusion, I think we can say that this New Testament was used from 1936 through the Second World War until at least 1953. Based on the evidence at hand, I believe the owner was probably a devout Catholic person living in Baden-Württemberg. I also believe the owner was a woman, but that’s more of a hunch. I think it more likely for a woman to have collected and used the prayer cards while attending mass regularly, as opposed to a man who would usually be working or serving in the military. On the other hand, it is possible that the cards were placed in the Testament by someone else, a relative perhaps, when storing the book or giving it away. Unfortunately we can never be certain without locating the family.

Assuming the owner was a woman, we can only wonder about her thoughts and experiences. Did she have a husband or son in the military? What was her connection to Karl Schlageter? Did she share the general anti-Semitism of most Catholics in Germany? How much did she know or see of the Holocaust? Did she suffer during the Allied bombings? Over the years she added prayer cards for two popes and several fellow Bavarians, including a brave pastor who later perished in Dachau; a young soldier who was killed in the Caucasus; a nun who served the Lord in spite of illness; and a kindly priest who taught troubled boys for over 40 years. Even if we can’t know her views exactly, we can deduce from the cards that she did admire some godly people, even one who resisted the Nazis. I wish I knew her story and how her New Testament ended up at a book sale in Greenville, South Carolina!

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References (yes, I know they’re just links, not in Chicago format):

https://www.bibelpedia.com/index.php?title=Keppler-Bibel

http://www.uni-tuebingen.de/fakultaeten/katholisch-theologische-fakultaet/lehrstuehle/moraltheologie/lehrstuhlgeschichte/paul-wilhelm-von-keppler.html

https://www.amazon.de/Das-Neue-Testament-Stuttgarter-Kepplerbibel/dp/3932691636

http://www.rheinische-geschichte.lvr.de/Persoenlichkeiten/franz-rudolf-bornewasser-/DE-2086/lido/57c585fb7bd896.76042025

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Rudolf_Bornewasser

http://w2.vatican.va/content/pius-xi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xi_enc_14031937_mit-brennender-sorge.html

http://www.fg.vs.bw.schule.de/projekte/ns-dsfach/nsds-05.htm

http://www.batsav.com/pages/wehrmacht-in-the-caucasus.html

https://ww2db.com/battle_spec.php?battle_id=284

http://www.scschazaribag.org/main.php?mid=45

https://www.badische-zeitung.de/huefingen/ein-begnadeter-paedagoge-und-ein-in-gutem-sinne-strenger-erzieher–34349884.html

http://mariahof.kreativision.net/ueber_uns.html