History of the Bible Museum

             On 8 March 1979, the Bible Museum - founded by Bishop Hermann Kunst and Kurt Aland - was festively opend in the presence of the then German Federal President Walter Scheel. After various exhibitions conceived by staff members of the Institut for New Testament Text Reserch, there was a great demand for a museum of its own to illustrate the history of the Bible. The Museum if affiliated whith the Institute for New Testament Text Reserch. 

      In 1983, Prof. Lic. Dr.  Babara Aland took over the management, which passed to Prof. Dr. Holger Strutwolf in October 2004. The original location was Georgskommende 7, but sice  2006 the museum an institut are located at Pferdegasse 1.    

Initially, there was a lage collection of biblical manuscripts and  printed Bibles from Bishop Hermann Kunst. old holdings of the institute werde added to this. At the beginning, about 300 exhibits were on display. Over the years, the collection has been steadily expanded: both through donations as well as sporadic new acquisitions, plus various  loans from privat collections, not only from Germany but also from Norway.

A historic occasion for the Bible Museum

In April 2010, the Bible Museum received a valuable treasure. The passionate collector Walter Remy gave his collection of around 650 old-language Bibles - the largest privately owned Bible collection in Europe - to the University of münster. The Bibles will be scientifically catalogued at the INTF and presented to the public in the Bible Museum.

Fassbinder by Richard Serra

 

The reconstruction of the Bible Museum