Foundation and first phase (1900-1914)
The foundation of the German Protestant Institute
On October 31, 1898, the Church of the Redeemer in the Old City of Jerusalem was solemnly consecrated. Kaiser Wilhelm II also visited the holy city for the occasion.
During the festivities, the then Bavarian Chief Consistorial President Dr. Alexander von Schneider put forward the idea of founding an institute in Jerusalem dedicated to the cultivation of Protestant antiquity studies.
More than 100 years ago, on June 19, 1900, at the German Protestant Church Conference in Eisenach, the “German Protestant Institute for Classical Studies of the Holy Land” foundation was established with the approval of the German Protestant regional churches, which was later confirmed by an imperial act of sovereignty. It is interesting to take a look at the foundation charter, in which the purpose of the work is defined in the style of the time:
The aim was “… to cultivate, revitalize and regulate relations between the sites of sacred history on the one hand and scholarly research and the interest of Christian piety in the Protestant church on the other in the field of biblical and ecclesiastical antiquity studies.”
The work of Gustaf Dalman
Gustaf Dalman, Professor of Old Testament and Jewish Studies at the University of Leipzig, was appointed the first director of the institute and arrived in Jerusalem with his wife Karoline von Treskow on November 12, 1902. On January 12, 1903, he moved into the former Austrian consulate at today’s Äthiopische Strasse 5, and opened the institute with its archaeological and ethnological collection on November 15, 1903. From 1905 until his death in 1941, Dalman published an annual volume of the Palestine Yearbook. He founded the teaching courses, the first of which was held in the fall of 1903. From 1907 to 1911, he intensively researched the necropolises of Jerusalem with scholarship holders and examined the tombs and high sanctuaries in Petra, finally publishing his knowledge in the comprehensive work “Work and Customs in Palestine I-VII” (1928-1942).
The following essay by Gerda Budde is well worth reading: Die Juden und der Jude Jesus in der Sicht Gustaf Dalmans, which you can read and download at this link.
A few keywords about the author: Gerda Budde (Hattingen) retired pastor, special interests: Old Testament, Jewish-Christian dialog, biblical archaeology (among others with Prof. Vieweger). In retirement, studies at the Jewish University of Heidelberg and the Wuppertal University of Churches. Author of various essays on Leo Baeck (e.g. in: Wege zum Menschen 1/2007, p. 39-52). Jerusalem-Fan.