Ludwig Ernst Fuerbringer (1864-1947) Collection

The Ludwig Fuerbringer collection contains mainly materials created and personally collected by Ludwig Fuerbringer. The collection has been arranged into four series: Subject Files, Class Notes, Lectures and Correspondence.

The Subject Files series is arranged alphabetically by topics and includes four sub-series that appear within the alphabetical arrangement: Alumni, Books, Call Process and Term Question. In addition to the files on various subjects there are photographs, sermons, miscellaneous speeches and essays, unidentified index cards, and a collection of bookplates (some loose, some in scrapbooks) in this series.

The Alumni subseries contains statistical material on students who graduated from Concordia Seminary (St. Louis) from 1848 to 1945 (f.4). It includes biographical material about the graduates including obituaries and the correspondence generated while Fuerbringer obtained this information.

The Books subseries (f.14-24) contains one or more books with marginalia or other handwritten notes. A detailed list of each book remaining in the collection and a list of books that were removed to the Institute’s library are located in folder 14.

The Call Process subseries (f. 26-37) includes planning material as well as final call lists of graduates from Concordia Seminary (Saint Louis) from 1911 to 1926. It appears that Fuerbringer was on the placement board for new candidates.

The last subseries contains material generated by the Chinese Term Question controversy (f.65-72) that dealt with two Chinese terms used for God. Concordia Seminary and Fuerbringer as its president were asked to make a final decision on this question.

A package of information submitted to Concordia Seminary by Rev. Edward L. Arndt for consideration is included here (f.64). The originals are on rice paper and are very fragile. Photocopies of this material for reference use are located in the Edward L. Arndt Collection (Binder #17, CM #1586-1622). The remaining correspondence in this subseries is material generated by various people in conjunction with this controversy.

The Class Notes series contains either notes or notebooks written in Ludwig Fuerbringer's hand. It could not be determined if they had been generated when he was a student himself or when he was a professor at the seminary. Each folder contains more than one notebook and each notebook usually covers more than one subject.

The Lecture series is divided into two parts. The lectures in the first section are filed alphabetically by subject. No common thread could be established between these notes. The lectures in the second part of this series seem to have been produced in the same format as part of an ongoing series and are arranged according to the books of the bible. These lectures may have been the basis for one of his books.

The Correspondence series covers the years 1869 to 1948, about 75 years. Three letters found in this collection were removed and placed in the Ottomar Fuerbringer Collection since they were obviously part of his father’s correspondence.