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

In November 2016, the artwork "Fassbinder" by US sculptor Richard Serra was installed in the inner courtyard of the Bible Museum. Richard Serra was born in San Francisco in 1939. His artworks are often large-scale and orientated towards their surroundings. They communicate with the space in which they are placed. This also applies to the sculpture "Fassbinder".

"Fassbinder" was designed by the artist in 1983 especially for the inner courtyard of the LWL Museum of Art and Culture. A year later, the wall drawing "Fassbinder II" was added, which refers to the interior of the LWL Museum of Art and Culture, but also to the sculpture, which was visible through a window outside the museum. Due to the remodelling of the LWL Museum of Art and Culture (2009 to 2014), a new location had to be found for "Fassbinder". After seven years in which the sculpture was not on display, the inner courtyard of the Bible Museum was chosen as the new location in 2016. As a result, the sculpture is once again located in an inner courtyard and is still in the direct neighbourhood of "Fassbinder II" in the LWL Museum.

The sculpture consists of three high rectangular steel plates that form a U-shape closed on three sides.

The reconstruction of the Bible Museum

The Bible Museum was remodelled between 2014 and 2019.Particular emphasis was placed on preserving the collection in the best possible way.The presentation of the collection was also comprehensively redesigned.Today, around 1,500 exhibits are on display in the 160 square metre Bible Museum, either back to back or opened up.VR glasses give visitors a window into current research into New Testament textual criticism at INTF. On 13 December 2019, the museum reopened to the public after several years of renovation with a new concept in terms of content and exhibition technology.