Society for the Advancement of Christianity among Jews

In 2024, a book from the Society for the Advancement of Christianity among Jews in Berlin was returned to the Berlin Mission.

Founded in 1822, the Society for the Advancement of Christianity among the Jews in Berlin had set itself the task of converting Jews to Protestantism.

The "German Christians", who became particularly influential in German Protestantism after 1933, were opposed to this so-called Judenmission. In the late 1930s, the "Society" came under increasing pressure. After a riot squad demolished the interior of the office in Kastanienallee on 11 November 1938, it was finally occupied by the Gestapo on 23 January 1941 and the Society's accounts were seized. The library of the society, which mainly contained books on questions of Judaism in Germany, was confiscated and at least part of it was transferred to the Staatsbibliothek Berlin in 1941/42.

The book was added to the collection of the Berlin City Library ("Berliner Stadtbibliothek", BStB) as a gift in 1948. The supplier listed in the accession book is the "Bergungsstelle" recovery center with recovery number 161, the corresponding recovery number can also be found in the book. The corresponding recovery order 161, "Book stocks from the Margarine bunker, Hohenzollerndamm", was a collection point of the Wilmersdorf district, according to the respective report of the "Bergungsstelle". Numerous Nazi-looted items with this supplier reference have already been identified in the holdings of the Zentral- und Landesbibliothek Berlin, primarily books from the library of the Hünfeld monastery looted during the 1941 "Klostersturm".

The Society for the Advancement of Christianity among Jews, which was initially re-established after the end of World War II, was dissolved on 1 May 1982. Its legal successor was initially the ""Ökumenisch-Missionarische Zentrum" (Ecumenical Missionary Center). In 2010, the Staatsbibliothek Berlin's Historical Prints Department was able to identify the Berlin Mission as the current legal successor. Today, the library of the "Evangelische Kirche Berlin-Brandenburg-schlesische Oberlausitz" (EKBO) is the custodian of the library of the Berliner Mission.