StL12a: Stoeckhardt’s overview of completed StL; reviews v. 23 Index (Der Lutheraner 1910)

       This continues from Part 11b (Table of Contents in Part 1) in a series on the St. Louis Edition (StL) of Luther's complete writings in English. — This begins a 6-part sub-series presenting Prof. George Stoeckhardt's final essay in 1910 which gave an overview of the entire project of the St. Louis Edition from beginning to end.  It filled in some details that I was not aware of until I read it after all other essays.

(From Der Lutheraner, vol. 66 p. 197-199 (No. 13, Jun. 28, 1910) [EN]:

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Luther's Works.

 

The edition of Luther's works, for which our Synod is responsible, is now complete with the appearance of the index volume. [Vol. 23] It is therefore natural for the undersigned [Prof. George Stoeckhardt], who has been involved in the editing from the beginning, to remind our Lutheraner and Luther readers briefly of the course and nature of the now completed work. It was in the autumn of 1879 when blessed Pastor [Johann Friedrich] Bünger of the Immanuel congregation in St. Louis raised the question in the Pastoral Conference of the Western District of our Synod, which followed the Synodal Assembly, whether a new edition of the works of Luther after Dr. J. G. Walch would be in the interest of our synod, since the copies of the old Walch edition are becoming increasingly rare and the Erlangen edition, which lacks the German translations of Luther's Latin writings, does not replace it. After a short discussion, the conference decided, as it says in the Foreword of the first volume, “on behalf of the Ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio and Other States, subject to the approval of the same, to order a new, and indeed revised, edition of Luther's works according to Dr. Joh. G. Walch, and determined that Pastor G. Stöckhardt, with the assistance of Mr. E. W. Kähler, should undertake the editing.” The Ministry of the Synod and the Board of Directors of the Synodical Printing Office then agreed to these plans: The ministry of the Synod and the board of directors of the synodical printing office then agreed to these plans, as did the entire Synod later.

None of the members of that pastoral conference was quite aware of the huge amount of work and the considerable costs involved in the aforementioned decision. The whole thing was done in about half an hour. And even when the two persons just mentioned began to carry out the order of the ministry, and began to “revise” several times a week at 10 o'clock in the evening after the day's work was done, they themselves did not yet suspect that a new edition of all of Luther's writings could not be done so casually in the long run, but required a full manpower. 

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In the next Part 12b, we learn how the Synod took on their commitment to carry forward with their enormous project.