“Global Bible. Legacies of (Post)Colonial Bible Translations in the Arctic, Oceania, and West Africa” is the title of an exhibition at the Bible Museum Münster, running until March 1, 2026. The work of the Bremen Mission is also featured in this exhibition.

A particular focus of the project lies on the work of Indigenous translators. They were often overlooked in the past, even though German and English missionaries would not have been able to bring the Bible and its associated spiritual and cultural world to people in the colonies without them.

“As one must [...] listen to how the people speak and then interpret accordingly; thus they will understand it,” Martin Luther had already declared in 1530 in his “Open Letter on Translating.” The “target group-appropriate language,” as museum director Prof. Holger Strutwolf modernised Luther’s words, was an extremely elaborate undertaking. The various languages in an occupied region had to be documented, structured into dictionaries and grammars, and then solidified in printed Bibles. It was an endeavour influenced by political, religious, and economic structures, as shown for example in the reports of the Bible societies.

Bible Museum Münster, Pferdegasse 1, 48143 Münster. Tue – Sun 10 AM – 6 PM. Admission free. Every Sunday at 3 PM there is a public guided tour. No registration required.