1564 Passau Hymns

    Last evening we had the privilege of seeing a German hymnbook printed in 1564. It is preserved in the Mennonite Historical Library in Goshen, Indiana, and was carefully brought to Lancaster County by Joe Springer, curator of MHL, to be displayed in several meetings. 

    The Mennonite Historical Library was founded largely by the efforts of Harold S. Bender. In 1928, while on a trip to Pennsylvania, he discovered a book printed in 1564 which contained what is known as the Passau hymns. These are hymns which were sung by Anabaptists jailed in 1535 in the Passau castle near the border of Germany and Austria. 

    When they were released in 1544, one or more of the Passau prisoners carried with them the texts of fifty-three songs they sang in the prison. Some are identified as being written by a certain person while imprisoned. These were spread to various Anabaptist communities and then printed in a small book in 1564. This book was not called the Asubund, but was included in the first hymnbook titled Ausbund in 1583. The Ausbund is still used by the Amish in their worship services and sung in German.

   The book Harold Bender discovered was a Sammelband, a collection of printed booklets combined into a book with one binding.  Sammelbands vary in content and are not exactly alike. Usually, the owner of the book took his collection of materials to a bookbinder and had them bound into one volume. This Sammelband contained other small booklets of hymns and a prayer. Harold Bender recognized the Passau hymns near the back of the book. He did not have enough money with him to buy the book so the bookseller divided the book (which was falling apart) and sold him the Passau hymns for ten dollars. Later, he was able to buy the second half of the book.

    In 2015, Jeff Peachy painstakingly restored the book. He took it completely apart, cleaned every page, and repaired the broken leather spine. After languishing in the rare book room of the MHL for nearly ninety years, the 458-year-old book is now restored and on a short tour in Lancaster County. It is the only existing 1564 edition in the world.