The Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL) is a
Germanbiographicalencyclopedia covering persons related to the history of the church, philosophy and literature, founded by
Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz, the first volume of which appeared in 1975.
It features over 20,000 articles, many of which were made freely available online between 1996 and 2011.[1] The online service now operates on a subscription model. Though, courtesy of the
Internet Archive, some such entries remain available as
archived pages and many of the print volumes are available to read online (with free registration).
History
Shortly after the
Second World War, the pastor Friedrich Bautz developed the idea of wriitng a biographical lexicon of protestant church figures.[2] His son, Traugott Bautz, recalls that his father had originally envisoned writing a two-volume handbook but that the family's remote and isolated location in the small village of Holtorf an der Elbe (now part of
Schnackenburg) on the border with
Soviet-occupied Germany made such an undertaking impossible at the time.[3]
Working on the project from the 1950s, Friedrich Bautz conceived of the work, which had the working title "Ihm zu dienen welch ein Stand" as containing 3,000 short biographies. Unable to find an interested publisher, Traugott founded a publishing house as an independent bookseller. From there the work, which had been extended in scope to cover non-Protestant Christians and had developed a greater focus on bibliographic information, was printed and distributed in loose-leaf form from 1970.[4][5] The first volume, written entirely by Friedrich Bautz was published in 1975 under its current title.[2]
Traugott Bautz (1945–2020) continued the project after his father's death, but had the articles written by experts. From 1996 onwards, the articles were also placed on the Internet. The basic work was completed with Volume 14 in 1998, and from then on supplementary volumes were published at least annually.[2] He was responsible for editing volumes 3 through to 41.[6]
Since the death of Traugott Bautz, the BBKL has been headed by his widow Uta Timpe-Bautz.
Volumes
Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz (from Volume 3 onwards continued by Traugott Bautz): Biographisch-bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon, 14 Bände (+ bisher 14 Ergänzungsbände), Bautz, Hamm 1975ff
^
abcHering, Rainer (December 2020).
"Traugott Bautz"(PDF). Auskunft – Zeitschrift für Bibliothek, Archiv und Information in Norddeutschland (in German) (1, 2): 12–13.
^Timpe-Bautz, Uta (2022).
"BAUTZ, Traugott - BBKL". www.bbkl.de (in German). Retrieved 2024-03-17. BAUTZ, Traugott, *23.8. 1945 . . . in Holtorf, jetzt Schnackenburg, Kreis Lüchow-Dannenberg, † 1.6. 2020 in Herzberg am Harz, Buchhandler, Verleger, Studienrat, Herausgeber des BIOGRAPHISCH-BIBLIOGRAPHISCHEN KIRCHENLEXIKONS, Band drei bis einundvierzig. Bautz wurde als drittes Kind des Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz . . . [BAUTZ, Traugott, *23.8. 1945 . . . in Holtorf, now Schnackenburg, Lüchow-Dannenberg district, † 1.6. 2020 in Herzberg am Harz, book dealer, publisher, teacher, editor of the BIOGRAPHISCH-BIBLIOGRAPHISCHEN KIRCHENLEXIKONS, volumes three to forty-one. Bautz was the third child of Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz. .]
Sources
Bautz, Traugott (2018).
"Mein Leben mit dem Biographisch-Bibliographischen Kirchenlexikon" [My life with the Biographical-Bibliographical Church Lexicon] (PDF). 50 Jahre Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon: ein Weg in die Zukunft [50 years of the Biographical-Bibliographical Church Lexicon: a way into the future] (in German). Nordhausen: Verlag Traugott Bautz GmbH. pp. 15–28.
ISBN978-3-95948-351-3.