Edition of Journals of Johann Martin Boltzius (1703–1765)

On the occasion of the centennial of the founding of the Georgia Salzburger Society in 2025, another joint project between the Francke Foundations, Prof. em. Russell Kleckley, South Carolina, and the society of the descendants of Salzburger emigrants in Georgia was agreed upon in September 2023. Following the edition of the letters of Johann Martin Boltzius (1703-1765) and Johann Ernst Bergmann (1755-1824), six previously unpublished diary fragments of the first Lutheran pastor of Ebenezer, Johann Martin Boltzius, from the years 1746, 1757, 1759 and 1763 will now be edited. A bilingual annotated edition of the texts is planned to be published by the Francke Foundations. On the one hand, the diary entries reflect the economic high point of the Salzburger emigrant community; on the other hand, they already point to crisis phenomena that were later to intensify under Boltzius' successors in office and especially during the American Revolution until the threatened dissolution of the Lutheran denomination.

Project Collaborators: Dr. Jürgen Gröschl (Halle), Dr. Karsten Hommel (Leipzig), Dr. Russell Kleckley (South Carolina)
Project start: September 2023