The History of the Wisconsin Synod
By John Ph. Koehler
In 1899, Northwestern College Professor John Ph. Koehler was commissioned to write an 50th anniversary history of the Wisconsin Synod which would be printed serially in the synodical paper, the Gemeinde-Blatt. Eventually that commission would turn into a 1925 German volume that would only cover the earliest years of synodical history. That volume included information that Koehler had culled from the archives of the several German missionary societies that had given birth to the Wisconsin Synod.
After Koehler’s removal from the presidency of our seminary in 1929, he continued work on his History of the Wisconsin Synod which would include information through about the year 
1930.
It was first published in translation by the Protest’ant Conference of the Wisconsin Synod in their journal Faith-Life and then issued as a single volume for the first time in 1970, with an extensive introduction by Professor Leigh Jordahl. It is the standard reference for the early history of the Wisconsin Synod.
Disclaimer: In an effort to provide the most relevant and useful content, we may provide links to non-WELS resources. WELS is not responsible for the content on external websites. WELS is not officially endorsing these websites, nor does WELS endorse all content on these sites.