Lüthi, Karl Jakob. Aethiopisch in der Schweiz. Bern: Büchler & Co., 1936.
(1) English translation (excerpts from the introduction)
1.1 Founding of the Mission Press (pp. 23‒24):
At his [Christian Friedrich Spittler‘s] instigation, a printing press was established in late 1861 in St. Chrischona near Basel. Its catalog of typefaces from 1895 is prefaced with a short history of the printing press. Its operations began with an old hand press from Ferdinand Riehm in Ludwigsburg. As early as 1862, it purchased a high-speed press. All the managers of the printing press up to 1895 are listed. For almost thirty years, the high-speed presses were powered by wheel drives. In 1890, an attempt was made to use a horse-powered treadmill [….; p. 24]. In 1893, this treadmill was replaced by a petroleum engine.
In addition to various periodicals, the printing house produced most of the work for the publishing house of C. F. Spittler and his successors. For many years, it was engaged in printing holy scriptures, schoolbooks, and tracts in East African languages—including Swahili and the Ethiopian languages that are the focus of our attention today.
Missionary Dr. Ludwig Krapf and, after his death, missionary Johann Martin Flad in Korntal were the publishers of these Oriental prints on behalf of the British and Foreign Bible Society and the English Jewish Mission Society. To this end, the printing house received a small box of Ethiopian type as early as 1862. This was followed later, at the expense of the British and Foreign Bible Society, by a new set of this typeface in Garmond, and in 1884 by a set cut in Petit Amharic for the Amharic pocket Bible. [Paragraph break added]
1.2 Beginning of the printing of Amharic publications (p. 25)
The 15th circular letter of December 1863 to the Friends of the Pilgrim Mission contains the following interesting note: “As for writings in Oriental languages, we have made a modest start in recent months with the printing of the tract Why Should I Read the Bible?—translated into Amharic by Dr. Krapf. We already have other Amharic manuscripts by him, some of which are already in our possession, while others are still in progress.”
The 16th circular, dated December 1864, reports: “It is with special pleasure that we take a brief look at the printing shop, where work was carried out this year in Amharic, Arabic, German, English, and French. The primary client was the British and Foreign Bible Society in London.” The same circular states: “How delightful it is that, on their behalf, we were privileged to print 10,000 copies of the Gospels and Epistles in Amharic this year at Chrischona, and have received a new order for 14,000 copies.”
1.3 Dissolution of the Mission Press (pp. 31‒32):
Unfortunately, the printing press at St. Chrischona was closed at the end of 1904. The underlying reasons are clearly evident in the Pilgrim Mission’s annual reports from 1903 and 1904; they were quite modern in nature. Among other things, the reports state: “Managing a printing shop in such an isolated place as Chrischona, where assistants and apprentices are not only at work for nine hours a day but also live in the house 24 hours a day, is no easy task. The spirit that now prevails among the working class is not easily [p. 32] compatible with ‘Christian house rules.” One might perhaps add: especially at St. Chrischona! It was certainly not easy for the committee to cut away this important branch of the Chrischona tree, but they agreed with Solomon: “To everything there is a season!”
Heinrich Froese, the last manager of the typesetting workshop at St. Chrischona, purchased the printing shop and opened his business in Basel in early 1905, though without the Oriental typefaces. Froese’s printing shop was transferred to Frobenius Co. in 1910.
Years ago, I tried to find out on-site where the Ethiopian type from the Chrischona printing house had ended up, but without success. Even in Chrischona, they no longer knew! Dr. Alfred Kober-Staehelin, one of the successors of the former Spittler bookshop in Basel, thought he remembered that—as he wrote to me—”the printing materials were sent to Mr. Flad in Massawa after the printing house was sold.”
That they came to Massawa may be true, but missionary Flad was no longer in the Orient at that time. The Bible plates that missionary Martin Flad had produced at St. Chrischona have been given to the British and Foreign Bible Society in London. For years, the mission printing press in Asmara (Eritrea) has been printing the Amharic books that the mission needs. [Paragraph breaks added]
(2) German original
Further reading
Reichle, Edwin. Spuure in der Spaale und in einem 75jährigen Druckerei-Archiv. Frobenius AG Basel. 1910–1985. Basel: Frobenius, around 1985.
Schriften-Verzeichnis der Pilgermissions-Buchdruckerei auf St. Chrischona bei Basel. Ausgegeben im Jahre 1895: