Christopher Saur (1693-1758)
Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
A pioneer printer in colonial America, Saur produced the nation's first European language Bible here in 1743. He printed the most widely read German newspaper & used his press to alert the public to German causes. He aided fellow German immigrants with his money and influence.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
Christopher Saur was a pioneering printer in colonial Pennsylvania who in 1743 produced the first Bible printed in a European language in America — a German edition for the region's growing immigrant community. From his press came the most widely read German-language newspaper of the day, and he used it to champion German causes and aid fellow newcomers with his money and influence. His shop was a cornerstone of German-American life in the colonies.
Why it matters
Saur's press gave America's large German-speaking immigrant population a voice and a Bible in their own tongue, an early testament to the country's multilingual, immigrant roots.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
Colonial Pennsylvania was, by the standards of the age, strikingly diverse — and nowhere more so than in its large and growing German-speaking population. Drawn by the promise of land and religious freedom, German immigrants poured into the colony and built farms, churches, and communities that kept their own language and ways.
It was into this world that Christopher Saur (1693–1758) worked. A community that spoke and read German needed things printed in German: news, religious texts, the words that held a scattered immigrant people together. The printing press, still a young technology in the colonies, met that need.
This was the deep colonial era, well before the Revolution — a time when the character of Pennsylvania was being set by exactly this kind of migration and settlement. The German newcomers were not a footnote to that story; they were one of its main currents, and Saur worked at the center of it.
People & events
Christopher Saur was a pioneer printer, and his press did something no press in America had done before: in 1743 it produced the nation's first Bible printed in a European language — a German edition for the immigrant community around him. To put scripture into the hands of German-speaking colonists in their own tongue was a landmark act.
His influence did not stop at the Bible. From his press came the most widely read German-language newspaper of its day, and he used that reach deliberately — alerting the public to German causes and giving his community a shared voice it had not had before.
He was, too, a patron and protector of his fellow newcomers, aiding German immigrants with his money and his influence. In an age when a struggling migrant had few institutions to turn to, a prosperous, principled printer could be a lifeline, and Saur made himself one.
Its place in the American story
Saur's work is an early chapter in a defining American theme: the immigrant who arrives, keeps a language and a faith, and builds institutions that let a whole community thrive. His press gave the colonies' large German-speaking population a Bible and a newspaper in their own words — a foundation for cultural life on their own terms.
That first European-language Bible printed in America is a milestone in the country's printing and religious history alike. It marks a moment when the New World stopped merely importing its books and began producing them for the diverse peoples actually living here.
In a broader sense, Saur's story testifies to the multilingual, immigrant roots of the United States. Long before the nation existed, the colony that would help found it was already a place of many tongues — and men like Saur made sure one of those tongues had a press of its own.
If you visit
Come to this spot with the printing press in mind — the machine at the heart of the story. Picture the painstaking work of setting type by hand, page by page, and the ambition it took to print an entire Bible that way in colonial America.
Let the place anchor a larger reflection on the German communities that shaped this region. Their language, their faith, and their newspapers were living things, and this site is a doorway into that world — a reminder that the neighborhood's history runs back to a colonial immigrant story.
It makes a thoughtful stop for anyone tracing the roots of American printing, immigration, or religious life. Stand here and consider how much a single press could do: to inform a people, to defend their interests, and to give them the enduring dignity of reading in their own language.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
Plan your visit
NearbyMake a day of it — museums, food, and places to stay near this marker.
Museums & culture
- African American Museum in Philadelphia5.5 mi away · 701 Arch Street, Philadelphia, PA
- National Constitution Center5.5 mi away · 525 Arch Street, Philadelphia, PA
- Independence Visitor Center5.7 mi away · 599 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA
- Betsy Ross House5.7 mi away · 239 Arch Street, Philadelphia, PA
- Illadelph Glass Gallery5.7 mi away · 68 North 2nd Street, Philadelphia, PA
- Muse Gallery5.7 mi away · 52 North 2nd Street, Philadelphia, PA
Attractions
- Discovery Center at East Park Reservoir3.6 mi away
- Harbison's Dairy Milk Bottle4.0 mi away
- Pennsylvania Railroad, Connecting Railway Bridge4.1 mi away
- Philadelphia Zoo4.4 mi away
- Rocky Steps4.7 mi away
- Philly Gun Range4.9 mi away · North Percy Street
Food & drink
- Independence Mall Cafe5.6 mi away · 50 North Independence Mall East, Philadelphia
- Burger King5.7 mi away
- Dunkin'5.7 mi away · 634 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA
- La Colombe Coffee Roasters5.7 mi away
- Philly Pretzel Factory5.7 mi away
- Time & Peace5.8 mi away · 36 South 7th Street, Philadelphia, PA
Places to stay
- Days Inn Philadelphia Convention Center - Philadelphia5.3 mi away · 1227 Race Street, Philadelphia, PA
- Four Points by Sheraton Philadelphia City Center5.3 mi away · 1201 Race Street, Philadelphia
- Clarion Suites Philadelphia5.4 mi away · 1010 Race Street, Philadelphia
- Sleep Inn Center City5.4 mi away · 1020 Cherry Street, Philadelphia, PA
- Home2 Suites by Hilton Philadelphia - Convention Center, PA5.4 mi away · 1200 Arch Street, Philadelphia, PA
- Hilton Garden Inn Philadelphia Center City5.5 mi away · 1100 Arch Street, Philadelphia, PA
Places data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Hours and details change — call ahead.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Christopher Saur
Related events
- · Printing of the first European-language Bible in America (1743)
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Siegmund Lubin (1851-1923)
Philadelphia, PA · est. 2007
In the backyard of his Philadelphia home, film pioneer Siegmund Lubin made some of the nation's earliest motion pictures between 1897 and 1899. His subjects were the popular entertainments of the day — vaudeville and burlesque acts, boxing matches, circus and animal performers, even a filmed Passion Play. A German-Jewish immigrant and optician by trade, Lubin became an early force in the emerging American movie business.
America's First Lager
Philadelphia, PA · est. 2001
In 1840 John Wagner carried lager yeast from Bavaria to Philadelphia and brewed what is remembered as the first true lager beer in the United States. Unlike the heavier ales then common, lager was cold-fermented and crisp, and it caught on quickly as waves of German immigrants brought both a taste for it and the skill to make it. Their breweries multiplied through the 19th century, helping build one of America's great industries.
Stratton Mansion & Sunderland Apartments
Philadelphia, PA
This marker recalls two grand Philadelphia buildings that once stood on this ground before fire swept them away. The Harrison Stratton Mansion belonged to the era when the city's prosperous families raised stately residences reflecting the wealth of a booming industrial metropolis, while the Sunderland was one of the early apartment buildings that reshaped how urban Americans lived as cities densified around the turn of the twentieth century. Their loss to fire was a common fate in an age when timber framing, coal heat, and open flame made conflagration a constant threat to city blocks.
Elfreth's Alley
Philadelphia, PA · est. 2016
Elfreth's Alley is one of the oldest continuously inhabited residential streets in America, its brick rowhouses raised between the 1720s and 1830s. Its first residents were the tradespeople of a growing colonial port—blacksmiths, cabinetmakers, and other artisans—followed in later years by working-class immigrants who labored in nearby industries. When demolition threatened in 1934, the alley's own residents banded together to save it.