From May to July 2018 I had the opportunity to do an internship at the Institute for Ecumenical Research, following my year of study at the Protestant Faculty at the University of Strasbourg. As a result of a conversation with Prof. Jennifer Wasmuth I decided to devote my work to researching the history of the Institute. The core of this research project was intensive reading of yearly reports and letters dating back to 1963, as well as the reports written for the assemblies of the Lutheran World Federation starting in 2003.
Given the wealth of material and shortness of time, I quickly decided to concentrate on the early history of the Institute. In the many documents from the early years concerning the establishment of the Institute there is to be found a deep ecumenical passion paired with an active interest in research on the part of those who directed the development of the Institute. I found both of these aspects still to be alive and well in all of the Institute staff, and I am extremely thankful to them for enriching my own personal ecumenical work with this glimpse at ecumenism at the source.
Katrin Haas, Pastor of the Evangelische Landeskirche in Württemberg