The Synod of the West

A History of the Presbyterian German Synod of the West and Its Churches

In the mid 19th century many Germans migrated to the Midwestern United States. Many of them were influenced by the Reformation as well as the theology of John Calvin. When many of them settled in Illinois, Wisconsin, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska and South Dakota, Adrian Van Vliet, a minister of First Presbyterian Church in Dubuque, Iowa made it his mission to train ministers for these new immigrants. Out of this effort came the University of Dubuque and the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary. A second result was the banding together of 85 churches who formed the German speaking Synod of the West under the authority of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA). For nearly 47 years these churches reached out to the new immigrants and acted as an agent of change to not only evangelize them but also to introduce them into the American way of life and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) This is the story of that 47 year journey, from 1912 1959. Layout and Photographs by Jean E. Straatmeyer