Augsburg Fortress was formed in 1988 when
Fortress Press of
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and
Augsburg Publishing House of Minneapolis merged, after their parent
denominations, the
Lutheran Church in America (LCA) and the
American Lutheran Church (ALC) merged to form the
ELCA. Augsburg Publishing House was affiliated with the ALC. It had been founded in 1891 at
Augsburg Seminary in Minneapolis Both the publishing house and seminary were part of the
United Norwegian Lutheran Church of America (UNLC). The publishing house left the seminary campus in 1894, relocating to the downtown area in 1908. By 1960 it had become the publishing house of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church. With the 1960 merger of Lutheran denominations that formed the "new" American Lutheran Church, Augsburg was designated that church's publishing arm. It absorbed the publishing houses of the other denominations participating in the merger, including
Wartburg Press (established 1881) of the "old"
American Lutheran Church in
Columbus, Ohio, and the
Danish Lutheran Publishing House (established 1893) of the
United Evangelical Lutheran Church in Blair, Nebraska. When the
Lutheran Free Church joined the ALC in 1963, its publishing house,
Messenger Press (established 1922), was also added. Augsburg, and Wartburg before it, had published the old ALC denominational magazine
The Lutheran Standard, which had ancestry back to the 1840s in the
Evangelical Lutheran Joint Synod of Ohio. Fortress Press was the publishing arm of the LCA, headquartered in northwest
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the
Muhlenberg Building, a unique U-shaped brick building of
Georgian architecture style. The building was named for
Henry Melchoir Muhlenberg and other members of the Muhlenberg family who were important in American Lutheranism. Henry is considered the "Patriarch of American Lutheranism" and the prime organizer of the first Lutheran synod in America, the
Pennsylvania Ministerium, in 1746. The LCA came into existence in 1962 with the merger of several smaller
Lutheran denominations. The largest forerunner of the Fortress Press was the Muhlenberg Press of the
United Lutheran Church in America, the largest partner in the LCA merger. The oldest ancestor was the Henkel Press, started by the son of
Paul Henkel, a famous late 18th and early 19th century Lutheran pastor, missionary, and evangelist in the
Appalachian Mountains region. Fortress published
The Lutheran, the monthly magazine of the LCA and also of the earlier United Lutheran Church in America. The magazine had its beginnings in 1831 in publications of the
General Synod. Augsburg Fortress re-branded as
1517 Media from July 2016 to September 2024. In October 2024, the company reverted to its "doing business as" name, Augsburg Fortress Publishers—returning to a name that held resonance within the ELCA and connects them back to their roots. Augsburg Fortress continues to use its name as an imprint for church resources and Fortress Press as an imprint for academic and reference titles. Other imprints include Beaming Books, Broadleaf Books, and Sparkhouse. ==See also==