The Great Second Advent Movement: Its Rise and Progress

Publishing House Erected in Basel

In 1884, the publishing house, Imprimere Polyglotte (the name signifying, printing in many languages), was erected in Basel. In March, 1885, H. W. Kellogg was authorized by the General Conference Committee to visit Basel, and purchase the necessary machinery for the printing house. This he did, and thus was a well-equipped printing plant, owned by Seventh-day Adventists, established in the ancient city of Basel. GSAM 406.1

During the time of Elder Butler’s visit in Europe, a German paper called the Herold der Wahrheit was printed at the Basel office. The same year a Roumanian journal, Avarlu Present (Present Truth), was also published at this office. And still another in Italian, called L’Ultimo Messagio (The Last Messages). Both of the last-named journals were sixteen-page quarterlies. At the Swiss Conference, in October, 1884, it was stated that during the year there had been printed and circulated of these four journals 146,000 copies. Up to 1895, the time the printing office (in consequence of persecution in Basel) was removed from that city to Hamburg, Germany, there were published books and tracts in eleven different languages; viz., French, German, Italian, Roumanian, Spanish, Bohemian, Russian, Dutch, Hungarian, Armenian, Turkish, and Turkish-Greek. So it was, as its name signified, an institution “printing in many languages.” GSAM 406.2