Who is Christoph Sauer?
Christoph Sauer (1695 – September 25, 1758) was the first German-language printer and publisher in North America. Johann Christoph Sauer was born in 1695 in Ladenburg (near Heidelberg), the son of a Reformed pastor. He came to the county (Graftschaft) of Wittgenstein in central Germany as a child with his widowed mother some time between 1700 and 1710. He was a graduate of a German university, and studied medicine at the University of Halle. At the time, its rulers were tolerant of a variety of Pietists and other religious dissenters, most notably Alexander Mack, who would found the Schwarzenau Brethren and later emigrate to the United States. Most Brethren denominations descend from this original congregation. Johann Christoph Sauer married the widowed Maria Christina (born Gruber) in 1720. The family lived in the village of Schwarzenau, which now belongs to the town of Berleburg though had ties to Laasphe as well.
