Dr. h.c. Klaus Junack died

Klaus Junack was born on 10th March 1927 in Berlin. He studied Protestant Theology at Humboldt University Berlin and graduated in May 1952. In September 1952, he took on the position of a research assistant with the patristic committee of the German Academy of Sciences. It was at this time already that his work was dedicated to New Testament textual research, which remained his specialty until retirement in 1990.

In 1958, Klaus Junack played a decisive role in preparing the flight of Prof. D. Kurt Aland from Halle/Saale into the Federal Republic of Germany. He took a great personal risk bringing valuable research material, the indispensable basis for a new start, to West Berlin. At the end of 1958, he and his family flew to West Germany. In March 1959, he became the first research assistant at the Institute for New Testament Textual Research founded by Kurt Aland at Münster University in February 1959.

Klaus Junack participated in planning and managing the institute’s projects from the very beginning. He contributed significantly to the concise editions of the Greek New Testament, the Novum Testamentum Graece (known as “Nestle-Aland”) and the UBS Greek New Testament. He conducted basic research for the Editio Critica Maior by providing special editions and organizing the work at the “Text und Textwert” series of sample collations of all New Testament manuscripts. Together with Kurt Aland, he managed the “manuscript trips” to Greek monasteries and to many other places where Greek New Testament manuscripts were housed. Owing to these trips, the INTF now possesses a unique collection of manuscript images on microfilm. Klaus Junack’s outstanding merits in the field of New Testament textual research were acknowledged by an honorary doctorate of divinity from Wartburg Theological Seminary, Dubuque/Iowa, in 1973. In 1984, he was appointed Academic Director of the INTF.

Moreover, Klaus Junack served as curator of the institute and was responsible for the personnel management and the administration of third-party funding. He also was in charge of the collections of microfilms and manuscripts at INTF and oversaw the holdings of our Bible museum from 1979 onwards. Large parts of these were the fruit of his long lasting efforts.

Apart from all these responsibilities Klaus Junack was intensely involved with academic self-administration and with the board of research assistants at Münster University.

With Klaus Junack’s passing, the WWU lost an enthusiastic and inspiring researcher and academic teacher, an approachable and congenial colleague, strongly committed to advancing the projects and, above all, the staff at the Institute for New Testament Textual Research. We will hold him in honored memory forever.

Holger Strutwolf,
Director of the Institute for New Testament Textual Research,
on behalf of the entire staff