George Weiss greets William Penn as the Schwenkfelders land in Philadelphia (1734)

George Weiss was the leader of the Schwenkfelders during their migration from Silesia to Pennsylvania during the early 1700’s. Along the way across Europe, he was teaching the Schwenkfelders in a catechetical manner. Balthasar Hoffman compiled Weiss’ questions.

The main sections of the catechism include his perspective on: Creation, Belief, Prayer, the Ten Commandments, Church, Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, the Lord’s Prayer, and Connection with broader Christian belief. It is over 1,800 questions in length.

The catechism reveals what was important in the thought of the Schwenkfelders in the early 18th century. It also provides an artifact of early American Christian belief.

A team has been working on transliterating and translating this important document since 2022. The entire catechism has been transliterated into modern German. The team is now approximately 1/4 through the work of translation.

Click on Translation Team for more information about those working on this project.

Translation Team