History of Martin Luther College by Prof. Paul Koelpin

WELS Convention 2025 presentation Since 1884, the campus on the crest of the western hills above the valley of New Ulm has played a part in the story of Lutheranism as it was established on the western prairie. Originally built as a worker training campus for the Minnesota Synod (a German Lutheran church body), Dr. Martin Luther College (DMLC) was incorporated into the wider training system of the Wisconsin Synod when the German Lutherans from Minnesota and Michigan merged with Wisconsin. At that point, the school's chief focus became the training of teachers for Lutheran parochial schools. The campus comprised both a preparatory academy and college until 1979. Dr. Martin Luther College became Martin Luther College when the WELS amalgamated pastoral training (done at Northwestern in Watertown, WI) with teacher and staff ministry training on the New Ulm campus in 1995. For thirty years now MLC has been blessed to serve our Synod as its only college dedicated solely to serving the ministry needs of the WELS. From one building, the present "Old Main," the campus has been molded and modified to its present footprint with one consistent theme: to provide a functional and well-appointed campus for training generations of Lutheran called workers. The campus has a 140-year history -- it's a rich, distinctive and, in many ways, remarkable story -- all of it under God's grace. Prof. Koelpin has served MLC as an instructor in the areas of Western Civilization and Bible introduction courses since 1995. He was called to Northwestern College to serve as a professor of history and theology in the final year of its existence, and he moved back to New Ulm as part of the amalgamation of NWC and DMLC. The New Ulm campus has been "no small part" of his personal life setting and history. As a member of the Synod's 175th Anniversary Committee, he is pleased to share a survey of the role the DMLC/MLC campus has played in our Synod's story.