Carl Hildebrand von Canstein

He studied law at Alma Mater Viadrina in Frankfurt-on-the-Oder and, upon finishing his courses, he toured the Netherlands, England, France, Italy, and southern Germany from 1686 to 1688.

[2] He was made a gentleman of the bedchamber in 1689 but resigned to volunteer with the Brandenburger troops sent to Flanders in the Nine Years' War.

[4] In 1691, he befriended Philipp Spener and August Hermann Francke,[4] who convinced him to establish the Canstein Bible Institute for the purpose of using stereotype printing to reduce the price of German bibles.

Raising money via subscriptions,[3] he published a 2-groschen New Testament at Halle in 1712 and a 6-groschen full Bible in 1713.

[2] Von Canstein's Bible society was the first of its kind and broadly copied within Germany and abroad.