The earliest Protestant missionary presence in Palestine dates back to around 1845 when Lutheran and British evangelical Christian groups began arriving in the region. These groups aimed to provide support to the local Christian community and establish a lasting institutional presence in the Holy Land. One of the earliest examples of their efforts is the Lutheran Church of the Nativity, built in 1893 at the request of Augusta Victoria, the wife of German Emperor William II. Since then, the church has been a place of continuous worship every Sunday, attracting believers from Bethlehem and around the world to this historic site.
As visitors admire the church's beautiful stained-glass windows, which are the only surviving examples of this style, they may not realize how remarkable it is that these artifacts have remained intact. The windows, crafted at the Imperial Glass Factory in Germany, depict scenes and stories from Bethlehem and the Holy Land, as well as verses from the Bible. Despite the church suffering damage from a bomb that hit the roof in 1967 and additional damage during the Israeli invasion of Bethlehem in 2002, these artistic treasures have survived.