The first issue of the Mennonitische Rundschau was published on June 5, 1880, as a direct successor to the Nebraska Ansiedler, which was begun in June of 1878. The Mennonitische Rundschau was published by the Mennonite Publishing Company to serve Russian Mennonite communities in Europe, and North America. In 1923, the publication of two German language weeklies of the Mennonite Publishing House in Scottdale, Pennsylvania, Mennonitische Rundschau and Christlicher Jugendfreund, was transferred to Winnipeg, Manitoba by Hermann Neufeld who then established the Rundschau Publishing House. In 1940, it was reorganized into Christian Press Ltd. On October 24, 1945, Neufeld sold 7/8 of the company's shares to Mennonite Brethren Businessman and the remaining 1/8 was bought by the Canadian Mennonite Brethren Conference. Over the next ten years the Conference continued to increase its holdings in the company until 1957, when it became sole owner of Christian Press. The main objective continued to be to publish Christian periodicals for the German speaking Mennonites in Canada and abroad. Since this time the institution, while continuing to print German papers, has expanded to meet the need of English readers. C.A. DeFehr was a long time president and Henry F. Klassen editor of the Mennonitische Rundschau. In 1944 the company also began to publish the Konferenz-Jugendblatt every two months as an illustrated magazine in both English and German for the young people of the Mennonite Brethren Conference.