Editing Hermann Josef Abs (section)

==Cultural and Philanthropic Contributions==
In 1983, he acquired the 12th-century Evangeliar Heinrichs des Löwen for 32.5 million DM at Sotheby’s, donating it to Germany; it was the world’s most expensive book until Bill Gates’s purchase of the Codex Leicester. In 1987, he donated 1 million DM to the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn, funding a chamber music hall. He co-founded the Deutsche Nationalstiftung in 1993 with Helmut Schmidt and others and was a long-time patron of the Melos Quartett. Abs also led the Verein Beethoven-Haus (1960–1994), served as a Max-Planck-Gesellschaft senator, and represented the Vatican at the International Atomic Energy Agency. His practical Catholicism earned him a knighthood in the Order of the Holy Sepulchre in 1955.