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1. BegriffDer Begriff D. (von griech. diakonía, »(Kirchen-)Dienst«) war vor dem 19. Jh. im kirchlichen Bereich nicht gebräuchlich, da er sich seit der alten Kirche eng mit demjenigen des Diakons verband. Dieser hatte zwar ursprünglich die Zuständigkeit für die Armenfürsorge in den Gemeinden besessen, war aber seit der Spätantike mehr und mehr in die klassische Ämterstruktur Bischof – Presbyter – Diakon eingeordnet worden (Amt) und bezeichnete schließlich einen nachrangigen Priester. Die Reformation, v. a. in ihrer lutherischen Ausprägung, behielt diese Bedeutung w…

1. ConceptThe term diaconal welfare (from Greek diakonía, “(church) service”) was not widely used in ecclesiastical contexts before the 19th century because since early Christianity the word “diaconal” had been closely related to the term deacon. Although the deacon was originally responsible for poor relief in the congregation, from Late Antiquity the position became chiefly defined as part of the classical hierarchy of bishop, presbyter, and deacon (Office), and ultimately it came to mean nothing mor…

[German Version] The White Cross is one of several independent associations founded in the second half of the 19th century within the spectrum of the religious denominations for the purpose of improving public morality. Inspired by the battle in England against the double morality of bourgeois society and the bordello system (J.E. Butler), especially against its “regulation” in restricted area, the Deutsch-evangelischer Verein zur Förderung der Sittlichkeit und der Rettungsarbeit was formed under …

[German Version] I. Definition Since the early 20th century, social work has been defined as “organized assistance on the part of the state and municipalities, public corporations, and private organizations . . . provided to individuals, families, and groups to avert internal and external hardship and meet their essential needs” (Heyne, 917). Related concepts are relief and social welfare. The term Sozialarbeit was accepted only gradually in Germany, obviously influenced by the Anglo-American term social work and the notion of social work as a distinct profession. II. Organiz…

[German Version] (Wichern Association), founded in 1908 by Martin Hennig, for the purpose of reviving the Christian faith among the population alienated from the church, primarily by distributing ¶ Bibles in missionary work among the people. During the Weimar Republic, the association under Walter Birnbaum put special emphasis on combating free thought (Free thinkers). Banned under National Socialism and refounded after the war, the association was dissolved in 2000. Jochen-Christoph Kaiser Bibliography K. Janssen, RGG 3 VI, 1962, 1680f. F.W. Bautz, “Hennig, Martin,” BBKL II, …

[German Version] I. Origins – II. The Concept – III. Wittenberg, the Central Committee and the Organization of Christian Charity – IV. Inland Mission, Church, and the Ermergence of the Social State – V. Third Reich, New Beginning, and Incorporation into the Diaconal Ministry I. Origins The end of the ancien régime also had consequences for the regional Protestant churches and the self-conception of its subdivisions at the turn of the 18th to the 19th century: the early bourgeois society encouraged the development of a “whole church” awarene…

[German Version] (Feb 19, 1854, Boppard – Jul 10, 1937, Berlin), businessman. After an apprenticeship in Hachenburg (Westerwald), in 1872 he began language study in Antwerp and London. In 1879 he was appointed director of the Missions-Handels-Actien-Gesellschaft of the Rhenish Missionary Society in Barmen. In 1902 he was appointed to the executive board of Siemens in Berlin. Spiecker embodied the novel figure of the Protestant economic self-made men, who by virtue of personal competence and commun…

[German Version] Free thought in organized form is a product of the 19th century, when the social and legal conditions for its appearance were first created. Of course there had been “free thinking” and concomitant criticism of religion and churches long before. The philosophical roots of organized atheism were developed primarily in the English and French Enlightenment. J. Toland may be considered the founder of this movement; his student A. Collins introduced the term into general use in 1713 in his Discourse of Free-Thinking. In France the term was associated primarily with…

[German Version] The Youth and Welfare Service was a creation of the Weimar Republic and its accelerated transformation of Germany into a social state. The “mixed economy of welfare” (Sachße & Tennstedt) involving both public and private providers of social services that developed in this setting required legislative regulations that were established by consensus in the early 1920s under the pressure of the postwar burdens. In the sphere of private welfare system, this meant primarily Caritas and …

[German Version] The town of Vandsburg in West Prussia, first mentioned in 1384, was Prussian until 1919, when it went to Poland as Więcbork. It was a center of the revival movement (Revival/Revival movements) that began in the 1890s under the influence of the Anglo-American Holiness movement. The movement’s spiritual leaders were the pastors Carl Ferdinand Blazejewski (1862–1900) from Borken (East Prussia; today Borki Male) and Theophil Krawielitzki (1866–1942) from Vandsburg. As a result of a co…

[German Version] Based on Hutterite tradition (L. Hutter), but independently in connection with religio-social pacifist and communitarian ideas (Neuwerk [New Work Movement]), the Protestant theologian E. Arnold, founded the first German Bruderhof in Sannerz near Schlüchtern in 1920. It was moved in 1931 to Neuhof near Fulda and renamed Rhön-Bruderhof; it was then recognized by the Hutterites in the USA as Bruderhof. From 1933, approx. 150 people lived and worked there until the National Socialists dissolved the Bruderhof and its members emigrated to …

[German Version] (Mar 21, 1885, Altona – Oct 30, 1944, Gifhorn). The son of a mastertailor initially became a bookseller in his home city. By reading the journal Der Kunstwart [custodian of art], he came into contact with the German social movement and the Deutsch-Nationaler Handlungsgehilfenverband (DHV, German National Association of Commercial Clerks), for which he began working in 1907. As editor of the Deutsche Handelswacht [German business watch] beginning in 1911, he advocated the superiority of models of corporative self-governance over against a soci…

[German Version] (Aug 25, 1906, Kirchheim – Mar 13, 1986, Remagen). Gerstenmaier, the son of the manager of a piano factory in Württemberg, initially trained for a business career; after completing his Abitur, he began a second education in theology. The Christdeutsche Jugend of L. Cordier had a formative influence on him. After graduation as a student of F. Brunstäd in Rostock, Gerstenmaier went to Berlin, where he worked with T. Heckel in the church's foreign office. He became a member of the Confessing Church early on and j…

[German Version] I. Establishment – II. History – III. Current Situation I. Establishment 1. Founders. The notion of caritas as social assistance to those in need deriving from a sense of Christian responsibility has existed as long as the church itself. However, the organizational unification of such efforts beyond the boundaries of the dioceses and without exclusive ties to the socio-charitable religious orders is a modern phenomenon, which did not emerge within Catholicism until…

[German Version] I. The International Red Cross Movement. Sympathy and concern for the victims of war first reached a substantial public in the Crimean War (1854–1856), when a report of the British nurse F. Nightingale (who had spent some time at Kaiserswerth, during her training) drew attention throughout Europe to conditions in the Crimea. Her report also made an impression on Henry Dunant (1828–1910), a businessman from an upper-class family in Geneva. At the end of June in the same year, he vis…

[English Version] . Das W.K. gehört zu den Sittlichkeitsbestrebungen, die in der 2. Hälfte des 19.Jh. entstanden und innerhalb des konfessionellen Spektrums eigene Verbandsstrukturen ausbildeten. Ausgehend von dem aus England kommenden Kampf gegen die doppelte Moral der bürgerlichen Gesellschaft und das Bordellwesen (J.E. Butler), v.a. gegen dessen sog. Reglementierung in den Sperrbezirken, bildete sich der »Dt.-ev. Verein zur Förderung der Sittlichkeit und der Rettungsarbeit« unter Führung des Be…

[English Version] I. Begriff und Geschichte Der Begriff S. läßt sich in Abgrenzung von jenem des Wohlfahrtsstaats definieren: Während ersterer die Verantwortung und Mitwirkung aller für sozial gerechte Strukturen einer Gesellschaft betont, neigt die Bedeutung des letzteren in der Tendenz zum »Fürsorgestaat«, der soziale Sicherheit garantiert und dabei primär die Umverteilung der gesellschaftlichen Ressourcen im Blick hat. Der S. setzt auf Subsidiarität, d.h. auf Hilfe zur Selbsthilfe durch staatl. Intervention; der Wo…

[English Version] Wichern, 1.  Johann Hinrich (21.4.1808 Hamburg – 7.4.1881 ebd.) I. Biographisches W. entstammte einfachen, aber aufstiegsorientierten Verhältnissen: Sein Vater arbeitete anfangs in einem Notariatsbüro, brachte es dann selbst zum Notar, starb aber bereits 1823, was seine große Familie mit sieben Kindern in Not geraten ließ. W. war als Ältester mit zehn Jahren in das renommierte Hamburger Gymnasium »Johanneum« eingetreten, mußte es aber nach dem Tod des Vaters ohne Abschluß wieder verlasse…

[English Version] . Die Stadt V. im südlichen Westpreußen, Kreis Flatow, erstmals 1384 erwähnt, war bis 1919 preußisch und wurde dann als Wiêcbork polnisch. V. galt als Zentrum der seit den 90er Jahren des 19.Jh. einsetzenden Erweckung, die bes. von der anglo-amer. Heiligungsbewegung beeinflußt war. Als geistl. Führer fungierten die Pfarrer Carl Ferdinand Blazejewski (1862–1900) aus Borken (Ostpreußen) und Theophil Krawielitzki (1866–1942) aus V. Ergebnis einer Danziger Gemeinschaftskonferenz (Gem…

[English Version] Spiecker, Friedrich Albert (19.2.1854 Boppard – 10.7.1937 Berlin), Kaufmann. Nach Lehre in Hachenburg (Westerwald) 1872 Sprachstudium in Antwerpen und London, 1879 Direktor der »Missions-Handels-Actien-Gesellschaft« der Rheinischen Missionsgesellschaft in Barmen, ab 1902 Vorstandsmitglied bei Siemens in Berlin. S. repräsentierte in seiner Person den neuartigen Typus eines ev. Wirtschaftsbürgers, der als Selfmademan aufgrund persönlicher Tüchtigkeit und kommunikativer Fähigkeiten um…