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[German Version] A Christian retreat is a period of free time (Youth camps and houseparties) for meditation and theological reflection. Retreats can be short, designed to deepen spirituality through silence and prayer. In Protestant churches, a retreat was historically a period of preparation for ministerial office. In Germany in the 1920s, the word Rüstzeit came to denote a period of free time dedicated primarily to spiritual and intellectual work rather than relaxation. It was one of the central pillars of Protestant youth work after the Evangel…

[German Version] The Bibelkränzchen in Elberfeld, established in 1883 (Bible study: II), was the first German school Bible club; it inspired similar student clubs in secondary schools throughout Germany. Clubs for women were a parallel development. Their focus was on Pietistic Bible study, along with games, singing, and hiking. After World War I, the Jugendbewegung led to conflicts within the clubs. In 1928 the Bund deutscher Bibelkreise, an umbrella organization, was formed. In 1933/1934, its leadership resisted being absorbed into the Hitler Yout…

[German Version] (Nov 6, 1900, Wolfskirch near Posen – Mar 14, 1988, Frankfurt am Main), decided after studying Protestant theology in Marburg to follow a teaching career. In 1930 he became a tutor, and in 1931 professor of religious education at the Halle Pedagogical Academy. After the academy’s closure in 1933, he was suspended. He had affinities with Gerhard Bohne’s concept of proclamation, but gave it a new church basis: religious education is “church in the school.” Rang’s biblical didactics …

[German Version] (Jun 4, 1883, Altona – Mar 31,1958, Heidelberg) came from a liberal, enlightened Jewish family. From 1902 to 1920 he studied jurisprudence, national economics, and philosophy. In 1909 he converted to Christianity. He received his doctorate in 1910 and in 1918 became extraordinary professor of philosophy in Heidelberg. His philosophical thought was characterized b…

[German Version] I. Definitions and Problems - II. Greco-Roman Antiquity- III. New Testament (Primitive and Early Christianity) - IV. Christian Antiquity to the Beginning of the MiddleAges - V. The Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period - VI. German Anti-Semitism in Recent History - VII. Systematic Theology I. Definitions and Problems The term “anti-Semitism” in its narrowest sense relates to a racist ideology that emerged in France and Germany in the last decades of the 19th century and de…

[German Version] The Church-Theological Society (Kirchlich-theologische Sozietät) of Württemberg was a working group of about 100 ¶ Protestant clergy (with a few laity) that gathered around H. Diem, H. Fausel, P. Schempp, and Richard Widmann. They did not call themselves by the full name until 1936. The members shared an intensive interest in Martin Luther and K. Barth. In the Third Reich, the society supported the Confessing Church on the basis of the declarations passed by the confessing synods of Barmen and B…