Robert Geisendörfer

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Robert Geisendörfer 1967 in his office in Munich's Birkerstraße

Robert Geisendörfer (born September 1, 1910 in Würzburg , † February 26, 1976 in Frankfurt am Main ) was a Protestant pastor , church journalist and media pioneer.

Importance and principles

In a long and steep career that took him to important national media offices, the Bavarian pastor Robert Geisendörfer has permanently shaped the face of Protestant post-war journalism in Germany . Freedom and professionalism are the basic principles of Protestant journalism that go back to him and are still valid today. Geisendörfer's credo: Church journalism needs independence from official church instructions in order to be taken seriously by the secular media and to be a loyal and critical counterpart to the church itself.

Like the church as a whole, its journalism must "intercede, impart mercy and lend voice to the speechless". For Geisendörfer, the “makers” of church journalism must be professional, well-trained journalists . That is why he writes to his editors in the studbook, "not to produce pious sayings, but to produce journalism ."

Robert Geisendörfer profiled the Bavarian Evangelical Press Association into a high-performance media company, as the founding director of the joint venture of Evangelical Publishing, brought together evangelical journalistic activities at EKD level under one roof across Germany, launched a large number of publications, institutions and companies, and secured the church Broadcasting slots in the still new medium television and gave their weight in the transmitters and radio stations . Robert Geisendörfer died on February 26, 1976 in Frankfurt after a business trip.

With the Robert Geisendörfer Prize named after him , the Evangelical Church has been honoring "outstanding journalistic achievements by German radio and television broadcasters" every year since 1983.

Family and career beginnings

Born in Lower Franconia, Robert Geisendörfer studied theology at the universities of Tübingen and Erlangen from 1930 to 1937, and Geisendörfer has been in the Nuremberg Preachers' Seminar since 1935 . During his studies he was involved in the youth movement-reformed association Bergfried . After his ordination, Geisendörfer was for ten years - from 1937 to 1947 - in his first official position City Vicar in Rosenheim with his office in Brannenburg am Inn . Its wide-ranging diaspora area reached from Prien to Innsbruck .

Because at that time there were hardly any Protestant churches in this area of ​​Catholic Old Bavaria, the services often had to be held in schools and inns. At the beginning of Geisendörfer's term of office, the foundation stone of the Evangelical Peace Church in Aschau was laid in 1937.

In the war years, Geisendörfer had to take care of the military hospitals in Brannenburg , Kufstein , Wörgl , Kitzbühel and St. Johann (Tyrol) in addition to his already arduous community service . Evangelicals evacuated from the big cities or evangelical refugees let the congregations grow considerably. The evangelical teacher Ingeborg Schaudig from Rosenheim was often at his side in his pastoral work . They married in 1940 and their daughter Ursula was born a year later.

The only journalistic activity from this period that has survived is the publication and design of community letters, which were the only form of ecclesiastical publication in National Socialist Germany after the church press was banned in 1941 during the war.

Rebuilding Protestant journalism

The call to the Evangelical Press Association in Munich hit the Brannenburg pastor Geisendörfer out of the blue. Since he was skeptical himself, he made a right of return to his old pastor a condition. As managing director, Geisendörfer headed a company that was still very manageable from April 1, 1947: The press association had a total of five employees and was more provisional in a room in the former villa of the circus director Renz at Himmelreichstrasse 4 near the English Garden, which the church had bought housed. "In heavy rain, the desks are under water," noted Geisendörfer's predecessor Gerhard Hildmann .

After four years, the Evangelical Press Association (EPV) comprised the weekly newspaper “ Sonntagsblatt ”, the news agency epd-Bayern , departments for radio, film and image, a book publisher and a small printer with typesetting - in the property's garage. In this media pioneering phase, Geisendörfer also engaged his wife and daughter for auxiliary publishing services such as addressing and dispatch. After moving to Waltherstrasse, the Geisendörfer family used the former publishing house as an apartment.

Impulses from the USA

As part of the US “ re-education program ”, Geisendörfer took part in a three-month study visit to the USA from February 1949 onwards , from which - as Geisendörfer wrote in retrospect in 1959 - “the strongest impetus” for his own media work came from. Together with Gerhard Hildmann , his predecessor as managing director of the EPV and the founding director of the Evangelical Academy Tutzing , he completed a tightly organized program in which he got to know the media work of the American churches . Stops of the trip were u. a. New York , where he also visited the writer Oskar Maria Graf , Chicago , St. Louis , New Orleans and Philadelphia .

Geisendörfer and Hildmann were guests in the “publishing houses” of the Lutheran churches in St. Louis and Philadelphia, where all church media activities, including radio work, were concentrated. He got in contact with the PR officers of the churches, who did not yet exist in this function in Germany.

On the way to a modern media company

After the stormy development in the early years, the press association urgently needed more space. Therefore, at the turn of the year 1953/54 in Waltherstrasse near Munich's Goetheplatz, in a rebuilt ruin, the company moved into its own publishing house. In addition to Geisendörfer as director, the energetic Leonore von Tucher took over as managing director from 1952 . Under this tandem, the press association continued to grow and developed into a medium-sized media company.

District editorial offices were added across the board for the epd news agency , the “ Sonntagsblatt ” achieved a sales circulation of 140,000 copies, new publications such as the picture supplement “Das Fenster” and target group-oriented publications, for example for the many volunteers in the church, supplemented and changed the church press landscape.

The "film observer" published by the EPV and distributed nationwide had a lasting influence on the programs in the cinemas. A new publishing house, Lucas-Cranach-GmbH, was founded and later merged with Claudius-Verlag . The economic backbone was the Evangelical Church Hymnal: In 1959 alone, 218,000 copies were sold.

The economic success of the hymn book enabled the press association to make a big hit: At the end of August 1960, it moved into a modern publishing house on Birkerstrasse in Munich. At that time, the media center was unique in German church journalism and, as the “ Sonntagsblatt ” noted at the inauguration, comprised “a house with 298 windows and five floors and a rear building”.

In addition to the “Sonntagsblatt” as its flagship, the press association published almost 20 different magazines. In the meantime, the epd reported from six district editorial offices in addition to the headquarters in Munich. In 1964, the two publishers Cranach and Claudius merged to form a powerful publishing house, today's " Claudius Verlag ", with a focus on hymn books, school books, help in life, theological literature and humor. During this time the publications “Das neue Dorf” and “Medium”, published by the Conference of Protestant Radio and Television Work, were brought into being. The " Association for Christian Journalism " (WACC) founded by Geisendörfer was internationally active and used tapes, magazines and books to provide information about Protestantism in Germany around the world.

When Geisendörfer handed over the baton to his successor Richard Kolb in 1967 , the Bavarian press association had over 100 employees.

Early film work

Together with the EKD film pastor Werner Hess , Robert Geisendörfer founded the " Evangelical Film Observer " in 1948 , which was published with the imprint of the Bavarian press association . It soon proved to be an important instrument in church film work with a considerable broad impact. Pastors and educators used the film reviews as a basis for their film discussions or put them up in showcases.

Geisendörfer, who, as an outspoken film fanatic, was also able to watch two films in a row, wrote only one review for the “film observer” himself - about Helmut Käutner's film “ The apple is off ”. Today's follow-up publication " epd-Film " is one of the most important film-critical newspapers in Germany and is one of the trademarks of the joint venture of Protestant journalism in Frankfurt / Main.

Geisendörfer, who was also on the board of directors of the Protestant film distribution company "Matthias-Film", founded in 1950, founded the film production company EIKON in Munich in 1960 . EIKON, in which Geisendörfer had its own office, mainly took on marginalized groups and produced mainly for ZDF and Bavarian Broadcasting . The EIKON series “ Our Walter ”, for example, for the first time featured a disabled child as a series hero in the evening program.

Radio preacher and television commissioner

Geisendörfer is convinced that the Christian message is essentially public: the church and its journalism must therefore not lead a niche existence, but must have a broad impact on society. Geisendörfer has been giving broadcast devotions for Bayerischer Rundfunk on a regular basis since 1947. His feeling for the possibilities of the then still new medium of television expanded Geisendörfer's sphere of activity far beyond Bavaria. In 1956, the conference of the "Commissioners of the Protestant regional churches at the broadcasters" elected him as its chairman. Four years later, Geisendörfer became the EKD's television representative - as the successor to his friend Werner Hess , who went to Hessischer Rundfunk as television program director . In 1961, Geisendörfer was also entrusted by the EKD Council with the post of broadcasting officer for Deutsche Welle (DW) and Deutschlandfunk (DLF).

In these functions Geisendörfer had to do with his wife Ingeborg , who was chairman of the program committee for the German radio of the Bundestag during this time . Geisendörfer, who himself remained politically neutral throughout his life, signed official letters to the CSU politician with “Your dearest voter”. In 1963, he also represented church affairs as a television commissioner for the Second German Television (ZDF).

As in church journalism, Geisendörfer also advocated the freedom and independence of broadcasters as a journalist . In a letter to the chairmen of all parties represented in the Bundestag at the time, he warned urgently against “journalism with a party membership” and asked whether “broadcasting can fulfill its constitutional mandate independently and remotely, if it depends on the parties alone who has to perform which tasks in which place ".

International contacts

"Christian journalism that does not interfere internationally, lapses into provincialism and remains in the ghetto," was another of Geisendörfer's convictions. The tireless committee worker traveled to meetings and conferences around the world and was active in numerous ecumenical groups and international initiatives. In 1953 Geisendörfer was one of the founding members of the "World Committee for Christian Broadcasting" (WCCB) and of the "Radio Voice of the Gospel" (RVOG), a Lutheran mission station in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), which from 1959 to Africa, Asia and parts of Latin America radiated.

Geisendörfer attached particular importance to the "World Association for Christian Communication" (WACC) founded in 1968, since this "World Organization for Christian Communication is open to all media, including the press and film". At the inaugural meeting, 225 delegates from 39 countries elected him treasurer alongside President Frederick R. Wilson (USA).

In addition, he was, among other things, from 1963 to 1973 chairman of the "Association for Christian Publishing eV", which - so the self-imposed task - "wants to give members of other countries insights into the evangelical church life of the Federal Republic of Germany" and later established his In 1973 he was director of the joint venture in Frankfurt and had his own “International Journalistic Contacts” section.

Founding director of the joint venture

A major project in Geisendörfer was the organizational bundling of the diverse journalistic activities at EKD level. He is convinced that the various evangelical publications only have a real chance for the future if they “work together on objectives”.

In 1967 Geisendörfer became the managing director of the Evangelical Press Association for Germany, in which, for example, the Evangelischer Pressedienst (epd) news agency is located. A year later he was also entrusted with the management of the community work of the Evangelical Press (GW), the umbrella organization of all Protestant newspapers and magazines in Germany.

After tough negotiations, Geisendörfer succeeded in 1973 in “bringing together all of the EKD's relevant journalistic forces under one roof and under one director” (Otmar Schulz). On July 5, 1973, the joint venture of Protestant journalism (GEP) was founded in Frankfurt / Main and Geisendörfer became its first director.

The GEP was supported by the EKD and the then 16 West German regional churches. At the time of Geisendörfer, the joint venture included the departments “Evangelical Press Service”, “Training, Advanced Training and Personnel Planning”, “Radio and Television”, “Film, Image, Sound, Audiovision”, “Magazines”, “Books” and “Advertising and Public Relations” ".

Awards

literature

  • Ingeborg Geisendörfer (Ed.): Robert Geisendörfer. For the freedom of journalism. Kreuz Verlag, Stuttgart 1978, ISBN 3-7831-0540-4
  • Felix Heidenberger: The bell ringer from the Bundestag - Ingeborg Geisendörfer: A life in the service of politics and the church. Munich 2001, ISBN 3-583-33109-5
  • Anne Quaas: Protestant film journalism 1948–1968. Example of the cultural and political commitment of the Protestant Church in the post-war period. Erlangen 2007, ISBN 978-3-933992-16-1 .
  • Otmar Schulz: Commitment without self-interest. Robert Geisendörfer - A life for journalism. GEP Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2000, ISBN 3-932194-42-x
  • Otmar Schulz: Freedom and advocacy. The evangelical journalist Robert Geisendörfer. Life, work and effects, (Studies on Christian Journalism, Vol. VIII). Erlangen 2002, ISBN 978-3-933992-07-9

Publications

  • For the freedom of journalism. Stuttgart, Berlin: Kreuz-Verlag 1978
  • The truth is not in bondage. Bielefeld, Frankfurt (Main): Eckart-Verlag 1975

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Article WACC of the English language Wikipedia , accessed on December 28, 2010.
  2. ^ Article WACC of the English language Wikipedia , accessed on December 28, 2010.
personal data
SURNAME Geisendörfer, Robert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Protestant pastor, publicist and church media entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH September 1, 1910
PLACE OF BIRTH Wurzburg
DATE OF DEATH February 26, 1976
Place of death Frankfurt am Main