August Hermann Hinderer

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August Hermann Hinderer (born August 8, 1877 in Weilheim an der Teck , † October 27, 1945 in Kirchheim unter Teck ) was a Protestant theologian, publicist and honorary professor of journalism. As director of the Evangelical Press Association for Germany (EPD) in Berlin-Steglitz, he formed the Evangelischer Pressedienst (Epd) news agency from the “Evangelical Correspondence for Germany” .

Life

August Hermann Hinderer was the youngest of 15 children of the teacher Georg Christian Hinderer and his wife Anna Maria Kurz in Weilheim an der Teck . The family was deeply rooted in Swabian pietism . He was baptized as a Protestant on August 11, 1877. Hinderer was married to Clara, born Maurer (1885–1928). The couple had three children, Hermann, Fritz and Maria Diemut.

His son Fritz Hinderer was a well-known astronomer and astrophysicist. The family lived in the Villa Hinderer in Berlin-Steglitz between 1928 and 1944 .

education

From 1891 to 1895 Hinderer attended the Evangelical Seminary in Maulbronn, where he was the room mate of the later writer Hermann Hesse , who entered the seminary with him in 1891. After the seminar in Blaubeuren, he studied theology in Tübingen, Greifswald and Halle.

Professional background

In 1900 Hinderer became vicar. He worked in seven different places in Württemberg and was particularly involved in youth work. In 1907 he was ordained a pastor. In the same year, the Evangelical Society of Stuttgart appointed him head of its literary department, where he was responsible for the book publisher and for the publication of the Württemberg Evangelical community papers. In 1908 he took over the editing of the Evangelisches Gemeindeblattes für Württemberg, for which he soon achieved a wider distribution by arousing the interest of more educated readers. In 1916 he became director of the Evangelical Press Association for Württemberg and in 1918 Director of the Evangelical Press Association for Germany (EPD) in Berlin. 

Zu den Fragen der gesellschaftlichen Veränderungen in Deutschland nach 1918 nahm der EPD früh Stellung. Ab November 1918 erschien die „Kirchenfrage“ (November 1918 bis September 1921) als Kommunikationsmittel zwischen den evangelischen Landeskirchen.
Bei der Neuordnung des Verhältnisses zwischen Kirche und Staat beteiligte sich der EPD unter Hinderer mit der Publikation „Schulfrage“ (1919–1922). Hier wurden in der Dikussion um den Entwurf des Reichsschulgesetzes die Eltern angesprochen, die sich bei einer Befragung für den Erhalt des Religionsunterrichtes an öffentlichen Schulen einsetzten.
Hinderer führte 1919 für die dem Preßverband angegliederte Nachrichtenagentur das Kürzel „Epd“ ein. Der epd ist heute Deutschlands älteste Nachrichtenagentur.
1924 wurde Hinderer Herausgeber der Wochenzeitung „Evangelisches Deutschland, Kirchliche Rundschau für das Gesamtgebiet des Deutschen Evangelischen Kirchenbundes“. Im gleichen Jahr erschien die erste Nummer des „Bilderboten für das evangelische Haus“, der in kurzer Zeit eine Auflage von 300 000 Exemplaren erreichte. 1924 erschien auch erstmals der „Eckart. Blätter für evangelische Geisteskultur, Organ der Zentralstelle zur Förderung der Volks- und Jugendfürsorge“. Leitende Mitarbeiter im EPD waren Harald Braun und Kurt Ihlenfeld.
1925 entsandte die Evangelische Kirche Hinderer zum Beisitzer der „Film-Oberprüfstelle“, der höchsten Stelle für Filmkontrolle in der Weimarer Republik, der er bis 1934 angehörte. Ab 1926 baute er das „Zentralarchiv für evangelisches Schrifttum“ auf. Den Zweck des Archivs beschrieb er mit den Worten:

"The central archive is supposed to create the basis for a systematic scholarly processing of the German Protestant journals through a complete collection of all magazines, news papers, association organs appearing on German Protestant soil, by organizing them according to factual aspects and through statistical surveys."

The total circulation of newspapers published by the EPD amounted to around 17 million copies in 1928.

In 1927 the Berlin University appointed Hinderer honorary professor for Protestant press affairs at the theological faculty, where in 1931 he became director of the journalism seminar he founded and financed by the EPD.

Church offices

The Protestant Church sent Hinderer to several ecclesiastical and cultural-political bodies. In addition to the representative of the Catholic and the socialist education committee, he was a member of the cultural advisory board on German radio. He acted as a representative of the Protestant church in the film inspection office and the Leipzig Reich office for the supervision of inferior literature. He was also a member of the “Church Representatives” for the “German Protestant Church Congress” and for the “Prussian General Synod”. In 1934 the Reich Association of the Evangelical Press, which he founded, became a student council within the Reich Press Chamber . In the appraisal of Hinderer's work, the focus is primarily on the 15 years of his activity as EPD director from 1918 to 1933:

“At that time, Hinderer was Germany's outstanding Protestant publicist. The inventor of the Protestant public relations work created a financially strong, multimedia and ecumenical journalistic organization independent of the church. Above all, he impressed on Protestantism that journalism is an elementary, indispensable expression of the Church's life. "

Opposition to the Nazi regime

In March 1933, as the epd editor, Hinderer warned the members of the German Evangelical Church Committee, who were then meeting in Berlin, against National Socialism. He navigated riskily between the Nazi power blocs and found himself in constant conflict with the state and the church leaderships closely related to the Nazi state, i.e. the German Christians (DC) loyal to the regime and the Association of Regional Churches known as the German Evangelical Church (DEK). In 1933 the offices of the EPD were occupied by the SA , Hinderer was deposed and the management was taken over by National Socialist German Christians. In 1934, Hinderer was arrested and narrowly escaped execution. After that, he was largely neutral towards the regime. At times, the Nazi German Christians dictated the reporting of the EPD, the Nazi language regulations also applied in the Protestant agency. The Protestant press was fought with ordinances, edicts, laws and bans. Over the years 50,000 confidential press instructions were issued by the National Socialists, more than a quarter of which consisted of silence. After Hinderer had lost the protection of the church, he was exposed to ecclesiastical hostility from all sides with his course of neutrality. In February 1945 he was interrogated by the Gestapo on suspicion of connection with men of July 20, 1944 and foreign press relations. The author Walter Schwarz goes into the balancing act of the theologian, publicist and press manager August Hinderer in his hinderer biography:

“But in March 1933 the church leaders were still so gullible towards National Socialism, insofar as they were not even pronounced party comrades, they were by the German Christians, no matter how enthusiastic or intimidated, that they gave Hinderer's warning with icy Record silence. "

Awards

The University of Tübingen awarded Hinderer an honorary doctorate in theology in 1927.

Fonts

  • August Hinderer: What happened: Pictures from the Inner Mission in Württemberg. Stuttgart 1910
  • August Hinderer: German Protestant Press, in: The Protestantism of the Present, Ed. G.Schenkel. Stuttgart, 1926, pp. 383-393.
  • August Hinderer: History of the Protestant Press Association efforts, 1926 typescript
  • August Hinderer: Ecumenical literature. Berlin 1927
  • August Hinderer: Newspaper customer. Lecture manuscript by August Hinderer, joint work of the Evangelical Press, 1961.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hinderer August, biography. DARIAH Wiki, archived from the original on January 12, 2017 ; accessed on January 12, 2017 .
  2. ↑ Thomas Schiller: Vita August Hinderer. epd Medien, June 24, 2012, accessed on February 5, 2017 .
  3. ↑ August Herrmann Hinderer , FamilySearch , accessed February 26, 2019
  4. ^ Walter Schwarz: August Hinderer, Life and Work . Stuttgart 1951, p. 25 .
  5. ↑ Hesse, Hermann, Kindheit und Jugend vor Nineteen Hundred, Frankfurt (Suhrkamp) p. 159, p. 171, p. 438.
  6. ^ Walter Schwarz: August Hinderer, Leben und Werk, Stuttgart 1951, p. 45
  7. ↑ Simone Höckele: August Hinderer. Path and work of a pioneer of Protestant journalism . Erlangen 2001, p. 91
  8. ↑ Simone Höckele: August Hinderer. Path and work of a pioneer of Protestant journalism . Erlangen 2001, p. 100
  9. ↑ Thomas Schiller: Vita August Hinderer. epd Medien, June 24, 2012, accessed on February 5, 2017 .
  10. ^ Roland Rosenstock: Productive memory: The Protestant press archive in Munich. Evangelical Theological Faculty LMU Munich, March 1, 2001, accessed on February 17, 2017 .
  11. ↑ a b Simone Höckele: August Hinderer, road and work of a pioneer Protestant journalism . Ed .: Gerhard Meier-Reutti et alii. CVP Christliche Publizistik Verlag, Erlangen, ISBN 3-933992-02-8 , p. 327 .
  12. ^ Rosenstock, Roland: Evangelical Press in the 20th Century, Stuttgart Zurich 2002, p. 76
  13. ^ Hans Hafenbrack: History of the Evangelical Press Service: Evangelical press work from 1848 to 1981 . Luther-Verlag, Bielefeld 2004, ISBN 3-7858-0488-1 , p. 672 .
  14. ^ Rosenstock, Roland: Evangelical Press in the 20th Century, Stuttgart, Zurich 2002, p. 96/97
  15. ^ Walter Schwarz: August Hinderer, Life and Work . Stuttgart 1951, p. 151 .
personal data
SURNAME Hinderer, August Hermann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Protestant theologian, publicist and honorary professor for journalism
DATE OF BIRTH August 8, 1877
PLACE OF BIRTH Weilheim an der Teck
DATE OF DEATH October 27, 1945
Place of death Kirchheim unter Teck