Association of Religious Socialists in Germany

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The Association of Religious Socialists of Germany eV (BRSD, initially: Association of Religious Socialists of Germany ) is an organization of mainly Protestant Christians who advocate a socialist social order . It was founded in 1926, banned during the Nazi era from 1933 to 1945, and re-established in West Germany in 1946 .

prehistory

From 1919 and 1920, religious - mostly Christian - oriented socialists began to organize themselves in different groups, initially independently of one another. Both their objectives and the composition were diverse. Members of academic professions such as teachers, university lecturers and pastors were dominant. One of the origins was initially the goal of transforming the old official church organization into a people's church (people's church movement). In the course of development, socialist ideas also gained in importance. The pastor Erwin Eckert put it roughly:

"The Protestant Church must not tolerate the egoism that is repeatedly nourished by the capitalist economic system and the cold indifference to the misery caused by the capitalist economic system, but must speak out loudly for a better design of our economic life in accordance with the brotherhood of Jesus."

organization

In the years that followed, the groups began to network and gradually come together. In the first week of August 1924 the working group of religious socialists in Germany came into being at the first Meersburg conference. At the second Meersburg conference, at the third congress, from August 1st to 5th, 1926, the Association of Religious Socialists in Germany was founded. The leading person was Erwin Eckert.

Eckert was also editor of the Sunday paper of the working people published by the federal government from 1924 to 1930 ; Forerunner magazines were Christian people. Bi-monthly paper of the Badischer Volkskirchenbundes (1919), Christian Volksblatt (1920-1924), you are brothers. Religious-socialist papers from the Rhineland (1921–1922), Der Religiöse Sozialist, monthly of the Association of Religious Socialists in Germany and the Association of Friends for Religion and International Peace (1922–1924). 1930–1933 the sheet appeared under the title Der Religiöse Sozialist ; The editor was Gotthilf Schenkel.

In addition to the federal government, there was the so-called “ Neuwerk Circle ”, which until September 1919 was The Christian Democrat , until June 1921 The New Work: The Christian in the People's State and then the magazine Neuwerk. A Dienst am Werden published, as well as the “ Tillich Circle ”, from whose mid-1920–1927 the sheets for religious socialism and 1930–1933 the new sheets for socialism. Journal for Intellectual and Political Design was published. Neuwerk and Tillich circles shared the basic objectives of the federal government, but saw themselves more as a discussion forum or an academic community. Like the Religious Socialists, the Bruderhöfer , a circle around Eberhard Arnold , who practiced a community of goods analogous to the community of goods of the early Jerusalem community and was pacifist- minded, was influenced by Christoph Blumhardt's life testimony . The Catholic Socialists , which emerged from 1928/1929 and who published the magazine Das Rote Blatt der Catholic Sozialisten from 1929–1930 , and the “Association of Jewish Socialists” formed in 1929, remained organizationally independent and were only loosely linked to the federal government as working groups in the BRSD. Contributions from both organizations can be found 1929–1933 in the magazine for religion and socialism .

Membership book

The focus of the federal government was Baden , Württemberg , the Palatinate (Bavaria) , Thuringia and Berlin. Followers were pastors, teachers and workers mainly from small and medium-sized towns. Many of the workers had an agricultural background and often owned a piece of land themselves. The membership ranged from 10,000 to 25,000 with strong fluctuations. Politically, the supporters were mostly close to the SPD . At the fourth federal congress, 79 percent of the delegates were members of the SPD. Although the federal government did not reveal any political preferences, there was practically no connection with the bourgeois parties. In the SPD and the social-democratic milieu, there was either indifference towards the religious socialists or, for example, sharp rejection from the proletarian free-thinker associations . The influence of the federal government on the Protestant churches remained minimal. Only about 200 out of 16,000 pastors belonged to the "Brotherhood of Socialist Theologians" belonging to the Federation.

Goals and program

The goals of the federal government were the radical separation of church and state , the democratization of the church, the party-political neutrality of the church, non-denominational schools, an end to military pastoral care and the work of the church for peace and international understanding. These demands led to the federation encountering strong resistance in the bourgeois church hierarchy. Nevertheless, the federal government took part in the internal church elections in the parishes and synods with little success. At least he succeeded in sending representatives to the regional synods in Baden , Württemberg and Thuringia . However, even there they faced a majority of conservative delegates.

Beyond the narrow ecclesiastical area, the federal government was also involved in general political issues. In 1926 he supported the referendum on the expropriation of the princes and in 1928 he criticized the construction of the armored ship A decided by the Müller government . The federal government was deeply divided on the question of military policy. Some called for the democratic republic to be able to defend itself; others, like Chairman Eckert, only wanted to grant armed power to a socialist government, and there was also a wing of radical pacifists. The federation belonged to the German Peace Cartel , the umbrella organization of pacifist organizations founded in 1921, and was represented there by Hans Francke. The conflicts within the labor movement reached the federal government in 1931, when chairman Eckert, disappointed by the SPD's policy of tolerating the Brüning government , converted to the KPD . The federal government positioned itself clearly against National Socialism . He clearly referred to this as “pre-Christian pagan forces of destruction” and criticized the NSDAP's ideology that glorified violence .

After 1933

Like the other socialist organizations, the federal government was banned after the beginning of National Socialist rule. Resistance structures from the BRSD existed in Berlin around Erich Kürschner , for example . The BRSD was the most important and closed anti-fascist group in German Protestantism before 1933.

After the Second World War it was re-established. The groups in the Soviet Zone disintegrated after 1946, the structures of the BRSD in the Federal Republic were marginalized during the Cold War , but were able to revitalize after 1968. In 1977, the company was re-established in Bochum, expressly referring to the first program from 1926. The first national spokesman was the Bochum mathematics professor Günter Ewald . His successors were the Bielefeld Catholic theologian Klaus Kreppel , the Düsseldorf Protestant theologian Erhard Griese and the Berlin Protestant theologian Ulrich Peter .

Today the organization is called the “Bund der Religiöse Sozialisten Deutschlands eV” and is part of the Initiative Church from Below (IKvu) network, the Attac network, Oikocredit , Kairos Europa and the International League of Religious Socialists .

Since 1948 the Bund has been giving Christian and Socialist. Sheets of the Association of Religious Socialists in Germany , since 1994 CuS. Christian and socialist. Christ und Sozialist, sheets of the Association of Religious Socialists in Germany eV , since August 2006 with the subtitle Kreuz und Rose , from May 2005 to April 2006 in cooperation with New Paths. Journal of Religious Socialism , Zurich.

literature

  • CuS. Christian and socialist. Christian and socialist. Cross and rose. Sheets of the Association of Religious Socialists in Germany (since 1948) 1977 ff.
  • Karlheinz Lipp: Religious Socialism and Pacifism. The peace struggle of the Federation of Religious Socialists of Germany in the Weimar Republic. Pfaffenweiler 1995
  • Yong-Gi Baig: Association of Religious Socialists in Germany in the Weimar Republic. Bochum 1996
  • Ulrich Peter: The Association of Religious Socialists in Germany (BRSD). An attempt at an overview of the story. In: Christin und Sozialistin, Christ und Sozialist 1–2 (2001), pp. 6–23 ( online )
  • Ulrich Peter: The Union of Religious Socialists in Berlin from 1919 to 1933. European University Writings, Series 23, Volume 532. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 1995, ISBN 3-631-48604-9
  • Ulrich Peter: Christ Cross and Red Flag. The Union of Religious Socialists in Westphalia and Lippe during the Weimar Republic. Contributions to Westphalian church history, Volume 24. Luther-Verlag, Bielefeld 2002, ISBN 3-7858-0445-8

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Quoted in Kandel, p. 458
  2. Walter Bredendiek: Church history from "left and from below". Studies on the church history of the 19th and 20th centuries from a socio-historical perspective. Leonhard-Thurneysser-Verlag, Berlin and Basel, 2011, ISBN 978-3-939176-83-1 , p. 13.
  3. Günter Ewald (Ed.): Religiöser Sozialismus (= Urban pocket books T-series 632). Kohlhammer, Stuttgart et al., 1977, ISBN 3-17-004366-8 .
    Klaus Kreppel: A thin but steady stream. Church from below (IV) . In: Publik-Forum No. 9 of April 27, 1984, p. 29.
    Klaus Kreppel: To our readers . In: Christian and Socialist. Sheets of the Federation of Religious Socialists Germany eV No. 1/1984, pp. 1–4.
    Walter Dirks, Klaus Kreppel: Chances of a Religious Socialism . In: Christian and Socialist. No. 2/1984, pp. 20-26.