German annual meeting

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The German Annual Meeting ( DJV , English German Yearly Meeting: GYM ) is an organization of the Quakers in Germany and Austria . Under an annual meeting is understood as both a Quaker - usually several days - annual meeting, as well as a national union of several Quäkerversammlungen . This article is about the organization, not the event.

Basic data
Official name: Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) -

German annual meeting e. V.

Founded: 1925 or the e. V. June 22, 1990

Writer (chairman):

Sabine Alvermann & Horst-Dieter Breuer
Membership:
Regional districts: 6th
Groups : 22 groups (or "assemblies")

(weekly church services only in Berlin)

Number of members: 253 As of 2015
Address: Planckstrasse 20, 10117 Berlin
Websites

and domains:

history

prehistory

After the establishment of German Quaker communities in the late 17th century and in Friedensthal and Minden from 1792 to around 1880, the establishment of the German Annual Assembly in 1925 is the third attempt by British and American Quakers to bring Quakerism to Germany. A first forerunner organization were the amalgamations of Friends of Quakerism (1923) and the Bund der Deutschen Freunde (1925). In 1929 a trustee association was founded, which was later followed by the founding of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) - German Annual Meeting e. V. was replaced. In the early 1920s there was a competing annual meeting that was founded in Stuttgart in the summer of 1920.

Membership development

The majority of the members of the German annual assembly have belonged to the bourgeois liberal wing since the 1930s . In the year of its founding (1925), the German Annual Assembly had 99 members, after which the first resignations took place in 1928. Membership peaked in 1933 at around 500 members. In the years 1934 and 1939 the number of exits exceeded the number of entries; In 1939 there were 42 withdrawals. The years with the strongest growth were 1932 with 42 new recordings and 1948 with 60 new recordings. In 2015 there were still 253 members.

time of the nationalsocialism

After the seizure of power of the Nazis in 1933, the German Quakerism into a serious crisis came. For many members, the time was a turning point. There were both supporters of National Socialism and opponents. However, no conscientious objection by German Quakers was known. There was isolated private resistance to the Nazi system, for example from Emil Fuchs , Eva Herman or Elisabeth Abegg .

For some members, the time was personally very stressful and threatened. In 1933, for example, Rudolf Schlosser and Emil Fuchs lost their jobs (though not because they were Quakers). After a short stay in prison and a brief work in the Quaker office in Berlin, Schlosser became head of the Quaker office in Frankfurt am Main from the summer of 1933 . With the help of Martin Buber , with whom he had a friendship, he was able to help Jewish fellow citizens with their departure. 1933 was also the year in which Fuchs joined the German annual assembly, not least in order to set an example against the National Socialists. Nevertheless, Fuchs was a formative personality in the Berlin group in the 1930s, and many visitors found spiritual support in whose sermons.

The only Quaker who ever met Adolf Hitler personally in 1938 was the American Herbert C. Hoover , who at that time was no longer the 31st President of the United States of America. The talks, however, were exclusively about economic and not humanitarian issues. Hoover came to a complete misjudgment of the Nazi regime. On the contrary: later he even campaigned for Nazi Germany as an ally of the USA against the communist danger in the East .

Privately, members of the German Annual Assembly took part in various British Quaker projects in Germany. For example with the Rest Home project or the Kindertransport . In Munich, the Cohens family was tirelessly busy helping refugees with their departure and sending packages (under sometimes adventurous circumstances) to concentration camps . When it came to obtaining exit documents, the Cohens were particularly helpful with their contacts abroad. And here again by name the British Annual Meeting.

The German annual meeting did not officially support these projects in order not to come into conflict with the National Socialists. The writer (chairman) of the German annual meeting Hans Albrecht (Quaker) tried to influence the situation out of a conspiratorial attitude. He had been negotiating with the Gestapo since 1934 and called twice to the Reichswehr Ministry in Berlin on issues of conscientious objection .

Between the pedagogue Elsbeth Krukenberg-Conze (1867–1954), "who wanted to know that Quakerism was connected to national German ideas" (quote from C. Bernet) on the one hand, and Fritz Lang, Hans Albrecht and Paul Helbeck on the other, there were bitter battles over the direction of the DJV. Even if the national-conservative attitude of Krukenberg-Conzes increasingly isolated her within Quakerism, she was by no means alone in the DJV with her convictions. So is z. B. known that Adolf Beiss (1900–1981) was a sergeant in the Luftwaffe in World War II , a member of the NSDAP , active in the National Socialist Teachers' Association and author in people and race, member of the DJV. With Eberhard Tacke (1903–1989) there was also a painter who painted NSDAP party greats (including Adolf Hitler ) and heroes. The founding member of the DJV Hans Klassen became a clerk in the Department of German Ethnicity and Settlement Policy in 1941 , where he organized the “ Germanization ” of the East (among others, active in the Litzmannstadt ghetto or the Lodsch ghetto ). In the magazine of the DJV, Quäker, there were also articles from this time in which z. B. was openly sided with the National Socialist racial hygiene . The historian Cordula Tollmien points out that “the Quaker circulars, which can be read in the Evangelical Central Archive in Berlin, [...] in September and December 1944 alone list over thirty names of Quakers and their relatives who served as soldiers in the Wehrmacht. "

Since 1938 ( when Austria was annexed to the German Reich), the eight Quakers today have been members of the German annual assembly. Early on, before the annexation of Austria , the Austrian Quakers caused horror among the foreign Quakers. Since the writer of the Viennese Quaker group Rudi Böck was an ambitious National Socialist, Jews were no longer even allowed to attend Quaker devotions, but only "Aryans". This led foreign Quakers to set up a second, liberal Quaker prayer. Sheila Spielhofer dealt with the processing of these dark chapters with the book “Stemming the dark tide. Quakers in Vienna ” .

In 1940 the last annual German-speaking annual meeting took place in Pyrmont and in 1942 the German monthly Quäker was banned. A ban on the German annual assembly was never planned because, like many other churches, the German annual assembly did not question the Nazi system, but regarded political issues as a private view.

Time after 1945

After 1945, German Quakers initially benefited again from the presence of Anglo-American Quakers. The wing of the religious socialists around Emil Fuchs played only a minor role since the end of the Second World War. In 1947 the first annual meeting of German Quakers took place after the war. In 1959 the first Easter marches were initiated by the Quakers Helga Tempel and Konrad Tempel . In 1963 the (German) Quäker-Hilfe e. V. founded. In 1969 there was a split into two annual German assemblies, namely in FRG and Austria and in GDR.

Quakers in the German Democratic Republic

The independent annual meeting in the German Democratic Republic is a unique episode in history. It was the only annual meeting in a socialist or communist country. All of the annual meetings that are held today in a former Eastern Bloc state came into being after the end of the Cold War . For example the Cambodia YM (Yearly Meeting, in German: “Annual Meeting”) and Cuba YM . Even monthly meetings such as the Budapest Recognized Meeting and the Moscow MM ( Monthly Meeting ) only came about after the opening. From a historical point of view, the founding of the GDR's annual meeting is actually the third founding of an annual meeting on German soil.

The establishment of its own GDR annual meeting was co-founded by Helmut Macht, who also became its first writer. The West German Quakers called themselves from then on the "Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) Pyrmont Annual Meeting", while the East German Quakers chose the name "Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in the German Democratic Republic" to express their clear closeness to the state bring. The writers who followed Helmut Macht were Helga Brückner, Ines Ebert (until 1984), Heinrich Brückner and Ulrich Tschirner (until 1989).

Quakers hardly appeared in the GDR. There were regular prayers only twice a month in Berlin. The prayer was understood as "individual meditation" and was only attended by 10% of the Berlin members (two to three people).

In addition to Berlin, there were also groups in Dresden, Karl-Marx-Stadt ( Chemnitz ) and Leipzig , all of which died after 1989 because of obsolescence and rejection of missions. An annual meeting usually took place in spring, in autumn there was another shorter so-called autumn meeting.

Individual personalities were involved in the GDR , above all Hilmar Demuth ( cadre of the FDGB , SED and FDJ ), Helga Brückner in the Peace Council and Emil Fuchs in the Eastern CDU . The Quakers cooperated closely with the State Secretariat for Church Issues at the GDR Council of Ministers in order to have travel requests to “ non-socialist countries ” approved. Internal disputes occurred because the same people were always traveling.

There were wiretapping systems installed by the Stasi on the premises. Devotions were monitored regularly and events sporadically by official and unofficial employees of the State Security . At least two Quakers worked to varying degrees for the State Security and reported on the Quaker meetings of the Baltic Sea residents and the Berlin meetings for nuclear-weapon-free zones , especially in the late 1970s and early 1980s .

Because of their reports, however, there was no discrimination against Quakers in the GDR, because their existence was assessed as harmless. It was not until two children of GDR Quakers who fled the GDR that the Quakers were monitored more closely. This also led to exaggerated assessments, which is proven by the following assessment of an internal situation report by the State Security from 1972:

“There are indications that the Quakers, in the sense of the imperialist softening conception, are acting hostile and negative against the socialist states. They are anti-communist and anti-Soviet orientated by leading imperialist circles and partly active in this direction. It is unofficially known that the United States Secret Service ( CIA ) maintains contact with the Quakers and tries to use the Quakers' activities for its own purposes. "

In 1988/89 the East German Quakers did not take an active part in the elimination of the GDR regime. In 1988, however, QPS ( Quaker Peace and Service ) helped Vera Wollenberger and Bärbel Bohley to emigrate to Great Britain . In 1991 the Quaker officials Helga Brückner, Inge Thomas and Ernst Dahme joined (not an association) the East German Quakers in the DJV, and the association was founded immediately.

Post-turnaround time

In April 1991, the Religious Society of Friends - German Annual Meeting e. V. founded, which replaced the trustee association. Of the more than 200 members who were not among the 27 founding members, only a few could have realized that they were declared members of the newly founded association in their absence by these 27 present. The magazine of the German annual meeting did not contain any announcement about the establishment of the association and its formal meaning. Also, none of those not present were asked to formally declare their membership of the association again in writing.

In the same year, the Quaker Jürgen Girgensohn , former minister of education in North Rhine-Westphalia and a member of the German annual assembly since 1959, was exposed by Götz Aly and confirmed in a television interview that he was an SS Rottenführer . In 2007 the Quaker office was founded by the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) - German Annual Meeting e. V. bought and renovated for around 350,000 euros. In the same year Anna Sabine Halle , author of several Quaker pamphlets, resigned from the DJV. A re-entry application was rejected in 2009. Also in 2009 the Quaker office in Vienna was given up by the Austrian Quakers.

Theological orientation

In the past

Some external authors, e.g. B. Walter Nigg , see the Quaker Liberal Wing as part of the "mystical stream of Christianity". This view is shared by very many German Quakers who see themselves as part of the “left wing of Protestantism” or who regard their current as “Christian group mysticism”. From the early missionary years (17th century) it is known that the London Morning Meeting (or meeting for suffering ), i.e. the annual meeting founded by G. Fox, did not approve of reading by mystics (namely Böhme ). On the other hand, the mysticism of Robert Barclay (whose writings were propagated and disseminated by the London Morning Meeting ) is assessed positively and even used as additional legitimation for the form of the Quaker worship. Thus, there is no generally valid final judgment on the question.

The term “left wing of Protestantism” does not play a role in Quaker terminology. If you (the German annual meeting of the three mainstream evangelical , conservative , liberal wanted) assign, would be liberal most appropriately. The spectrum ranges from conservative-Christocentric - especially among the older members - to esoteric atheistic or nontheistic . With all this, however, one must not forget that Heinz Röhr, the last theologian among the German-speaking Quakers, died in 2005. The laity was a key element in Quakerism, but it was always coupled with a strong historical awareness or culture of remembrance, similar to that in Mennonism . From the very beginning, the Quakers in England attached great importance to the written down of their history. George Fox's diary ( The Journal ) was written with this awareness. To date, the UK has extensive and well-kept archives. The first Quaker library was founded as early as 1773. The archive of the German annual meeting, however, is not sorted, not processed and not publicly accessible.

Some theologians left their original churches after their conversion to Quakerism - such as Rudolf Schlosser. However, most of them kept their old membership (double membership) - such as B. Emil Fuchs or Hermann Mulert , both of whom were still members of the Protestant regional church: “Schlosser had a personal, inner understanding of Christ that emphasized not the historical Christ, but the inner resurrection. In his view, external forms, like all Christianity and Quakerism, would perish. He was actually close to neo-pietism ”. For Fuchs, however, Christ and the inner light were identical. In the magazine Der Quäker the two theologians had a controversy about the sacrificial death of Christ. Fuchs was a central figure in the German annual meeting, the most important theologian within the DJV. As a representative of religious socialism, he saw the Quakers as a variant of socialism. Bernet explains:

“Fuchs was wrong with this assessment. The activities of the aforementioned Hans Albrecht led more and more to a strengthening of the bourgeois camp, so that a generation later neither life reform nor socialism was seriously discussed among Quakers. "

Fuchs shared a common interest in Schleiermacher with the aforementioned Mulert . In contrast to Fuchs, Schleiermacher's doctrine of theology retained its justification as theological dogmatics. Another pastor, theologian and representative of religious socialism was Heinz Kappes . He translated The Blue Book of Alcoholics Anonymous from English into German and was thus an important pioneer of this abstinence movement in Germany.

After 1945, German Quakerism again received impulses from outside, namely from Rex Ambler ( Truth of the Heart, An anthology of George Fox ). Important theologians of this generation were Eva Pintus and Margarete Geyer , who worked hard to bring the Quakers in Germany back to the Bible. Their texts and theology hardly differ from liberal Protestant theology. In 1941, just a few months before the Quaker magazine was banned, it gave a clear testimony against Nazi euthanasia in an article , in the form of an explanation of a sermon by Clemens August Graf von Galen .

From 1948 the theologian Ruth Elsner von Gronow appeared with her first article in Quäker . She joined the community in 1952. Their work was primarily concerned with the exegesis of the New Testament. Heinz Röhr , member since 1979, brought questions about the history of religion into the discussion. At first he was a supporter of the Marburg School . In 1972 he became professor for religious and church history in the newly established department of religious studies at the University of Frankfurt am Main. He dealt with the mystical aspect of religious socialism and Eastern world religions . The Baha'i -Religion he was open to and defended it against unobjective attacks of his colleagues. He had a very critical attitude towards Islam . Above all, he addressed the Islamic position towards women, slavery and blood revenge and reminded them that these were precisely the areas in which Quakers had been trying to reform for centuries. From the beginning of the 1980s, Röhr also acted as a mediator within the community between supporters and opponents of new religious movements and the associated meditation techniques : "Röhr believed in the progress of people from primitivism through the Enlightenment to the communist overcoming of the social question and represented a modern one Conception of religion between mystical-esoteric Christianity and meditative Kadampa - Buddhism ”. With the death of Röhr in 2005, an 80-year-old theological-academic tradition in the German annual assembly ends.

Ecumenism and dual membership

Because the Quakers of the German Annual Assembly as a whole cannot agree to the ecumenical consensus of the World Council of Churches , which contains the confession of Jesus Christ as God and Savior , the German Quakers are not members of the World Council of Churches. In Germany they have guest or observer status in the Working Groups of Christian Churches (ACK).

The German Annual Assembly did not sign the Charter Oecumenica , as did the Association of German Mennonite Congregations , only for different reasons. First and foremost, there were formal problems concerning the way in which the Quakers took decisions.

Many members of the German Annual Assembly are or were members of another religious community. The reason for this can be, for example, that there are not enough Quakers in the area to be able to hold regular prayers or that the employer requires a certain denominational affiliation (pastor, catechist, religion teacher, Caritas or also diakonia). In the first few decades in particular it was not yet clear whether Quakerism would really establish itself in Germany, so that they wanted to “keep several irons in the fire”, so to speak. The other denominations included a .: Evangelical Church (mostly), the Catholic Church , the Reformed Church , the Apostolic Congregation .

In the order of coexistence at the German Annual Meeting, this fact was taken into account in the Membership section :

“Anyone who, as a member of the religious society, would like to retain their membership in another religious community in exceptional cases (double membership), should explain the reasons for this in the application for membership, also in order to come to their own clarification. Such a decision must be taken as an internal responsibility and must by no means be made out of comfort or habit. For reasons of truthfulness, this means that this step is also known to the other religious community and accepted by them. "

This is a specifically German way and an important difference to the Quakerism in the USA and Great Britain. The so-called double memberships are not to be understood as a gesture of ecumenical efforts or tolerance, but as a concession to the social framework of Quakerism in Germany. The double membership was long controversial. Ultimately, however, we bowed to reality: as early as 1966, around 50% of the members of the German Annual Assembly had double membership. Today, the above-cited rule on double membership no longer applies. Accountability is no longer expected in membership applications. In the German Quaker publications, too, the subject is no longer the subject of discussion.

The fact that the Evangelical Church in Germany adheres to the Confessio Augustana (the “Augsburg Confession”) can be seen as problematic for double membership . As emphasized on the church's website, “this confession from 1530 [...] is one of the most authoritative theological confessions of the Reformation.” Several condemnation formulas can be found in this confession that can be related to the Quakers. It is true that when these condemnation formulas were being written, no one had the Quakers in mind, rather other groups such as the Anabaptists or the spiritualists who were described as derogatory as "enthusiasts" ; after all, Quakerism did not emerge until over a century later. Nevertheless, theological upheavals can arise, since those who represent certain doctrines that are also central to the Quakers are “condemned”.

The Quakers believe that there is something of God in every person (called Inner Light ) and that every person can be qualified to preach ( general priesthood ). Originally there were no sacraments restricted to certain liturgical acts. The Bible is recognized, but plays a subordinate role. In contrast, the Augsburg Confession emphasizes the necessity of the sacraments (namely baptism and especially the Lord's Supper) and the gospel, and condemns all who do not consider these elements necessary.

“In order to attain this faith, God instituted the ministry, gave the gospel and the sacraments, through which, as by means, he gives the Holy Spirit […]. And those will be condemned who teach that we can attain the Holy Spirit without the bodily word of the gospel through preparation, thought, and work. "

- Article 5

Quakers are actively committed to changing the world for the better, including where disobedience to the state is required. In particular, they reject military service and the taking of oaths. In contrast, the Augsburg Confession teaches in the sense of Luther's doctrine of the two kingdoms the fundamental legality of state actions, even where they are based on certain ethical principles that can be derived from Christianity (or how the prohibition of taking the oath is directly biblically anchored), getting in trouble. Here, too, anyone who, like the Quakers today, teaches the opposite is condemned:

"The police (state order) and the secular regiment are taught that all authorities in the world and orderly regiment and laws are good order created and instituted by God, and that Christians without sin [...] punish evildoers with the sword , lawfully wage wars, fight in them, […], take oaths, […] etc. Hereby those are condemned who teach that what is indicated above is unchristian. "

- Article 16

To put these differences into perspective, it must be said that the passages cited do not contain the entire core message of the Confessio Augustana; This confession text also addresses other positions that are more likely to meet with approval from the Quakers, such as renouncing the mystification of the Eucharist in the sense of a renewed sacrifice of Christ and the rejection of compulsory celibacy and binding religious vows . Ultimately, however, all of this is derived from the doctrine of grace renewed in Lutheranism : Man (who is always sinful) is redeemed only through the grace of God ( sola gratia ), not through personal action. Although this doctrine is formulated less aggressively than the condemnation formulas, it nevertheless differs fundamentally from the position of Quakerism.

Furthermore, the Augsburg Confession is neither binding for all Protestant regional churches, nor is it the only valid confession. The duty of obedience to the state is, for example, greatly weakened in the Barmen Theological Declaration under the impression of the National Socialist regime .

If all articles of the Confessio Augustana, including the condemnation formulas, are consistently applied, double membership is in fact exposed to great contradictions.

Todays situation

Most German Quakers are theologically liberal . Occasionally, however, especially among older members, there are also Quakers who are Christologically oriented. Evangelical Quakers, who now make up the majority in world Quakerism, do not exist in Germany, neither as (independent) assemblies nor (individual) theological representatives. Some members belong to the esoteric movement and have been meeting in the Esoteric Working Group since 1995 . Some members are even "non-theistic" Until the end of the Second World War, Emil Fuchs was a representative of religious socialism within the DJV. As before, many German Quakers also belong to another religious community, for example a Protestant regional church or the Roman Catholic Church.

structure

The German annual meeting has the legal form of a registered non-profit association . Since the general assembly on October 25, 2015, the board has consisted of Sabine Alvermann (clerk), Neithard Petry (clerk), Katharina Specht (treasurer) and Richard Bourke.

Church life

The center of the Quakers in Germany and Austria is in Bad Pyrmont , where the only prayer house and the Quaker cemetery are located. Another institution steeped in tradition is the Quaker office in Berlin with the office of the German Annual Assembly, which has existed since 1920 (with an interruption during the Second World War ). Most of the other prayer groups in German-speaking countries meet either privately, in rented rooms or in parishes due to the small number of participants. There are 18 groups in Germany (the common word for community among German Quakers ).

Administrative structures

Community life is organized through a variety of offices, working groups, and committees . The offices are not assigned by election, but are filled by the respective assembly according to the proposal of a nomination committee . The so-called working groups are set up by the working committee on special topics. The nomination committee also issues the proposal for the composition of the committees and has this confirmed by the annual meeting. The standing committees include:

  • Working Committee : responsible for administration; Decision-making body between the annual meetings, consisting of the board and the clerks from the districts and other committees.
  • Peace Committee : coordinates the commitment of German Quakers to peaceful conflict resolution .
  • Designation Committee : determines who can hold positions with Quakers.
  • House committee : looks after the Quaker house in Bad Pyrmont.
  • Office committee : responsible for the property in Berlin.
  • Literature Committee : for the journalistic activities.
  • Children and Youth Committee

Districts

Seven districts are organized in the German annual meeting . These are:

  1. Bavaria-Austria District (two assemblies)
  2. District of Hessen (two assemblies)
  3. Northwest District (eight congregations)
  4. East District (one assembly)
  5. Rhine-Ruhr district (five assemblies)
  6. Southwest District (four congregations)

Austria had its own annual meeting until the annexation by the Nazis, but did not become independent again after the Second World War. Since 2012 the district of Austria has been dissolved and the remaining members have been assigned to the district of Bavaria, which is now called "Bavaria-Austria".

The districts and the committees of the annual meeting take on many tasks. The admission of new members takes place by the district and is formally confirmed by the annual meeting. Local groups and individual Quakers meet at these district assemblies . The groups are the smallest organizational unit in the structure. In contrast to prayer groups, they have regular business meetings , offices such as clerks, elders , treasurers and, if necessary, stewards . Not all of these offices are actually called by every group. These offices are also represented in the districts. The monthly meetings belong to the German annual meeting as an association. Organizational independence is not as pronounced in Germany and Austria as with quakers in other countries. Usually, however, the structure in Quakerism is distinctly congregational .

For some time now, the German annual meeting has had problems filling all offices. Out of necessity, the offices are now z. Sometimes double staffed to distribute the burden of work and responsibility on several shoulders. These tandems are called the Schreiber Team . Such writing teams can currently be found in the East, Rhine-Ruhr, Bavaria and Northwest districts.

For many members, the annual and district meetings are central events in their faith practice. The annual meeting usually takes place in Bad Pyrmont with the Richard Cary lecture as the highlight.

Finances

All individually living members, manate and district assemblies are members or part of the association “Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) - German Annual Assembly e. V. ". The autonomy of the monthly meetings is therefore less pronounced than that of Quakers in other countries or of comparable religious communities in Germany such as the Mennonites .

The handling of money is not specified in the association's statutes or in the order of coexistence . According to self-disclosure, the monthly assemblies receive " 15 to 20% of the contribution income for their free use and can apply for additional funds at the annual assembly ". And “ The districts receive 5% of the premium income for free use. “This leaves around 75–80% at the German annual meeting. The annual meeting alone decides on the distribution of the funds between the annual meeting, districts and groups / assemblies.

The young friends who organize themselves at the level of the annual assembly (i.e. supraregional) do not have their own self-administered annual budget, but have to request each expenditure separately from the working committee. With an average of 244 euros per year, the young friends make up just 0.2% of the total expenditure of the annual meeting.

By far the largest item is the personnel costs for the annual meeting, which, at an average of 35,600 euros, make up 27.7% of total expenditure. It is noteworthy that for a long time it was frowned upon among Quakers to take money to take on tasks within the community. Therefore, for a long time, only non-Quakers were entrusted with tasks such as: B. the occupation of the secretariat of the Berlin Quaker office. It can be observed, however, that members have recently been paid for their activities in the community, for example in the editorial office of the "Quaker".

With assets of EUR 700,000 and two properties with 269 members, the DJV is one of the wealthiest religious communities in Germany. However, the assets earn interest, which is controversial among Quakers. The interest income in 2006 was around 33,000 euros.

Since the DJV is structurally obsolete, it often benefits from inheritances. In the 80s and 90s, the annual meeting received bequests of around half a million euros. The sale of an inherited property in 2002 brought in 750,000 euros. A brochure was published to motivate members to bequeath their fortune to the Quakers. And in the publication “ Quäker Glaube & Wirken ” from 2002 it says: “ When writing a will, friends are strongly advised to consider whether they would like to leave money for Quaker work. Legacy income continues to be very important. "

This significant increase in assets led to considerations as to how the entrusted funds should be handled. These considerations were summarized in a working paper on Handling our Money and discussed in the groups and districts. In 2004 the general assembly decided to reduce the assets. Investments in the Berlin Quaker office, support from international Quaker organizations (QCEA and QUNO) and projects in Palestine and Kenya reduced the assets by 624,000 euros. A legacy in 2005 added another substantial sum (240,000 euros). Some of the sums are subject to conditions, for example for the cemetery or for the preservation of the historic Quaker house.

In the summer of 2010, the two writers of the German annual meeting sent a request to the members to donate more in order to be able to keep the two part-time workers (who they are, was not named) and the level of spending.

This financially comfortable situation has not always been a matter of course for Quakerism in Germany. The founder of the Quaker colony in Friedensthal , Ludwig Seebohm, repeatedly ran into high debt for his ambitious projects. Only the repeated intervention of the British Quakers had saved him from ruin.

publishing company

The DJV has had its own publishing house since the beginning and without interruption. The task and the objective are directed both externally and internally, since the nature of the high proportion of converts means there is a need to inform internally. But also to the outside world, because the religious community depends on conversion to survive in the long term and on the other hand from the understanding of the so-called Quaker product , which makes "working in the world" a central theme.

The quality of the published works fluctuated both in terms of content and technical implementation. At the moment, many titles are not listed in bookstores, but are available through the publisher, which leads to the conclusion that professional publishing is currently not possible or not wanted.

See also

literature

Available in bookshops

  • Irvin Lichti: Houses on the Sand ?: Pacifist Denominations in Nazi Germany (Studies in Modern European History). ISBN 978-0-8204-6731-3 .
  • Claus Bernet : Quakers from politics, science and art. A biographical lexicon. Bautz, ISBN 978-3-88309-469-4 .
  • Claus Bernet: Twenty Years of Quaker Research in Germany: A Research and Literature Report (1990-2010). In: Free Church Research. 19, 2010, pp. 266-310.
  • Claus Bernet: Paedagogica Quakeriana reformata? The contribution of the German Quakers within the reform pedagogy of the 20th century. In: Michael Wermke (Ed.): Religious Education and Reform Education. Jena 2010, ISBN 978-3-941854-00-0 , pp. 195-221.
  • Publishing of the DJV: "Deutsche Quäkerbibliographie: Second, extended edition. with author and subject index ”. Claus Bernet, Publisher: Bautz, Traugott (September 20, 2011), ISBN 3-88309-648-2 .

Antiquarian

  • Katharina Provinski, Ilse Wandrowsky: The religious society of friends (Quakers) . Quäkerhaus, Bad Pyrmont 2002, ISBN 3-929696-29-0 .
  • William Taber: Four doors to prayer, our worship service . Quaker House, Bad Pyrmont 1992, ISBN 0-87574-306-4 .
  • Duncan Wood: The people called Quakers . Quaker house, Bad Pyrmont 1990.
  • Quakers, Faith & Work. German translation of the manual for the Christian way of life . Bad Pyrmont 2002, ISBN 3-929696-29-0 .
  • Advice and questions. Guide to Lifestyle . Bad Pyrmont, reprint 1995.
  • Religion without dogma. Depiction of the Quaker Faith . Bad Pyrmont, reprint 1995, ISBN 3-929696-13-4 .
  • Harold Loukes: The Quakers . Stuttgart 1965.
  • Heinrich Otto: Becoming and essence of Quakerism and its development in Germany . Vienna 1972.

Web links

Single receipts

  1. ↑ According to the entry in the register of associations: online request .
  2. ↑ a b c Since October 25, 2015, see website of the annual meeting
  3. ↑ Groups & Districts in the journal Quäker 6/2014, pp. 300–301, ISSN  1619-0394 . Explanation: the list also includes contact persons for members who live individually but who do not have (their own) active group life. Kehl / Strasbourg has regular meetings, but does not belong to any, not even to the German annual meeting.
  4. ↑ Self-disclosure on the website (accessed February 12, 2011) of the DJV ; and information from Uwe Schiller 12:46, Feb. 8, 2011 (CET) - editor of the magazine “Quäker” (see discussion page).
  5. ↑ See The newly built Quäkerhaus turns 75, in the magazine Quäker issue 4/2008, 82nd volume, p. 159, author: Lutz Caspers, ISSN  1619-0394 .
  6. ^ Claus Bernet: The German annual meeting in Stuttgart: A founding attempt from the early days of the German Quakers around 1920. In: Blätter für Württembergische Kirchengeschichte. 107, 2007, pp. 239-250. ISSN  0341-9479 .
  7. ↑ See also the section Albrecht, Hans In: Quakers from politics, science and art: A biographical lexicon. 2nd edition, ISBN 978-3-88309-469-4 , pp. 17-19. Quote: “Hans Albrecht is an important co-founder of the German annual meeting. He embodied the bourgeois wing of the Quakers ”(p. 18). And in the chapter “Stackelberg, Freiherr Traugott von (1891–1970)” on p. 195 quotation “[...] obstacles seemed to them [the Stackelbergs] above all the predominantly bourgeois social orientation of the Quakers in Germany, [...] and their too intellectual distinction Attitude."
  8. ↑ Claus Bernet: Life between Protestant theology and Quakerism. In: Materialdienst, 02/2008, ISSN  0934-8522 , p. 29.
  9. ↑ Claus Bernet, Life Between Protestant Theology and Quakerism, from the Materialdienst issue , 02/2008, ISSN  0934-8522 , pp. 30–32.
  10. ^ John Lucas: Herbert Hoover meets Adolf Hitler. In: The American Scholar. 62, 1993, pp. 235-238.
  11. ^ Claus Bernet:  German annual meeting. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 15, Bautz, Herzberg 1999, ISBN 3-88309-077-8 , Sp. 644-653.  ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )
  12. ↑ See Albrecht, Hans, p. 17, in the 2008 edition, Quäker aus Politik, Wissenschaft und Kunst: 20. Jahrhundert. A biographical lexicon, Claus Bernet, ISBN 978-3-88309-398-7 .
  13. ^ Claus Bernet, entry Elsbeth Krukenberg-Conze in the book Quakers from Politics, Science and Art. 2nd edition, ISBN 978-3-88309-469-4 , p. 104, 2008.
  14. ↑ entry Beiss, Adolf in the book Quakers from politics, science and art. 2nd Edition. Claus Bernet, 2008, ISBN 978-3-88309-469-4 .
  15. ^ Entry Tacke, Eberhard in the book Quakers from Politics, Science and Art. 2nd Edition. Claus Bernet, 2008, ISBN 978-3-88309-469-4 .
  16. ↑ Mennonitische Geschichtsblätter, 66th vol., 2009, pp. 125–145.
  17. ↑ Quote: "Where the legal requirements are met, the question of sterilization is examined and, if necessary, sterilization is ordered. How necessary this is emerges from what has been said above, if you consider how much most girls are hereditary. ”From the article Belief in the Inner Light and the Asocial Man, from Quaker, No. 15 (1938), Pp. 139-142 (p. 140).
  18. ↑ Cordula Tollmien on Thursday, March 27, 2014, in her weblog fuchsduhastdiegansgestohlen.blogspot.de , in the article " What we did not learn from Bernet about Karl Heinz Pollatz ".
  19. ↑ Claus Bernet: German Quaker Bibliography. Second, expanded edition. with author and subject index, Bautz, Traugott, Nordhausen 2011, ISBN 978-3-88309-648-3 , foreword on page ii.
  20. ^ Sheila Spielhofer: Stemming the Dark Tide. Sessions Book Trust, 2001, ISBN 1-85072-267-6 .
  21. ^ See on this Claus Bernet in: Yearbook for Berlin-Brandenburg Church History . 67th year, 2009, p. 130 Post-war period, GDR and reunification of the Berlin Quakers .
  22. ^ Elisabeth Hering: The Religious Society of Friends. In: Hubert Kirchner: Free churches and denominational minority churches. A manual. Berlin (GDR) 1987, p. 67.
  23. ↑ Evangelisches Zentralarchiv, Berlin, 230, 5th districts and groups: travel issues (2 vol., 1952-1988) and group and travel reports (1973-1987).
  24. ↑ See Claus Bernet, in the year book for Berlin-Brandenburg church history . 67th year 2009, p. 130 Post-war period, GDR and reunification of the Berlin Quakers , footnote 76.
  25. ^ Authority of the Federal Commissioner for the Records of the State Security Service of the former GDR (BStU), MfS, HA XX, No. 7554, part 2 of 2; MfS HA XX ZMA, No. 1792, p. 3.
  26. ^ Authority of the Federal Commissioner for the Records of the State Security Service of the former GDR (BStU), MfS HA XX ZMA, No. 1792.
  27. ↑ Authority of the Federal Commissioner for the Records of the State Security Service of the former GDR (BStU), MfS HA XX, No. 7554, part 2 of 2.
  28. ↑ JV 1991 of the friends in the former GDR, in: Der Quäker, 6, 1991, 154. Since the unification decision was apparently only made at the autumn meeting in 1991, the establishment of an association and membership were obviously mixed up. At the time of their accession, the (former) GDR Quakers could not yet have known that their union with the West German Quakers would result in an association.
  29. ↑ Gisela Faust: Thoughts on Membership. In: Quaker magazine . 1/2007, 81st JG, p. 39, ISSN  1619-0394
  30. ↑ Maurice de Coulon: There, where two or three…. In: Quakers. 6/2009, p. 295.
  31. ^ Olaf Radicke: Commentary on the 'Quäker' edition 6/2009. December 10, 2009, in the independent friend .
  32. ↑ cf. the issues from the same year (1991) from the magazine Quäker of the German annual meeting.
  33. ↑ Götz Aly : We have to explain that . In: Berliner Zeitung . March 19, 1998.
  34. ↑ Article on the death of Jürgen Girgensohn in: The Independent Friend .
  35. ^ Self-disclosure in a circular dated August 12, 2010 by the two DJV writers.
  36. ↑ Anna Sabine Halle, born 1921, great niece of the aviation pioneer Otto Lilienthal , active resistance fighter against National Socialism: Left Otto - right Gustav . In: Berliner Zeitung . STEGLITZ, April 4, 1997.
  37. ↑ Most famous work: "The thoughts are free ...", A youth group of Berlin Quakers 1935–1941 (PDF) German Resistance Memorial Center .
  38. ↑ Minutes of the AA 2009, p. 8.
  39. ^ Minutes of the working committee, 6. – 8. March 2009, page two, under “The District of Austria”.
  40. ↑ Walter Nigg: Secret wisdom. Zurich, Stuttgart: Artemis, 1959 (1987²), ISBN 3-7608-0726-7 ; Zurich: Diogenes, 1992, ISBN 3-257-22551-2 .
  41. ↑ For example from Konrad Tempel in: Quäker. Statements on Faith and Life 1925–1980 ; or Gisela Faust in: What do the others believe .
  42. ↑ See p. 284 and p. 280, in About God and the World, by Sünne Juterczenka, appear in the publication of the Max Planck Institute for History Volume 143, ISBN 978-3-525-35458-2 .
  43. ↑ In the work On Worship of God he writes “From the confession and the conviction of the same, the name mystic originated as the designation of certain religious people, who are praised by many, and whose writings this type of worship [of silent devotion in the manner of the Quakers]. so often explain and recommend ”. Read on p. 298, in Deutsche Quäkerschriften, Volume 2, 18th Century, ISBN 978-3-487-13408-6 .
  44. ↑ a b See u. a. Esoteric Working Group. In: The Quaker. 69, 6, 1995, p. 154.
  45. ↑ Horst Konopatzky: Confession. In: Zeitschrift Quäker 2/2008, p. 88, ISSN  1619-0394 .
  46. ↑ Michael Seeber: Why didn't God create through evolution? In: Zeitschrift Quäker 1/2009, pp. 14-18, ISSN  1619-0394 .
  47. ↑ cf. Chapter 2.2 Flight from the world and memory of martyrs as criteria for difference. In: S. Juterczenka: About God and the World. ISBN 978-3-525-35458-2 .
  48. ↑ quaker.org.uk
  49. ↑ Claus Bernet: Life between Protestant theology and Quakerism. In: Material service. 02/2008, p. 30, ISSN  0934-8522 .
  50. ↑ Claus Bernet: Life between Protestant theology and Quakerism. In: Material service. 02/2008, p. 31, ISSN  0934-8522 .
  51. ↑ Claus Bernet: Life between Protestant theology and Quakerism. In: Material service. 02/2008, p. 33, ISSN  0934-8522 .
  52. ^ Quaker of the week (7): Ruth Elsner von Gronow , Claus Bernet, February 11, 2012.
  53. ↑ Claus Bernet: Life between Protestant theology and Quakerism. In: Material service. 02/2008, p. 34, ISSN  0934-8522 .
  54. ↑ See statement of the Board of Directors on the Charta Oecumenica, Sep. 2004, PDF document ( Memento of August 4, 2007 in the Internet Archive ).
  55. ^ Lutz Caspers: The signing of the Charter Oecumenica in Lower Saxony. In: Quaker magazine . 1/2008, p. 16, ISSN  1619-0394 .
  56. ↑ Claus Bernet: Life between Protestant theology and Quakerism. In: Material service. 02/2008, p. 29, ISSN  0934-8522 .
  57. ↑ Quäker heute , 2003, ISBN 3-929696-31-2 , publisher: RGdF German Annual Meeting e. V.
  58. ↑ Claus Bernet: Life between Protestant theology and Quakerism. In: Material service. 02/2008, pp. 29 and 30, section Double membership - then and now. ISSN  0934-8522 .
  59. ^ To the confessions of the EKD on their website.
  60. ↑ Both quotations from the Augsburg Confession from the website of the Evangelical Church in Germany.
  61. ↑ There is not a single German-language publication that has taken the positions of evangelical Quakers, let alone a German author.
  62. ↑ The former writer of the DJV, Maurice de Coulon writes in his book review about his translation work : “Now I am very happy to have made a considerable contribution to the perfecting of Michel Henry's work in German and also, as a Quaker, to the dissemination of a religious-philosophical one Approach to be able to provide a well-founded conceptual basis for a non-theistic 'mysticism of life' that is more intuitively experienced among friends and still very tentatively attested to. "
  63. ↑ As of November-December 2014, self-disclosure in the "Quäker" magazine, ISSN  1619-0394
  64. ↑ See page 260, in Magaien “Quäker” 6/2012, ISSN  1619-0394
  65. ↑ See "Quäker", 6/2010, ISSN  1619-0394 , pp. 260-263.
  66. ↑ Self-assessment of the website. Retrieved 11:07 am, Feb 26, 2011 (CET) .
  67. ↑ Self-assessment of the website. Retrieved 11:07 am, Feb 26, 2011 (CET) .
  68. ↑ See Quakers Today. 3. Edition. 2012, ISBN 978-3-929696-47-9 , p. 35.
  69. ↑ Minutes of the working committee 6. – 8. March 2009, p. 5, point 2.3.5 “Young friends applications”.
  70. ↑ Minutes of the working committee 6. – 8. March 2009, p. 22, “Appendix 1 Finance Committee - Average of the last 5 years”.
  71. ↑ See resolution (1/09 AA) - minutes of the working committee 6. – 8. March 2009, p. 4.
  72. ↑ Minutes of the AA 2009, p. 10.
  73. ↑ Financial Report Oct. 31, 2007, from the Finance Committee, page two, under "Income".
  74. ↑ This phenomenon has also been perceived and discussed within the community for some time. So z. B. in
    • "Der Quäker" No. 6 July 1981 Vol. 55, p. 103, "Das Quäkerum und die Jugend", by Manfred Ehmer.
    • Upheaval - Generational Change - Structural Change A “starting paper” on the medium and long-term development of the German annual meeting , for the working committee, July 2005, afterwards slightly revised due to the discussion there, 2005, R. Kendon
    • See article Come to us! 1994, by Charlie Blackfield, PDF download .
  75. ↑ Minutes of the working committee, meeting from 6. – 8. March 2009, p. 10, under "How our financial assets have developed."
  76. ↑ Your Legacy for Peace, Neustadt 1998.
  77. ↑ Quäker Glaube & Wirken, paragraph 14.09, Verlag Religiöse Gesellschaft der Freunde (Quakers), ISBN 3-929696-29-0 .
  78. ↑ Minutes of the Working Committee, 6. – 8. March 2009, Appendix Finance Committee p. 10.
  79. ↑ THE INDEPENDENT FRIEND, 2010-08-26, The GYM and the love of money , by Olaf Radicke.
  80. ↑ See p. 296–307 in: Without cross no crown: study edition. ISBN 3-8391-2608-8 , edition November 2009.
  81. ↑ "German Quaker Bibliography: Second, Extended Edition. with author and subject index ”, author: Claus Bernet, paperback: 154 pages, publisher: Bautz, Traugott (September 20, 2011), ISBN 3-88309-648-2 .
  82. ↑ A negative example of the lack of technical implementation is the so-called “Green Book” with the original title “Quaker Faith and Work”, publisher: Religiöse Gesellsch. d. Friends (Quakers) (July 1, 2002), ISBN 3-929696-29-0 .
  83. ↑ Blog article by Claus Bernet: Books for Nirvana: Literature Committee ensures that it is not made accessible .