Emil Schiller

Karl Emil Schiller (born October 16, 1865 in Husum , Schleswig , under Prussian administration; † August 1945 in Bad Godesberg ) was a German pastor and missionary in Japan .

Life

From 1885 (?) To 1890 Schiller studied theology in Bonn and Berlin . He then worked from 1890 to 1891 as an assistant preacher in Siegburg . In the years 1891 to 1894 he was pastor and principal of the Latin school in Tecklenburg ( Westphalia ).

From October 1, 1894 until his retirement in October 1931, Schiller worked for the General Evangelical Protestant Mission Association (AEPM or AEPMV) and the East Asia Mission (OAM). For this he stayed in Japan from 1895 to 1931.

First he replaced Carl Munzinger (1864–1937) in Tokyo . From 1900 to 1931 he lived and worked in Kyoto .

From 1903 to 1904 Schiller interrupted his missionary work for a home leave, during which he gave lectures in Germany and Switzerland. From 1904 to 1913 Schiller was appointed lecturer for German language and literature at the Imperial University of Kyoto . In 1906 the University of Bern awarded him an honorary theological doctorate. In 1908 Schiller was appointed Mission Superintendent of the OAM's entire Japanese work. He held this position until the end of his missionary work.

In the summer of 1910 he wrote his script Shinto: the popular religion of Japan , which was published in 1911 in Schöneberg near Berlin by the Protestant writings distributor. It is one of the first German-language publications that was decidedly, albeit from a Christian missionary point of view and (unconsciously) shaped by the ideas of the Kokugaku that Shinto dealt with :

“When we describe the Shinto religion of the Japanese, not only should the curiosity of religious history come to light that a simple natural religion has been preserved to this day in a world-historically important cultural people, but it should also be shown what one To make a civilized people out of such a primitive form of religion and what sense it knows how to put into it. [...] So this book can also do good service to all those who have an interest in immersing themselves in the spirit and the way of thinking of the aspiring Japanese people, especially those who are planning a trip to Japan, to the fruitful Serve preparation so that they do not overlook the outwardly strongly emerging Buddhism, the less conspicuous and yet powerfully effective Shintoism in popular life. [...] The countless millions of East Asia are looking to Japan's example ! If Japan were to turn to Christianity in the near future, the decisive battle of Christianity would be won in East Asia! "

Following his teaching activity in Kyoto, he went on holiday for the second time in 1913. A few years later he was again active as a lecturer (about 1923-1931 (?)), This time for German at the Mission University in Kyoto.

In 1922, Schiller was already much more critical of the goals of missionary work: Christianity could "not yet satisfy the masses ... because as a world religion it was unable to compromise with Japanese nationalism and the worship of the emperors".

In fact, Schiller was also an astute observer of the gradual transformation of Shinto into state Shinto in modern Japan and quickly recognized the political and religious character of the new state cult. The shrines that are connected to the imperial house, so Schiller writes in one of his reports for the OAM, “[...] are subordinate to the temple office in the Ministry of the Interior and receive grants from the state or are made entirely from public funds, if necessary is entertaining. Above all, the state sacrifices are made there. The state declares that this is not a religion (despite gods, worship and sacrifices?), But a state cult in which everyone can safely participate, which of course becomes a kind of compulsion in the military and in schools. So he tries to maintain the separation of state and religion and at the same time to cultivate patriotism and allegiance to the emperor under religious forms. In the broader people, of course, one cares very little about this distinction and it is undisputed that this reverence is also understood as religious, which it is from home ”. "As an aid in the fight against ideas dangerous to the state, such as democracy , socialism and communism , this Shinto is cultivated in schools, state-organized associations and in the army and in a submission to the manor on November 23, 1923 as the 'foundation of Japan" , 'a system for the preservation of the distinctive spirit of the nation '. "

Schiller interrupted his teaching activities in 1926 for a third and final home leave before he returned to Germany in 1931 after he retired. Most recently, he further criticized the Japanese government's attitude towards not considering the Shinto shrine as a religion: “Why does this matter remain a serious problem after all? Simply because such a government declaration cannot suffice to lead the people to believe that the veneration they have held at their shrines since ancient times should no longer be religious veneration, that is, Amaterasu no Mikoto , the when Daijingû is venerated in Ise , no longer the sun goddess as it has been since time immemorial, but only the ancestor of the imperial family . ”In the same report, Schiller suspected that the commissions set up by the government to clarify the question of whether Shinto was a religion were only means to buy time.

Finding a successor for Schiller in Japan proved difficult. Schiller's direct successor, Pastor Egon Hessel (representative of the Confessing Church ), was dismissed in 1936 because of his critical stance towards the National Socialist government in Germany. From then on Kyoto was without its own Christian missionary and was co-administered by the missionary for Tokyo, Liemar Hennig (1909-1954). It was only when Pastor Theodor Jaeckel (1908-1998) and his wife from Qingdao came to Tokyo in 1942 and replaced him there that Hennig Schiller's position in Kyoto was able to take over completely. Egon Hessel (expatriated in 1940 and lived in the United States from then until 1946) succeeded Hennig and Jaeckel in 1946 as head of the Japan Mission (this time from the Swiss East Asia Mission ) until 1953.

literature

• Klaus J. Antoni : Shintô and the conception of the Japanese national system (Kokutai): religious traditionalism in modern times and modern Japan / by Klaus Antoni . In: B. Spuler (Ed.): Handbuch der Orientalistik  : Department 5, Volume 8 , Brill, Leiden, Boston, Cologne 1998, pp. 301-318, ISBN 90-04-10316-3 .
• Friedrich Wilhelm Bauks: The Protestant pastors in Westphalia from the Reformation period to 1945. Luther-Verlag, Bielefeld 1980, p. 435 f.

Web links

• PDF version (approx. 403 kB) of an edition of the "um-journal" of the Evangelical Mission in Southwest Germany with a photograph of Emil Schiller with students during Bible lessons around 1908

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Emil Schiller: Shinto: the popular religion of Japan. Protestant. Font sales, Berlin-Schöneberg 1911, p. 7f.
2. ^ Emil Schiller: "Japan in the year 1921/22. Written in April 1922. (by Superint. D. Emil Schiller, Kyoto) “. In: Ostasien-Jahrbuch , 1923: p. 51. Quoted from Klaus J. Antoni 1998, p. 311.
3. ↑ Emil Schiller: “Japan in 1923/24. (Completed March 31, 1924. By Superintendent D. Emil Schiller, Kyoto) ”. In: Ostasien-Jahrbuch , 1925: p. 67. Quoted from Klaus J. Antoni 1998, p. 312 f.
4. ↑ Emil Schiller: “Japan in 1924/25. (Completed in June 1925. By Superintendent D. Emil Schiller of Kyoto) ”. In: Ostasien-Jahrbuch , 1926: p. 65. Quoted from Klaus J. Antoni 1998, p. 314.
5. ↑ Emil Schiller: "Japan (A review of the period 1929/30, completed at the end of September 1930. By Mission Superintendent D. Emil Schiller on Kyoto)". In: East Asia Yearbook , 1931, pp. 85 f. Quoted from Klaus J. Antoni 1998, p. 315.