Evangelical press service

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Logo of the epd

The Evangelical Press Service ( epd ) is a news agency based in Frankfurt am Main that emerged from the "Evangelical Press Association for Germany" founded in Wittenberg in 1910 . It is supported by the Evangelical Church in Germany and its regional churches . The epd is the oldest of the existing German news agencies.

history

1876 ​​forerunner

Forerunners of the epd were the press services published by the Inner Mission, the "Evangelical Correspondence for Germany" by Hermann Krummacher from 1876 to 1879 and the "Correspondence for Inner Mission" (1898 to 1910). The epd emerged from the Evangelical Press Association for Germany EPD founded by Stanislaus Swierczewski in 1910 .

1918 foundation

In 1918 the free, church-independent association appointed the theologian August Hermann Hinderer as its director at a time which, with the elimination of the summit episcopate, brought a deep turning point for the Evangelical Church. In 1919 the first edition of the "Evangelical Press Service" appeared with the logo "Epd". The EPD daily service has already been transmitted by telephone. There was the “correction service”, which quickly investigated false reports, the Epd edition for the Sunday and parish papers, “Das Bild”, a picture service, “The source”, material for the features section and, since 1921, three times a week cooperation with North America through “radio telegraphic” News". The establishment of the “Ecumenical Press Service” resulted in extensive public relations work and cooperation with the international press. The EPD was committed to ensuring that religious instruction in public schools in Germany was enshrined in the Weimar Imperial Constitution ( WRV). From 1918 until it was closed in 1941, the EPD central editorial office was located in the Evangelical Press Association for Germany, EPD, in Berlin-Steglitz , Beymestrasse 8.

Publications

"Das Evangelische Deutschland, Kirchliche Rundschau for the entire area of ​​the Evangelical Church Federation" weekly 1923–1945 "Das Evangelische Berlin" weekly 1923–1941 "Bilderbote for the Protestant house" weekly 1923–1941 "Eckart, Blätter für Evangelische Geisteskultur" 1924–1943 Responsible Eckart's editors were Harald Braun 1924-1932, Hans Walter Liepmann 1932-1933 and Kurt Ihlenfeld 1933-1943. "The newspaper mirror, contributions to the culture of the newspaper industry" 1929

1924 first radio broadcast

In 1924, at Hinderer's instigation, the first morning party took place on the Berlin radio. Due to the high number of subscribers to the various newspapers, especially the “Bilderbote”, the association was financially independent and was able to remain neutral in terms of church and social policy. According to Hinderer's formulation, the EPD's concern was “serving the daily press” and “ethicalizing the newspaper industry”.

1933 restrictions

When the National Socialists came to power in 1933, freedom of the press also ended for the EPD. In June 1933, the Evangelical Press Association for Germany was occupied by the SA and Hinderer was removed from office. National Socialist " German Christians ", ecclesiastical commissioners of the then " German Evangelical Church " DEK, took over the management. Hinderer was able to return to work in July, but was arrested in June 1934 and taken to the SS prison on Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse in Berlin, then to the Columbiahaus concentration camp . A few hours before the mass shootings began, he was freed. In the period that followed, Hinderer was monitored by the Gestapo. The National Socialists issued 50,000 confidential press instructions, more than a quarter of them were notices of silence. In an effort to keep an overview of the legal situation in the totalitarian state, the EPD published in 1934 “The ABC for magazine work. Regulation texts, explanations and notes for editors and publishers ”. The author was Dr Hans Walter Liepmann, who worked underground until his emigration in 1935. On June 30, 1937, the Reich Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda declared that the "information services and circulars appearing in the evangelical church should be viewed and treated as political magazines". With this so-called "Frick Decree", the work of the EPD was made almost impossible because the decree banned reporting on political and church-political events. Thereupon the Reichsverband der Evangelischen Presse informed its members on July 9, 1937: “This decision that all newsletters and information services are to be regarded as political journals meant that the editorial staff only added one to the professional list at the Reichsverband der German press registered person. ”In May 1941, the last edition of the Epd appeared for the church press. Shortly afterwards, the press service was discontinued under the pretext of the war-related paper quota.

New beginning after the war

On May 15, 1946, the then epd editor-in-chief Focko Lüpsen applied for a license for the epd. On July 15, 1946, the British gave permission for "operation of a news agency". Based on license No. 134 of the “ British Military Government in Germany ”, service was then allowed to resume. The designation epd in lower case has been used since 1947.

Prohibition legend

The background to the new beginning was information from Lüpsen to the licensors, which later turned out to be incorrect. Lüpsen made u. a. the proximity of the Epd in the Nazi era to the Confessing Church applies. He referred to measures taken by the Gestapo and personal threats and claimed that the National Socialists had banned the EPD in 1937. The claim that the Evangelical Press Service had been banned as early as 1937 because of its resistance against the Nazi regime was also made by Lüpsen in the 1950 EPD story about Protestant press work from 1933 to 1950. With this legend he concealed the claim that the EPD was supposed to have been a mouthpiece for Nazi propaganda at times in the “Third Reich”. This legend was not corrected until half a century later. In 2002 the author and journalist Volker Lilienthal documented Lüpsen's misstep. He headed his dossier with “Lüpsen's legend, the end of a purpose lie: the alleged Nazi ban on the epd 1937”. In 2002 the Evangelical Church in Germany also revised the incorrect presentation of its history in the Nazi era in a press release.

New structures

From 1952 the regional churches participated in the financing of the epd. The Catholic News Agency KNA was founded in November 1952 . For the epd, in competition with the Catholic agency, the financial subsidies were secured in the following years. After the re-admission, the central editorial office worked under the umbrella of the Evangelical Press Association for Westphalia and Lippe until 1964 in Bethel near Bielefeld. After moving to Frankfurt am Main, the joint venture of Evangelical Journalism (GEP), founded in 1973, became the publisher of the central epd services.

epd today

Today, the epd claims to have around 80 permanent employees in the areas of church, religion, culture, media, education, society, social affairs, the third world and development and has correspondent offices in Berlin, Brussels and Geneva. The news agency's most important customers are press, radio, television and online services editorial offices. The editors of the seven epd regional services report from more than 30 locations in Germany. The Protestant Press Service is part of the community work of Protestant journalism .

Editor and working structure

The epd includes eight media companies that are part of the epd working group: For the central editorial office, the joint venture of Protestant journalism and the providers of the regional services epd Nord (Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania), epd Lower Saxony-Bremen, epd Ost (Berlin, Brandenburg , Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia), epd West (Rhineland, Westphalia and Lippe), epd Middle-West (Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland), epd Southwest (Baden and Württemberg) and epd Bavaria. Around 80 editors report at 30 locations between Kiel and Munich, between Düsseldorf and Dresden. The basic service and the state services as well as the photos and infographics are distributed by the media communication company mecom in Hamburg, preferably via satellite. The epd is a founding member of mecom, which was established in 1989.

Content orientation

According to the epd, its main focus is on the topics of faith and church, religion and ethics. The epd also sees social policy issues and development policy as an important task and reports on this with its own employees from Africa, Asia and Latin America. The critical accompaniment of the media and the film has a long tradition. The specialist publication epd medien, formerly epd-Kirche und Rundfunk, has been published since 1949. epd-Kirche und Film, the predecessor of epd Film magazine, was founded in 1948.

Publications

  • epd basic service
  • epd regional services
  • epd image (image service and retrieval database)
  • epd compact (multimedia newsfeed)
  • epd documentation
  • epd feature
  • epd film
  • epd regional services for Bavaria, Lower Saxony-Bremen, North (Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania), East (Berlin, Brandenburg, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia), Middle-West (Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland) , Southwest (Baden-Württemberg) and West (North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland)
  • epd media
  • epd social
  • epd weekly mirror
  • epd central output

Editor-in-chief of the epd central editorial office

  • 1913–1922 Ferdinand Katsch
  • 1922–1933 Martin Plieninger
  • 1933–1966 Focko Lüpsen
  • 1966–1981 Hans-Wolfgang Heßler
  • 1981–1998 Hans Hafenbrack
  • 1999–2017 Thomas Schiller
  • 2017– 0000Karsten Frerichs

Criticism and appreciation

The former editor of the epd, Volker Lilienthal, criticized the epd's lack of distance from the “actors endowed with power” of the constituted church and its organs and claimed - without substantiating this - that “avoiding insubordinate criticism” is “a principle that is strict in cases of conflict was observed ".

In her celebratory speech on the 100th anniversary of the epd on February 3, 2010 in Berlin, Chancellor Angela Merkel praised the epd as a high-performance and professional news agency that offers orientation in the flood of news and stands for sustainability in reporting. Through the development policy reporting, the epd is building a “get to know each other” with other regions of the world. As a representative of public broadcasting, Peter Boudgoust , director of Südwestrundfunks (SWR), said: "It speaks for the inner greatness of the Protestant Church to afford an independent news agency with all its critical faculties."

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Mandate and market. Perspectives of Protestant Journalism Published by the Church Office of the Evangelical Church in Germany . GEP book, Frankfurt am Main 1996, ISBN 3-932195-04-7 , p. 27 ff.
  2. ↑ see also Peter Zschunke: Agency journalism: news writing every second . UVK Verlagsgesellschaft, Munich 2000, ISBN 978-3-89669-306-8 (p. 62)
  3. ^ Walter Schwarz: August Hinderer , Stuttgart 1951, page 68
  4. ^ Walter Schwarz: August Hinderer, Leben und Werk , Stuttgart 1951, page 68
  5. ↑ Udo Hahn: Church and Journalism - Communication of the Gospel . JP Peter publishing house, Rothenburg ob der Tauber, p. 36.
  6. ^ Walter Schwarz: August Hinderer, Leben und Werk , Stuttgart 1951, page 91
  7. ^ Roland Rosenstock : Evangelical Press in the 20th Century , Stuttgart, Zurich 2002, ISBN 978-3-7831-2052-3 , page 75, and Hans Hafenbrack: History of the Evangelical Press Service , Bielefeld 2004 ISBN 3-7858-0488-1 page 150ff, page 166
  8. ↑ Schwanebeck, Axel: Evangelical Church and Mass Media. A historical analysis of the intentions and realization of Protestant journalism. Munich 1990 page 226/227, 290. ISBN 3-88927-068-9
  9. ^ Rosenstock, Roland: Evangelical Press in the 20th Century Stuttgart, Zurich 2002, page 63
  10. ↑ Höckele, Simone : August Hinderer, road and work of a pioneer Protestant journalism , CPV Verlag, Erlangen 2001, ISBN 3-933992-02-8 , page 100-104.
  11. ↑ Roland Rosenstock: Evangelical Press in the 20th Century , Stuttgart Zurich 2002, ISBN 978-3-7831-2052-3 , page 75
  12. ↑ Roland Rosenstock: "Evangelical Press in the 20th Century", Stuttgart, Zurich 2002, page 86
  13. ↑ Roland Rosenstock: "Evangelical Press in the 20th Century", Stuttgart, Zurich 2002, page 86
  14. ↑ Roland Rosenstock: "Evangelical Press in the 20th Century" Stuttgart, Zurich 2002, page 86
  15. ^ Fritz Schlawe: Literary Journals 1910-1933, Stuttgart 1962, page 99
  16. ↑ Roland Rosenstock: Evangelical Press in the 20th Century, Stuttgart, Zurich 2002, page 485, 491,494
  17. ^ German Online Museum for Public Relations , Public II
  18. ↑ Höckele, Simone: August Hinderer, road and work of a pioneer Protestant journalism , CVP Verlag, Erlangen 2001, the 170th
  19. ↑ Rosenstock, Roland: Evangelical Press in the 20th Century , Stuttgart, Zurich 2002, page 74
  20. ^ Weitenhagen, Holger: The ecclesiastical press in the Rhineland and in the Protestant Church: their high point at the time of the Weimar Republic. in: monthly books for evangelical church history of the Rhineland 50 (2001) pages 249-272
  21. ^ Rosenstock, Roland: Evangelical Press in the 20th Century , Stuttgart, Zurich 2002, page 85
  22. ^ Rosenstock, Roland: Evangelical Press in the 20th Century , Stuttgart, Zurich 2002, page 80
  23. ↑ Vossische newspaper 06.25.1933, Front Page
  24. ↑ Rosenstock, Roland: Evangelical Press in the 20th Century , Stuttgart, Zurich 2002, p. 97
  25. ^ Schwarz, Walter: August Hinderer, Leben und Werk , Stuttgart 1951, page 143
  26. ^ Schwarz, Walter: August Hinderer, Leben und Werk , Stuttgart 1951, pp. 147–148
  27. ^ Schwarz, Walter: August Hinderer, Leben und Werk , Stuttgart 1951, page 148
  28. ↑ Höckele, Simone: August Hinderer, way and work of a pioneer of Protestant journalism . CVP, Erlangen 2001, page 327
  29. ↑ Höckele, Simone: August Hinderer, Path and Work of a Pioneer Evangelical Journalism , CVP, Erlangen 2001, page 335
  30. ↑ Hans Walter Liepmann, ieHWWright: Three score and ten, typescript, Otley UK, 1976, 35
  31. ↑ Rosenstock, Roland: Evangelical Press in the 20th Century , Stuttgart, Zurich 2002, page 134
  32. ↑ epd media pdf. Ste.4. June 24, 2002, accessed February 18, 2017 .
  33. ↑ Scan the license document. epd medien Ste. 31, June 24, 2002, accessed on February 18, 2017 .
  34. ↑ Hans Hafenbrack : History of the Evangelical Press Service. Protestant press work from 1848 to 1981 . Luther-Verlag, Bielefeld 2004, ISBN 3-7858-0488-1 , p. 432 ff.
  35. ^ Rosenstock, Roland: Evangelical Press in the 20th Century, Stuttgart, Zurich 2002, page 561
  36. ^ Trutz Rendtorff: Hafenbracks history of the Protestant press service. epd mediendienst, Ste.3, June 23, 2004, accessed on February 18, 2017 .
  37. ^ The history of the evangelical press service - a documentation, Ste.7. epd.de, June 23, 2004, accessed on February 18, 2017 .
  38. ↑ epd revises its history in the Nazi era: No ban 1937. (No longer available online.) Ekd.de, February 24, 2002, archived from the original on February 19, 2017 ; accessed on February 18, 2017 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ekd.de
  39. ^ Rosenstock, Roland: Evangelical Press in the 20th Century, Stuttgart, Zurich 2002, pp. 234,235
  40. ↑ Hans Hafenbrack: History of the Evangelical Press Service. Protestant press work from 1848 to 1981 . Luther-Verlag, Bielefeld 2004, ISBN 978-3-7858-0488-9 , p. 662 .
  41. ↑ Focko Lüpsen: The path of the Church's press relations from 1933 to 1950 . In: Church yearbook for the Evangelical Church in Germany . Gütersloh 1949, p. 415-454 .
  42. ↑ Special issue epd-medien No. 48 . June 24, 2002.
  43. ↑ Self-presentation of the epd: We set priorities.
  44. ^ Epd-Arbeitsgemeinschaft (Ed.): We set priorities . epd, Frankfurt am Main 2009 (self-presentation of the epd).
  45. ↑ epv.musterwebsite2-evangelisch.de ( memento of the original from August 8, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF)  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / epv.musterwebsite2-evangelisch.de
  46. ↑ Protestant press service celebrates 100th anniversary .
  47. ↑ 100 years of epd: Celebrities congratulate