Gustav-Adolf-Werk

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Gustav-Adolf-Werk eV Diasporawerk of the Evangelical Church in Germany , founded in 1832, is the oldest nationwide Evangelical aid organization in Germany. It is based in Leipzig and bears the name of the Swedish King Gustav II Adolf . It is an umbrella organization for 21 main groups (Gustav-Adolf-Werke in the Protestant regional churches ) and 19 women's groups. Prelate Gabriele Wulz from Ulm has been President since January 1, 2016 . Pastor Enno Haaks has been the general secretary since January 1, 2010 .

tasks

Word-figurative mark of the Gustav-Adolf-Werk

The association helps "worldwide evangelical congregations to live their faith in Jesus Christ in freedom and to work diaconally in their environment".

Partners are Protestant minority churches in Europe , Latin America , Central Asia and the Middle East . The GAW helps its around 50 partner churches with the construction of the community, with the renovation, with the purchase and construction of new churches and community rooms, with social, diaconal and missionary tasks, with the training and further education of church employees and the like. a. Every year up to 140 projects are supported with more than two million euros.

structure

Independent aid organizations exist in Protestant churches in several European countries. Its founding is partly based on regional Gustav Adolf associations of the 19th century. Among other things, Bratnia Pomoc imienia Gustawa Adolfa of the Evangelical Augsburg Church in the Republic of Poland goes back to the founding of the Silesian Gustav Adolf Association.

background

Today's aid organization goes back to the founding of Gustav Adolf associations in the 19th century. Its background is the commemoration of the intervention of the Swedes under Gustav II Adolf , which prevented a threatened defeat of the Protestants in the Thirty Years War from 1630. With the victory at Breitenfeld, Gustav Adolf gained his reputation among his contemporaries as the savior not only of German Protestantism. The saying “Freedom of belief for the world, saved by Breitenfeld, Gustav Adolf, Christ and Held”, which can also be found on the Breitenfeld monument erected in 1830, has been handed down in different versions. Even today, the GAW itself points out that without his commitment in Germany there would have been no freedom of belief and diversity of beliefs for the time being.

In the 19th century, 200 years after the turning point in the Thirty Years' War, the various anniversaries were celebrated in Sweden and Germany, and the cult around the king was broadly anchored. Both Breitenfeld and the battlefield of Lützen , where Gustav Adolf fell during a battle that was important for the Protestant cause, can both be found in the Leipzig area and are important places of remembrance .

At that time, the king once again became a high-ranking and popular Protestant hero. When a monument was to be erected on the battlefield near Lützen on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the death of Gustav Adolf in 1832, there were several proposals to create a “living memorial”, e. B. a "Gustav Adolfs-Stift [...] for the free education of Protestant youths, for the promotion of some other purely spiritual purpose".

Founding history

The establishment of the Gustav-Adolf-Verein can also be understood as an expression of the growing civil society in pre-March Germany. The founders included important protagonists of the time such as the politician Maximilian von Schwerin-Putzar or the superintendent Christian Gottlob Großmann .

Foundation in Leipzig

A group of initiators around Christian Gottlob Großmann and the merchant Christian August Wilhelm Schild (1777–1838) wrote the appeal on December 9, 1832 to establish a “Gustav Adolphs Foundation”. "... an institution for fraternal support of oppressed co-religionists, and to alleviate the need ..."

The first support was given to the municipality of Karlshuld am Donaumoos in Bavaria in January 1833 and amounted to 50 thalers.

Darmstadt foundation

On October 31, 1841, Karl Zimmermann , Darmstadt court preacher and editor of the Allgemeine Kirchenzeitung , published an appeal to the Protestant world in his newspaper . In it he announced the creation of an "association for the support of needy Protestant communities", which was supposed to collect funds for the construction of churches, parish houses and school houses, for salaries and church equipment. One of the founding members was the Prussian politician Maximilian von Schwerin-Putzar .

Union

In order to avoid competition between the two initiatives, the foundation and the association were merged on September 16, 1842 in the Thomaskirche in Leipzig to form the Evangelical Association of the Gustav Adolf Foundation . The statutes were adopted on September 21, 1843 in Frankfurt am Main. Leipzig was determined as the location for the headquarters, the structure was based on equal main and branch associations in the German territories.

“The Evangelical Association of the Gustav Adolf Foundation [...] has, in mind of the apostolic word Gal. 6.10 'Let us do good to everyone, but mostly to the people of the faith', for the purpose of alleviating the need of these people of faith in and outside Germany, if they cannot obtain sufficient help in their own fatherland, to the best of our ability. " Articles of Association § 1)
"The effectiveness of the association includes Lutheran, Reformed and Uniate as well as those congregations that can credibly prove their agreement with the Evangelical Church." (Statute § 2)

The GAV became the first large membership organization in the area of ​​Protestant churches to cross theological and territorial borders. “In contrast, the historical achievement of the GAV consisted not only of spiritual and material help for the diaspora , but also of founding a cross-church mass organization on a non-Pietist basis, which, however, was also able to integrate representatives of the awakening. In terms of church and general politics, he created the prerequisites for the emergence of awareness of the necessity of unifying German Protestantism. "

In 1882, the GAV had 44 main associations, 1,762 branch, 89 local, 381 women's and 11 student associations. In the 50 years of its existence it had supported 2,933 parishes.

Women's work

To support the association in the Rhineland, the first Gustav Adolf women's association was founded in Rees in 1848 . In 1851, the first women’s group was founded in Berlin, the existence of which can be proven by written sources. Today's working group for women’s work in the Gustav-Adolf-Werk regards this date as its birthday. In 1862, the Gustav Adolf women's work was incorporated into the overall association.

In 1886 the women’s associations of the Gustav Adolf Foundation supported their own project for the first time. This first "women's love gift" was intended for the orphanage in Ostrowo (province of Posen).

Allocation of funding according to national criteria?

The association vigorously defended itself against allegations of neglecting the non-German communities. In 1860, the central board of the GAV stated in its circular to the main associations: "Almost three times the sum of money for German communities in Hungary went to Hungarian communities in the financial year 1857/58." Until the First World War, it remained the official line of becoming a Protestant association not to get involved with nationalism. However, from 1897 the association supported communities that were founded in Austria as a result of the German national Los-von-Rom movement . In May 1916, the central board decided to only deal with the German Evangelicals in Poland.

There was close cooperation on diaspora issues between the German Evangelical Church Federation, founded in 1922, and the GAV. At the same time, the amalgamation of state and church political ideas and the work of the GAV in the Weimar Republic became increasingly closer. In 1923 the Reich Ministry of the Interior paid the GAV five million marks, which were intended for associations of German repatriates and emigrants.

Self-alignment under National Socialism

In 1935, the general assembly of the GAV passed a new statute that introduced the leader principle and centralism. This led to vehement disputes with various main clubs. The main association Berlin-Brandenburg only accepted the new statutes in 1939 after the politically forced resignation of its chairman Otto Dibelius .

In 1934, the law professor Hans Gerber was elected for the first time a non-theologian as president of the GAV. Gerber joined the NSDAP in 1937. At the same time, resistance fighters such as Carl Friedrich Goerdeler (deputy president from 1937) and Hans von Dohnanyi were active on the GAV's central board .

The GAV was not dissolved due to its “self-alignment”, but its work was restricted by collection legislation and foreign exchange regulations. The emphasis of the work shifted from “fellow believers” to “German fellow citizens”.

The central board and the chairmen of all main groups set an important signal in 1943, however. They renounced tax exemptions in order to be able to maintain “the support of Protestant co-religionists of non-German ethnicity and language”.

GAW in the two German states

On January 31, 1946, the newly formed Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany confirmed the association as the "Gustav Adolf Work of the Evangelical Church in Germany". In accordance with Article 16 of the EKD's constitution of July 13, 1948, the Gustav-Adolf-Werk has since then assumed special responsibility for serving the diaspora in cooperation with the EKD, its member churches and parishes.

The headquarters of the Gustav-Adolf-Werk in Leipzig was built in 1930 as a dormitory for diaspora students.

In the background of the threatened dissolution of the Leipzig Central Association by the Soviet occupying power, the 21 main groups of the three western occupation zones formed an "emergency community of the Gustav Adolf Foundation" in 1948 with an office in Assenheim , and from 1952 in Kassel . One stuck to the understanding of a unified work, even if the two works had to act legally independently. The separation between the Gustav-Adolf-Werk of the Federation of Evangelical Churches in the GDR and the Gustav-Adolf-Werk (West) of the EKD was officially completed on March 11, 1970.

A natural division of labor followed from the political separation. Since the 1960s, the West German regional churches have been increasingly able to promote their own diaspora due to the increased revenue from church taxes. The main focus of the GAW (West) shifted from the inland diaspora to Latin America and Western and Southern Europe. GAW Ost supported communities in the GDR and the Eastern Bloc.

reunion

On June 19, 1992, the members of the 29 main groups and the women's work of the Gustav-Adolf-Werke East and West in Herrnhut founded the all-German work, Gustav-Adolf-Werk eV Diasporawerk of the Evangelical Church in Germany (GAW).

The decision in favor of the location in Leipzig was an important punctuation. As the first church work in Germany, the Gustav-Adolf-Werk took its seat in one of the new federal states. The head office in Kassel was closed in 1994.

designation

In Sweden itself there is still a Gustav Adolf Day on November 6th and even associated pastries, the Gustav Adolfsbakelse . Since then, his legacy has been cherished in Sweden until today, it is also part of the common culture of remembrance and the regional places of remembrance. u. a. the Schwedenstrasse . On the occasion of the 400th birthday of the king in 1994, King Carl XVI. Gustaf with Silvia von Schweden the headquarters of the GAW in Leipzig. Church services, wreath-laying ceremonies and city receptions take place in Lützen on the day. The 2013 sermon in the church in Meuchen , where Gustav II Adolf was laid out after his death, was given by Provost Reinhard Werneburg, chairman of the GAW Central Germany. The local memorial day is organized by the Evangelical Congregation of Lützen, the Gustav-Adolf-Werk, the Lützenfonden Foundation from Gothenburg as well as the Berlin Swedish Victoria Parish and the city of Lützen.

At the same time, the naming after Gustav-Adolf, who appeared as warlord and military as well as Defensor fidei , is also a challenge within the current EKD. There has also been a lot of internal disputes about the namesake of the Gustav-Adolf-Werk. Among other things, it appeared critical that he took part in a war.

The then chairman of the council, Wolfgang Huber , saw it as follows:

"To see the warlord and the defender of his faith together: that is - the by no means easy - task that the memory of Gustav Adolf confronts us."

- Wolfgang Huber : Sermon in the festive church service 175 years of Gustav-Adolf-Werk in Lützen, November 6, 2007

According to its own statements, the Gustav-Adolf-Werk explicitly distances itself from military force as a means of spreading faith as well as from nationalistic abuse of its namesake. From the very beginning, the associations and the relief organization have been campaigning for afflicted evangelical minorities using civilian means, donations, educational measures and moral support. At the same time, Gustav II Adolf's personal faith, courage and commitment to life are still respected.

Current developments

In view of the changes in world politics, the GAW had to readjust its work in the years after reunification. The sister churches of the Leuenberg Agreement are still the main addressees of the GAW.

  • Eastern Europe : In the formerly socialist states, the Protestant churches had to partially rebuild their structures after the political change. B. the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Central Asia . They also needed support with the renovation of restored buildings. GAW has taken this into account by redistributing project funds in the project catalog since the 1990s. The cooperation with the Bulgarian Evangelical Alliance was reduced.
  • Inner German diaspora : In 2000, the GAW resumed support for parishes and church institutions in the inner German diaspora. The establishment of Protestant schools in the new federal states is mainly funded.
  • Fund for oppressed and persecuted Christians : The focus of the fund established in 2010 is currently on supporting the Arabic-speaking National Evangelical Synod and the Association of Armenian Evangelical Churches in Syria, their schools and diaconal projects. The Coptic Church in Egypt is also promoted.
  • Theological training : The GAW advises and supports its partner churches in Latin America in the expansion and restructuring of their theological training centers as well as in the search for cooperation that has become necessary for financial reasons or due to the lack of state recognition of the qualifications of these training centers (e.g. the Closure of ISEDET). Among other things, the first project in Cuba took place in 2015.
  • Word and image brand : In 2013–14, GAW is introducing a new word and image brand and a guiding principle with “Worldwide Communities Help” and is developing a corporate design for the uniform appearance of the main and women's groups for the first time.

Actions

  • The children's gift "Children for Children" proclaimed by Pastor Paul Zauleck in 1904 continues to consist of the annual confirmation gift, children's gift and school beginners service
  • When the Gustav-Adolf-Frauenarbeiten supported a joint project for the first time in 1886, the annual “Frauenliebesgabe” was established. Under the name GAW women's work annual project, around 100,000 euros are now being collected annually for social welfare projects and advanced training for women.
  • The voluntary service, based on the “ weltwärts ” program of the federal government, sends around 20 volunteers annually to the social welfare projects of the GAW partner churches. GAW Württemberg is responsible for the selection and supervision.
  • Through the study and scholarship fund, up to 10 Protestant theology students from the partner churches can receive a scholarship for one academic year at the theological faculty of the University of Leipzig. The scholarships have been awarded regularly since 1857 at the latest.

President

Chairwoman of the central board of the Evangelical Association of the Gustav Adolf Foundation

(from 1935: President)

President of the Gustav-Adolf-Werk (West) of the EKD

(until 1966: Emergency Community of the Gustav Adolf Foundation)
  • Ernst Wagner (1951–1952)
  • Fritz Hermann Hauß (1959–1963)
  • Hans Jungbluth (1964–1968)
  • Hans Katz (1968–1974)
  • Günter Besch (1975–1978)
  • Hermann Riess (1979–1988)
  • Dietrich Gang (1989–1992)

President of the Gustav-Adolf-Werk in the GDR

  • Johannes Hoffmann (1971–1977)
  • Rolf Stubbe (1978–1985)
  • Eberhard Winkler (1987–1992)

President of the Gustav-Adolf-Werk e. V. - Diaspora work of the Evangelical Church in Germany

Literature (selection)

  • Karl Zimmermann : The Gustav-Adolf-Verein according to its history, its constitution and its works: Edited from the estate of the deceased by his son Wilhelm Zimmermann. With a preface by Fricke in Leipzig. Darmstadt and Leipzig, 1878.
  • Karl Zimmermann (Hrsg.): The buildings of the Gustav-Adolf-Verein in picture and history, a contribution to the history of the evangelical brothers in the diversion. 2 volumes. Volume 1: Darmstadt: Zernin, 1860. Volume 2, Leipzig 1876.
  • Hermann von Criegern: History of the Gustav-Adolf-Verein. Leipzig: Krysing, 1882. Hamburg: G. Schloeßmann, 1903 (Schloeßmann's library for Christian house, volume 4).
  • Otto Lerche : 100 years of the Gustav Adolf Association. Saxon. Verlagsges., Leipzig 1932.
  • Hermann Wolfgang Beyer : The history of the Gustav Adolf-Verein in its ecclesiastical and spiritual-historical contexts, on the centenary of the Evangelical Society of the Gustav Adolf Foundation on behalf of the Central Board. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1932.
  • Gustav Adolf Benrath , Günter Barudio : Gustav Adolf - pious and just. Publishing house of the Gustav-Adolf-Werk, Kassel 1993.
  • Walter Müller-Römheld (Ed.): At the turning point. The Gustav-Adolf-Werk faces new tasks. Publishing house of the Gustav-Adolf-Werk, Leipzig 1995
  • Diaspora work through the ages. Festschrift on the occasion of the 175th anniversary of the founding of Gustav-Adolf-Werk eV - diaspora work of the Evangelical Church in Germany. Publishing house of the Gustav-Adolf-Werk, Leipzig 2007
  • "Some women". 160 years of women's work in the Gustav-Adolf-Werk (= The Evangelical Diaspora, born in 80). Publishing house of the Gustav-Adolf-Werk, Leipzig 2011

Web links

Commons : Gustav-Adolf-Werk  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Mission statement of the Gustav-Adolf-Werk.Retrieved on March 15, 2016.
  2. ↑ GAW in numbers / help according to purpose. Accessed on March 15, 2016.
  3. ↑ See the association's website .
  4. ↑ Thomas Kaufmann : God's victory in Breitenfeld and adoration of Gustav Adolf. In: Ders .: Thirty Years War and Peace of Westphalia. Church history studies on Lutheran confessional culture. Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 1998, ISBN 978-3-16-146933-6 ( online , accessed September 30, 2015).
  5. ^ Carl Zimmermann: The Gustav-Adolf-Verein: A word from him and for him. (With 62 illustrations) . Leske, January 1, 1857 ( online [accessed September 29, 2015]).
  6. ↑ Rikke Petersson: Back then, when Sweden was a great power -: Country and people at the time of the Peace of Westphalia . LIT Verlag Münster, 2000, ISBN 978-3-8258-4575-9 ( online [accessed September 29, 2015]).
  7. ↑ a b Gustav-Adolf-Werk in Sachsen e. V., the namesake. In: www.gaw-sachsen.de. Retrieved March 18, 2016 .
  8. ^ Sverker Oredsson: Historiography and cult . Duncker & Humblot, ISBN 978-3-428-48040-1 ( online [accessed September 29, 2015]).
  9. ↑ Nina Fehrlen: The concept of the road as Sweden German Swedish remembrance . In: Memory Spaces: Historical Images and Cultures of Remembrance in Northern Germany . V&R unipress GmbH, 2014, ISBN 978-3-8471-0243-4 , p. 399 ( online [accessed March 17, 2016]).
  10. ↑ One more word about Gustav Adolph's monument. In: Leipziger Tageblatt 25 (1832), December 14, 1832.
  11. ^ Gustav Adolphs Foundation. In: Leipziger Tageblatt 25 (1832), December 14, 1832
  12. ^ Karl Zimmermann: The Gustav-Adolf-Verein: A word from him and for him. Leske, 1857 ( Online . Retrieved September 29, 2015).
  13. ^ Karl Zimmermann: The Gustav-Adolf-Verein: A word from him and for him. Leske, 1857 ( Online . Retrieved September 29, 2015
  14. ^ Jochen-Christoph Kaiser : Integrative moment of German Protestantism. The creation of the Gustav-Adolf-Verein (GAV) in the context of social and church history. In: Diaspora work through the ages. Festschrift on the occasion of the 175th anniversary of the founding of Gustav-Adolf-Werk eV - diaspora work of the Evangelical Church in Germany. Verlag des Gustav-Adolf-Werk, Leipzig 2007, p. 30f.
  15. ↑ From the Chronicle of Women's Work in the GAW. Accessed on March 15, 2016.
  16. ^ Evangelical Association of the Gustav Adolf Foundation: the Central Board to all main associations: circular from November 26, 1860, Evangelical Central Archives 200/1/730
  17. ↑ Gisa Bauer: Protestantism and Germanness. The Gustav-Adolf-Verein and the national idea. In: Diaspora work through the ages. Festschrift on the occasion of the 175th anniversary of the founding of Gustav-Adolf-Werk eV - diaspora work of the Evangelical Church in Germany. Publishing house of the Gustav-Adolf-Werk, Leipzig 2007.
  18. ↑ Cf. Gisa Bauer: Protestantism and Germanness. The Gustav-Adolf-Verein and the national idea. In: Diaspora work through the ages. Festschrift on the occasion of the 175th anniversary of the founding of Gustav-Adolf-Werk eV - diaspora work of the Evangelical Church in Germany. Publishing house of the Gustav-Adolf-Werk, Leipzig 2007.
  19. ^ Paul-Wilhelm Gennrich : The ecumenical character of the Gustav-Adolf-Werk. In: The Evangelical Diaspora 1954, Kassel 1954, p. 161.
  20. ^ Annual meeting of the Gustav-Adolf-Werk in the German Democratic Republic. In: Die Evangelische Diaspora, 35th year, 1964, Kassel 1964, p. 6.
  21. ^ Chronicle - Gustav-Adolf-Werk eV In: www.gustav-adolf-werk.de. Retrieved March 17, 2016 .
  22. ↑ Germany: Commemoration of Gustav II. Adolf in Lützen - Gustav-Adolf-Werk e. V. In: www.gustav-adolf-werk.de. Retrieved March 18, 2016 .
  23. ↑ EKD website
  24. ↑ a b Status and activity report of the Gustav-Adolf-Werk for the year 2013/14 diaspora work of the Evangelical Church in Germany (GAW)
  25. ↑ Argentina: ISEDET is closed Gustav-Adolf-Werk eV, press release from May 25, 2015
  26. ↑ Germany: Worldwide congregations help Gustav-Adolf-Werk eV, press release from September 25, 2013.
  27. ↑ See confirmation gift , children's gift and school beginners service .
  28. ↑ Annual project of the GAW women's work .
  29. ↑ Voluntary service ( Memento of the original from March 24, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.gaw-wue.de