Johannische Church

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Johannische Church
Legal form: Public corporation
Seat: Berlin , GermanyGermanyGermany 
Founding: April 15, 1926
Head: Stefan Tzschentke, deputy: Daniel Stolpe
Members: 3000 (as of 2020)
Website: www.johannische-kirche.org

Johannische Kirche Blankensee; Church of the City of Peace

The Johannische Kirche (formerly: Evangelical-Johannische Kirche after the Revelation of St. Johannis ) is a religious community founded in 1926 in Berlin by the religious and church reformer Joseph Weißenberg (1855-1941). It sees itself as a Christian church. The basis of their beliefs are the Luther Bible , Weißenberg's teachings and also a theological interpretation of Christian traditions and beliefs based on Weißenberg's understanding. It has corporate status in Berlin and Brandenburg .

The community, which in 1934 still had 60,000 followers (around 12,000 registered members and religious friends) in formerly over 150 parishes with numerous preachers, associations and its own settlement Friedensstadt bei Trebbin , had around 3,000 members in around 30 parishes in the German-speaking area in 2015. Since 1975 it has been called the Johannische Kirche.

Founding and church history

From a new Christian association to a doctrine of its own

In 1907 Joseph Weißenberg founded the Christian Association of Serious Researchers from This Side to the Hereafter, true followers of the Christian churches . Although this association saw itself as a non-denominational movement, the followers of the community worked particularly in the Evangelical Church. Weißenberg saw himself entitled to violent criticism of the traditional Christian churches because of his claimed prophetic abilities. He and his followers first tried to achieve reform within the regional church. This attempt initially appeared to be successful until the 1920s. In 1925 several supporters of Weißenberg ran for elections for the parish councils. Two supporters of the Weißenberg movement were elected, but they were refused entry into office. Other supporters of Weißenberg were denied the Lord's Supper. Due to these events, Weißenberg declared his resignation from the regional church on March 25, 1926 and founded the Evangelical-Johannic Church on April 15, 1926 according to the Revelation of St. John . The teaching of the Johannische Kirche, which sees in Joseph Weißenberg a revelation from God, resulted in the greatest enthusiasm within the church, but also led to a lot of hostility from outside. By the early 1930s, the number of followers (registered members and religious friends) rose to over 60,000 in Berlin , Brandenburg and Silesia . In 1932 his daughter Frieda Müller was appointed as Joseph Weißenberg's successor. Her father's humanity was her role model.

Peace City project

The Johannische Kirche became widely known through a project by Weißenberg that he called the City of Peace . After the purchase of 400 hectares of land in the Glauer Mountains near Trebbin in Brandenburg by the "Christian Settlement Cooperative Waldfrieden", one of the largest and most modern private settlement works was built in 1920. The first construction phase was designed for 15,000 residents; in fact around 40 buildings for 400 residents were built. The success was based "in the unlimited cooperation between management and comrades".

The Ev.-Johannische Kirche in the time of National Socialism

During the Nazi Gleichschaltung the pressure grew on the Christian Siedlungsgenossenschaft Waldfrieden, located in NS integrate -State. In 1933 an NSDAP local group was founded in the Peace City. Following this meeting, Joseph Weißenberg, who did not belong to this local group, held a service. After the arbitrary detention and murder of dissenters, Weißenberg protested with two letters to Hitler . In the period that followed, Weißenberg and his church were ridiculed in the synchronized press. At the end of 1934, the Gestapo in Potsdam asked the church founder and his church to ban the Old Testament and the spiritual friend speeches ( trance sermons ) from church life. Joseph Weißenberg protested vigorously against it and refused.

On January 17, 1935, the Evangelical St. John Church was banned as subversive and dangerous to the state, all documents were confiscated and the church property was confiscated and transferred to the state of Prussia without compensation . Joseph Weißenberg and senior staff were imprisoned. In the following months, the almost 80-year-old was picked up by the Gestapo, interrogated, threatened, arrested and released again. Nevertheless, he continued to write personally to Hitler, demanding freedom of belief and the withdrawal of the church ban. On August 13, 1935, Joseph Weißenberg was sentenced by the 2nd Large Criminal Chamber of the Berlin Regional Court to one and a half years in prison and five years of loss of honor as a moral criminal. In a second trial on October 21, 1935 before the Special Court I, he received a year in prison for illegal and subversive activities.

The Friedensstadt settlement was forced into liquidation at the behest of the Gestapo and sold to the German Reich by court order in 1941 because 14 members of the cooperative refused to consent to the sale. From 1938 the Waffen-SS moved there and gradually drove out the residents. In the period from 1942 to January 1945, the Glau branch of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp was located in the settlement . In order to separate Joseph Weißenberg from his followers and his life's work, he was exiled to Silesia in 1938 after serving his prison sentence and placed there under house arrest. He died on March 6, 1941 in Obernigk near Breslau in the presence of his daughter Frieda Müller (1911–2001).

From the re-establishment to the return of the city of peace

Immediately after the end of the war, the reconstruction of the Johannische Kirche began under the direction of Weißenberg's successor Frieda Müller. In negotiations with the Allies , the lifting of the church ban was obtained. On February 3, 1946, the first Johannine service after the ban took place in Berlin. The Red Army had moved into the Peace City, which was confiscated by the SS , and its return was refused. Only the church of the Peace City on the Waldfrieden area in Blankensee was returned. After negotiations with the Soviet occupying forces, a service could take place there again on June 30, 1946. At the handover, the Soviet commander asked: "Pray for Russia too!" On August 25, 1946, the first church convention in Berlin after the ban brought together numerous church members from all parts of the country, but it took several years for the scattered supporters - many came from the former communities east of Oder and Neisse - they could be collected and cared for again.

The division of Germany when the two German states were founded in 1949 also had serious consequences for the Johannine Church. With the construction of the Berlin Wall on August 13, 1961, it was no longer possible for all members to participate in church events. Although the Johannische Kirche developed its own forms of organization in both German states in the following years, the unity of the church and the close cohesion of the church members remained. In the years that followed, the church was able to build its own meetinghouses and places of worship in the east and west. She was also a guest at other churches or granted other faith communities the right to host.

Ecclesiastical centers were the Waldfrieden area in the GDR and the St. Michaels home in the western part of Berlin . In 1972, with the purchase of the Stempferhof in Gößweinstein, the foundation stone was laid for the church's commitment in Franconian Switzerland. In 1976, with the acquisition of Gut Schönhof in Eichenbirkig, another field of work by Joseph Weißenberg, which he had already developed in the Peace City: agriculture.

The opening of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989 also enabled the unity of the Johannische Kirche and its social institutions. At Pentecost 1990, after more than five decades, members of all congregations of the church gathered for a common thanksgiving service on the Waldfrieden grounds. In March 1994 the Russian soldiers bid farewell to the Peace City and the symbolic handover of the keys to Frieda Müller's daughter Josephine. Shortly afterwards, the final return of the city of peace was ordered.

The Johannische Kirche in the 21st century

Frieda Müller died on June 10, 2001. Josephine Müller (July 15, 1949 - December 30, 2019) was succeeded in the office of head of the company. She continued her mother's path to open the Johannische Kirche to everyone. An externally visible step here is the redesign of the altar in the Waldfrieden church center in Blankensee south of Berlin, completed on March 6, 2002, with the inscription: "God is love" (cf. 1 Jn 4,16b  LUT ). With this the Johannische Kirche underscores its mission to build a bridge to all people, denominations and religions, for whom the Creator is a God of love.

At the same time, the reception of Holy Communion is no longer linked to the John's creed since that day. Josephine Müller said: "May the sacrament of the Lord's Supper become a source of strength for everyone who can confess: 'I believe in God who is love.'"

Since January 2020 the Johannische Kirche has been headed by head of the church Stefan Tzschentke (born 1973) and his deputy and successor Daniel Stolpe (born 1989).

structure

The Johannische Kirche is led by a head who, according to the community, is “a prophetic spirit led by God ”. The first head was Joseph Weißenberg. In 1932 he appointed his daughter Frieda Müller as his successor, who in turn appointed her daughter Josephine Müller as the successor to head in 1961. Josephine Müller appointed Stefan Tzschentke as her successor on December 13, 2019.

Like other churches, the Johannische Kirche is divided into regional districts, church districts and parishes. The heads of the church districts are headed by district leaders, the parishes by community leaders.

There are around 30 communities in Germany (as of 2018): Baden-Baden , Berlin-Grunewald , Berlin-Kaulsdorf , Bremen , Doberlug-Kirchhain , Dortmund , Dresden , Düsseldorf , Elster , Frankfurt (Oder) , Weissenberg , a city of peace in the Glau district of Trebbin , Fürstenwalde , Gößweinstein , Güstrow , Hamburg , Hanover , Jena / Zwickau , Forst , Leipzig , Pasewalk , Potsdam , Quedlinburg , Schwedt / Angermünde , Staßfurt , Stuttgart , Velten , Wiesbaden and Wittenberg .

The public corporation has its seat in Berlin-Nikolassee . Church centers are located in the St. Michaels Home in Berlin-Grunewald, in the Peace City Weissenberg in the state of Brandenburg and in Franconian Switzerland at Gut Schönhof in Waischenfeld in Bavaria .

financing

The Johannische Kirche is financed by donations and contributions from members, friends and sponsors. This also includes donations in kind and voluntary work. The members determine the amount of their contributions themselves. After the service, the collection is collected. The social and pastoral work of the Johannische Kirche is essentially done by many voluntary helpers. This also applies to the many manual activities that are necessary in order to maintain one's own property and meetinghouses.

Interdenominational and interreligious work

Members of other religious communities who, according to John's understanding of faith, are other ways to God, are shown great respect and acceptance.

Weißenberg urged his followers when the Johannische Kirche was founded: "Johannische Christenheit, recognize your goal in bridging the denominations through love."

Weissenberg also wrote in his lesson: “Since people all have different characters and passions, there must be different tours. God now allows each person a certain freedom with regard to his thoughts and his striving, so that everyone can only be truly convinced through their own experience, and so we can never set up the same rules and laws for all people. Because just as different paths lead to a city from its surroundings, so God also has different ways and means to guide the human race. ”This respect for different faith and life paths has resulted in good cooperation with congregations of other denominations and religions.

The Johannische Kirche is a founding member of the Berlin "Working Group of Churches and Religious Societies " AKR . Here she maintains cooperation with other religions and denominations. Contact with other churches and religious communities is also established through mutual visits or the shared use of rooms.

Content and effect of the Johannian church faith

Doctrine of faith

The doctrine of faith is characterized in the sense of spiritualism by a strong proximity to the hereafter with its spiritual world. In so-called spirit friend speeches , angels of light address the church through media. From this and from the teaching of Joseph Weißenberg a Third Testament is in the making, which is understood as a supplement and continuation of the Old and New Testament . Spiritual friend speeches always take place in the presence of the head.

Joseph Weißenberg's doctrine of faith includes a doctrine of reincarnation . Souls can have lived as human beings on this earth several times in order to mature in the spirit of God.

John Christians believe that
... all souls have their origin in closeness to God.
... a large part of all souls - before the creation of the earth - fell away from God through their arrogance together with Lucifer (Revelation 12,4; Revelation 12,7-9).
... through God's grace all souls get the chance to let go of arrogance, egoism, envy etc. over several incarnations and to find love again, to find closeness to God.
... many ways lead to God.
... the Johannine way to God leads through three stages of knowledge and three testaments, namely through Moses (Ten Commandments), Jesus Christ (commandment of neighborly love) and Joseph Weißenberg (law of the Spirit).
... God revealed himself through Moses, Jesus Christ and Joseph Weißenberg.
... the aim of all denominations and religions is the "bridging of denominations through love".
Joseph Weißenberg taught this Johannine view of life. His goal was for it to become "a shepherd and a flock" again.

Creed

According to the confession of faith of the Johannische Kirche, "Joseph Weißenberg [...] is the comforter and spirit of truth promised by Jesus". Weissenberg is understood as the incarnation of the Holy Spirit . The creed of the Johannische Kirche reads:

"I believe in God the Father,
I believe in God the Son,
I believe in God the Holy Spirit
and in God's revelations through Moses, Jesus Christ and Joseph Weißenberg."

Faith and life rules

Joseph Weißenberg prescribed daily prayer and regular attendance at church services in order to maintain strength and direction for everyday life. He brought back the early Christian healing by the laying on of hands. It is regularly donated in the St. John's Church as a sacrament of spiritual healing.

Weißenberg taught: "Pray two Our Fathers every evening, one for yourself, the second for all relatives, acquaintances and the deceased, and the first psalm." He admonished to keep the commandments of God, to take Christ's example and actions as an example and to use one's free will to know the truth and to reform. He also recommended attending church services regularly, participating in community life, and receiving the sacrament of spiritual healing every four weeks as a source of strength.

The lay preachers are not trained in theology and are mostly employed in everyday professions. Together with mostly volunteer pastors, they look after young and old, sick and healthy people, donate the sacraments and give consolation and direction.

Religious and confirmation classes, youth groups and adult gatherings are an important part of the work in the communities. There are also many interest groups and cultural events.

The opportunity to work in the Johannisches Sozialwerk eV and the development of the Peace City of Joseph Weißenberg should serve the individual and the community.

Everyone should strive to do good in their thoughts too; because thoughts are powers. In the community man can and should grow in his spiritual knowledge.

"Two pillars of life never break, they are called prayer and work. Pray in a way that pleases God and work in such a way that you can benefit your neighbor."

Card games with French and German cards are prohibited.

Sacraments

The Johannische Kirche donates four sacraments:

  • the sacrament of baptism,
  • the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, celebrated once a year,
  • the sacrament of spiritual healing and
  • the sacrament of dying.

According to the Johannine Church's understanding of faith, currents of God are transmitted. The Johannische Kirche donates its sacraments to everyone who can confess that God is love.

The social mission of the Johannische Kirche

For Joseph Weißenberg, religious and social work were an inseparable unit. He had before his eyes the parable of Jesus Christ of the good Samaritan. The charity shown there found its practical implementation: "My only thought was to help people who were suffering, miserable and sick."

With the construction of the Peace City, Weißenberg gave the people a home. They got work, a place to live and the challenge to base their lives on the teaching of Jesus Christ. The ban on the Johannische Kirche in 1935 and the expropriation of the City of Peace by the Nazi dictatorship also temporarily put an end to the social activity of this community.

After the church ban was lifted, this charitable work was resumed on December 1, 1946 with the establishment of a social aid organization. The immediate post-war period was mainly characterized by material concerns. Thus a social aid organization emerged from the community of John Christians, in which people took care of the worries of their fellow human beings, who are always their neighbors in the Christian sense. This voluntary work has become an integral and indispensable part of the Johannine community life.

Over the years it became clear that "organized aid" was necessary. In 1954 the head of the church founded the Johannisches Aufbauwerk - since 1990: Johannisches Sozialwerk - which has developed into a charitable organization active in several federal states.

In 1976, on the occasion of her 65th birthday, Frieda Müller received the First Class Federal Cross of Merit from the Federal President for her social commitment , which she accepted “on behalf of all members of the Church”.

literature

Primary literature

  • Joseph Weißenberg: Life after death. Berlin 1912.
  • Joseph Weißenberg: The continued life - newly revised. Edition - Berlin: Weg und Ziel, 2005, ISBN 3-00-017531-8
  • Joseph Weißenberg: My arrest and internment. no year
  • Joseph Weißenberg: A picture of my thorn path. Berlin N 58, Gleimstrasse 42: self-published, 1931.
  • Johannische Kirche: Faith bases of the Johannische Kirche, Berlin: Weg und Ziel, 2010, ISBN 978-3-9813822-0-4

Secondary literature

Web links

Commons : Johannische Kirche Kaulsdorf  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Karl Mühlek:  WEISSENBERG, Joseph. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 13, Bautz, Herzberg 1998, ISBN 3-88309-072-7 , Sp. 693-695.  ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )
  2. ↑ a b Flyer Joseph Weißenberg, founder of the Johannische Kirche Johannische Kirche (ed.), Status 11/2005.
  3. ↑ Newspaper New Building and Settlement. 1932.
  4. ^ Homepage of the Johannische Kirche (accessed October 1, 2015).
  5. ^ Johannische Kirche: Faith bases of the Johannische Kirche. Weg und Ziel, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-9813822-0-4 , p. 23.
  6. ^ Johannische Kirche: Faith bases of the Johannische Kirche. Weg und Ziel, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-9813822-0-4 , p. 54.
  7. ^ Johannische Kirche: Faith bases of the Johannische Kirche. Path and goal, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-9813822-0-4 .
  8. ^ Johannische Kirche: Faith bases of the Johannische Kirche. Weg und Ziel, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-9813822-0-4 , p. 32.
  9. ^ Johannische Kirche: Faith bases of the Johannische Kirche. Weg und Ziel, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-9813822-0-4 , p. 93.
  10. ^ Johannische Kirche: Faith bases of the Johannische Kirche. Weg und Ziel, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-9813822-0-4 , pp. 137–193.
  11. ↑ http://www.johannisches-sozialwerk.de/
  12. ^ Johannische Kirche: Faith bases of the Johannische Kirche. Weg und Ziel, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-9813822-0-4 , p. 142.
  13. ^ Johannische Kirche: Faith bases of the Johannische Kirche. Weg und Ziel, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-9813822-0-4 , pp. 69-92.
  14. ↑ Joseph Weißenberg: A picture of my thorn path. Berlin N 58, Gleimstraße 42: self-published, 1931, page 5