Mecklenburg and Pomeranian Bible Society

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Mecklenburg and Pomeranian Bible Society was founded on September 26, 2013 in the Low German Bible Center in Barth . It was created through the merger of the Mecklenburgische (founded in 1868) and the Pomeranian Bible Society (founded in 2004) to form a Bible Society for the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania . The joint Bible Society is based in Barth. She is involved in the general assembly of the German Bible Society .

Basics

The parenthesis of the two previously independent Bible societies in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania was the Bible Center in Barth, the student Bible competition and other joint activities. By joining forces, strength was gained to give people access to the Bible in a variety of ways .

The “Mecklenburg and Pomeranian Biblical Society” primarily promotes the work in the Barther Bible Center, which the Northern Church has now taken over. The Bible Society continues to be responsible for the offers in the Bible Information Center in Schwerin.

history

18th century

Before the first Bible Society in the world was founded with the Canstein Bible Institute in 1710, Heinrich Becker (1662–1720), pastor at the Jakobikirche in Rostock , obtained a cheap edition of the Bible in 1702 , which was sold by the thousands for 17 schillings .

19th century

In May 1814, the pious and pietistic-minded Gustav Friedrich Anton von Mevius (1747-1837) from Swedish Pomerania corresponded with the British and Foreign Bible Society (BFBS) in London about the need for the Bible in the country. The original plan of a joint Bible Society for Mecklenburg and Swedish Pomerania failed. There were separate foundings in Schwerin , Rostock , Stralsund and Stettin .

Foundation of the first Mecklenburg Bible Societies

Early Mecklenburg Bible Societies were formed in the Mecklenburg-Schwerin area in Schwerin and Rostock in 1816 and in Wismar in 1826 , where the aid association of the Schwerin Bible Society was transformed into its own Bible Society; in the Mecklenburg-Strelitz area in Neustrelitz in 1817 and in Neubrandenburg in 1820 . Around the middle of the century the Bible Societies followed in Marihn in 1851 and Rattey in 1852, both of which were donated by awakened members of the von Oertzen family .

The Ratteyer inherited the Mecklenburg-Strelitz Biblical Society, which had been revived in vain in 1842, and while retaining its name was expanded into a Bible Society for the entire Strelitz Grand Duchy with the exception of the Principality of Ratzeburg, for the " Biblical Society for the Duchy of Saxony-Lauenburg and the Principality " founded in 1818 Ratzeburg ”existed.

The Schwerin, Rostocker, Marihner and Ratteyer Biblical Society gained greater importance, while the Mecklenburg-Strelitzsche and the Neubrandenburg Biblical Society barely got beyond their beginnings.

The Schwerin Bible Society was founded on January 9, 1816. The aim was to sell the “Book of Books” in Luther's German translation as cheaply as possible. She was supported in this by the BFBS. Your secretary Ebenezer Henderson (1784-1858) visited the newly founded society in the same year and gave the impetus to other Bible societies.

In the Schwerin Bible Society, Oberhofmarschall Bernhard Joachim von Bülow served as President , Government Councilor Friedrich August von Rudloff as Director , Superintendent Ackermann as Vice-President , Pastor Studemund as Secretary , Pastor Erbe as Librarian. This was in line with the practice of most other Bible societies, which liked to adorn themselves with prominent names at their heads.

After a short visit to Ratzeburg , where he successfully initiated the founding of the Lauenburg-Ratzeburg Biblical Society, Rev. Ebenezer Henderson traveled to Schwerin in mid-August 1816, where he received a friendly welcome from Vice-President Ackermann and thanked him for his generous support London mother was paid. He then met with President Rudloff and Secretary Studemund Jr., to whom he reported on the progress of the worldwide spread of the Bible. The main purpose of his visit was to get a feel for how people in Schwerin would feel about the plan to found a Bible Society in Rostock.

With the approval of the Schwerin directors and a recommendation from Superintendent Ackermann, Henderson went to Rostock, where he was introduced to the ministry by St. Petri D. Johann Bernhard Krey , some professors and other “gentlemen” who were well-disposed towards the cause.

On August 30, 1816, the new Bible Society was brought into being in the rectory of St. Jakobi “by 14 friends of the promotion of biblical reading”, which was confirmed by the grand ducal on September 13.

The administration of the new society consisted of four directors, one of whom was the president, a secretary, a cashier and a librarian. Chamberlain Peter Baron von Forstner, Justizrat Christian Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Baron von Nettelbladt , who had previously been a member of the Schwerin Society, provost M. Johann Georg Becker, pastor at St. Marien, and the young M. Carl Genzken , were elected directors the meager income of a deacon at St. Nikolai as a private lecturer in philosophy increased. The president became director of Forstner. Pastor M. Georg Detharding jun. von St. Jakobi took over the office of librarian, while Pastor Friedrich Crull jun. from Bentwisch held the offices of secretary and cashier in personal union.

With their final adoption of the statutes on March 31, 1817, another secretary position was added by distinguishing between a correspondent and a record-keeping secretary. The presidium changed every six months. In contrast to the statutes of the Schwerin Society, which introduced this office at a later date, the Rostock statutes also contain a more detailed description of the President's duties. After that, the society was composed entirely in the style of the collegiate authority typical of the time.

With the first two Mecklenburg Bible Societies, there are two different types of Biblical Society founded: First, Schwerin as a foundation from a private initiative, initiated by an individual, albeit in contact with the BFBS. Schwerin thus belongs in a row with Iserlohn , Wernigerode and Schleswig . And secondly, Rostock as one of the many societies initiated from London but still set up locally with a high degree of private initiative. A third type is represented by the founding of the authorities in the form of the third Mecklenburg Bible Society, the Mecklenburg-Strelitzschen founded in Neustrelitz in 1817. It too went back to the initiative of Rev. Henderson, who had traveled from Rostock via Barth to Neustrelitz, and found there in consistorial councilor D. Andreas Glaser an open-minded contact.

The valuable library of the Rostock Bible Society, which contained numerous Bible translations by the BFBS, was largely given away (50 books) to the Rostock University Library in 1829 .

The Marihner was united in 1868 with the Mecklenburg-Schwerin Biblical Society, which at the same time was subordinate to the Oberkirchenrat founded in 1850.

Bible Society for Pomerania and Rügen

After the incorporation of Swedish Pomerania into Pomerania in October 1815, the "Bible Society for Pomerania and Rügen" was founded on January 23, 1816 in Stralsund. A select committee was set up with the foundation to set up and further manage the business. With the exception of the President, General and Commander Moritz von Dycke auf Losentitz , all committee members came from Stralsund. The mayor David Lucas Kühl acted as vice-president , the six directors were archdeacon Friedrich Bernhard Droysen, the learned Jacobi pastor Gottlieb CF Mohnike , council syndic Arnold Brandenburg , councilor Carl Wilhelm Groskurd, castle captain Carl von Westrell and commercial councilor Johann Heinrich Israel. The deacons Friedrich Kahlow and Friedrich Furchau acted as secretaries , the Johannis pastor Ernst Christoph Schultz held the office of librarian, and the businessman Christian Banck was the treasurer. Gustav FA von Mevius, who was the actual initiator of the Bible Society, stayed in the background due to his age of almost 70 years. In 1818 the number of directors had grown to eight. With button maker elder man, bee digger and master glazier Stademann the Elder. J. also had two craftsmen on the committee.

On June 29, 1816, Vice-President Kühl and Secretary Kahlow sent the statutes of the Bible Society as evidence to the British and Foreign Bible Society and asked for the promised support of £ 100 sterling to be paid out. The transfer was made via the BFBS shop steward in Altona, the businessman Gilbert van der Smissen.

The contact with the BFBS was also of a personal nature. Coming from the founding of the Rostock Bible Society, Agent Rev. Ebenezer Henderson traveled to Barth on August 31, 1816 , where he was received by Mevius "under testament to the greatest affection" in his house and spent three days. In his letters to the foreign secretary of the BFBS Carl Steinkopf , dated September 2nd from Barth and September 23rd from Berlin , the agent emphasized that the impetus for the foundation of the Bible Society in Pomerania came from Barth and the "Bible Society for Pomerania and Rügen" owe their existence and prosperity essentially "to the fervent zeal and tireless activity of Mevius'".

Henderson attended the formation of the “Auxiliary Bible Committee for the City and Church District of Barth” in Mevius' house on September 4th. The purpose of the Barther Aid Association should be to cooperate with the Central Committee in Stralsund and to implement its intention with the greatest possible effectiveness in its own district. Superintendent Johann Elias Werner and Pastor Georg Friedrich August Sparmann in Kenz were appointed heads . Von Mevius and Rector Andreas Masius limited themselves to the offices of secretaries. Pastor Johann Caspar Andreas Dohrn took over the office of librarian and the businessman Johann Nicolaus Rodbertus took over the treasury.

Henderson traveled on to Rügen , where he had originally also intended to set up a charity. In order not to anticipate the select committee in Stralsund, he limited himself to visiting the most important clergy on the island. It was not until a few years later that the Biblical Society established its own Rügische department.

On November 1, 1816, a Bible Society Committee was also established in Greifswald . The directors here were the philosophy professor Friedrich Muhrbeck and the two teachers at the large city school, Hoefer and Wellmann. Theology professor Friedrich Wilhelm von Schubert acted as secretary .

In order to determine the regional biblical demand as well as to promote regionally broader membership, correspondents were determined for all districts according to a distribution plan. Several correspondents shared the work in Greifswald, Wolgast and Franzburg . Stralsund was excluded from this network of correspondents; there was direct communication with the local members. The first annual report of the Bible Society of March 31, 1818 lists 25 corresponding members in the country by name, each of whom has been assigned one of the directors as correspondent. Most of the correspondents came from the pastors.

The distribution of members was very different. Most of the members came from Greifswald: 85 (including twelve professors from the university), 54 from Stralsund. The city of Barth also stood out with 36 members, in the city of Wolgast there were at least 10. The three western church districts Franzburg (3), Grimmen (8) and Loitz (5) were particularly poorly represented . Only about 45 members were clergy. The majority of the members came from the upper middle class : merchants, councilors, higher officials and councilors. And as in Mecklenburg , there were also followers of pietism and awakening such as Mevius, Pastor Hermann Baier in Altenkirchen or Johanna Odebrecht in Greifswald, as well as representatives of the Enlightenment such as the old Greifswald philosophy professor Timotheus Christian Wilhelm Overkamp .

On November 15, 1816, Postmaster General Segebarth in Berlin granted the Biblical Society exemption from postage and on May 14, 1817 the royal government of Stralsund granted tax exemption. At its first general meeting on March 31, 1818, the "Bible Society for Pomerania and Rügen" decided to join the Prussian Main Bible Society in Berlin.

The Schwerin regional church archivist Johann Peter Wurm sums up his report on the foundation of the Pomeranian Bible Society as follows:

“The Bible Society for Pomerania and Rügen is part of the group of those Bible Societies that were founded on the initiative of an individual, albeit in contact with the BFBS. The founding of Stralsund belongs to the same series as Schwerin (January 9, 1816) or Schleswig (March 5, 1815).

The Rostock Biblical Society, founded on August 30, 1816, was one of the large group of foundations initiated directly from London.

The third type of biblical society, that of foundations dominated by the authorities, is represented by the Biblical Society for Prussian-Western Pomerania , which was set up in Stettin on March 16, 1816 on the major initiative of President Johann August Sack . As in Saxony , the office of senior president was for a long time connected with chairing the Bible Society. In 1835, Bishop Carl Ritschl took over the chairmanship. The Mecklenburg-Strelitz Biblical Society founded in 1817 also belonged to this type. Here it was the consistory in Neustrelitz that kept the directorate firmly in its hand and suspiciously observed every bourgeois initiative. "

Separation from the British parent company

The Bible brought together, but it also divided. In the early days, all kinds of spirits worked together. But soon they parted, yes fought one another. The younger generation denied the rationalists the right to lead, and later even their right to exist in the church, a church that was newly conscious of its Lutheran nature. At first, this denominational segregation announced itself threateningly in the distance, completely incomprehensible to the threatened. The chronicler writes:

“In 1825 Pinkerton, also a secretary of the British Bible Society, was in Wismar and Rostock. Another donation of 500 Bibles from Schleswig had arrived. Then in the following year the news came quite unexpectedly that the British and Foreign Biblical Society would in future only be able to convey Bibles without Apocrypha . The Calvinist Scots had pushed for this decision. The interdenominational London society threatened to break down on this question . For the sake of cooperation in England this had to be decided. In Lutheran northern Germany , the apocrypha were especially loved. The Rostock Biblical Society, for example, had distributed the book Jesus Sirach in large numbers alongside and with the Psalms , which corresponded strongly to the piety of the Enlightenment. Bibles without Apocrypha were not in demand. This decision practically means the solution from the parent company, which in ten years had given 2400 Bibles and 1250 New Testaments to Rostock alone and thus actually got the work going. It was the same in Schwerin and especially in Neustrelitz. The dismay was great in our country, where this decision was not understood. The theological and denominational divorce took place here much later. Basically, it was a blessing at the time that this support from outside almost completely ceased and the companies in Mecklenburg came to full independence. "

20th century

In 1953 the Mecklenburg-Schwerin Biblical Society inherited the assets of the Ratteyer Biblical Society and developed into the Mecklenburg Biblical Society. In 1962 she also inherited the remaining assets of the Rostock Bible Society, amounting to around DM 200.00. This has since been considered to be extinct.

Eckart Ohse, pastor in the reconciliation church in Schwerin-Lankow , took over the chairmanship of the Mecklenburg Bible Society from Pastor Joachim Boddin in 1986 . The first major event under his chairmanship - shortly after the peaceful revolution - was the 3rd Bible Congress in Schwerin in 1990.

The Evangelical Main Biblical Society Berlin (EHBG) drove the planning and from 1998 the construction of the "Low German Bible Center" in Barth and took over its sponsorship with the opening on October 31, 2001.

21st century

Biblical Information Center Schwerin

The Schwerin Biblical Information Center was inaugurated on September 2, 2004 and is located in the Diakonisches Werk (DW) at Schweriner Apothekerstraße 48. With the Bible Info Center, school classes and confirmation or Christian teaching groups could be invited to familiarize themselves with the “Book of Books”. On average, around 200 young people visited the Infocentrum each year.

The BUGA 2009 was also a major church and Bible society event . With the “Church on the Shore” on Lake Schwerin, there was a place where devotions were celebrated. There was a presentation on the subject of the Bible that was viewed by a large number of visitors to the BUGA.

Volunteers from the Bible Society were involved in the student Bible competitions as ideas providers and co-thinkers. They were prepared with a group under the leadership of Ministerialrat Ulrich Hojczyk, who was responsible for church issues at the Ministry of Culture and later the Ministry of Justice. Hundreds of pupils from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania took part in them every two years. The eighth Bible competition is currently being prepared.

The Low German hymn book was also published by the Mecklenburg Biblical Society, as well as "Dat Ni Testament" by Ernst Voss , now in its 5th edition.

Barth Bible Center

After the EHBG was closed in 2004, the “Pomeranian Biblical Society” was founded in the Barther Bible Center itself on October 20, 2004 and immediately took over the legal responsibility for the work.

When the center was taken over by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany (Northern Church) in 2013 , the commitment to Bible society was able to focus more on the churches and society in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

In the course of this change of sponsor, the Mecklenburg Bible Society of the then Evangelical Lutheran Regional Church of Mecklenburg (since 2012 like the Pomeranian Ev. Church also parish of the Northern Church) and the Pomeranian Bible Society were connected to a Bible Society for the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania by changing the statutes.

Anniversary and change in the chairmanship

In 2016, the "Mecklenburg and Pomeranian Bible Society" celebrated its 200th anniversary with reference to the founding of the Bible Societies in Schwerin, Rostock and Stralsund in 1816.

In 2019 the theologian Stefanie Schabow from Wittenförden succeeded Eckart Ohses on the board of the Bible Society and for the regional working group Mecklenburg.

Publications

  • Paul Johannes Bachmann (Ed.): Excerpt of the most tried and tested songs from the Rostock hymn book along with a number of other core songs ... Catechism and the 21 teaching articles of the Augsburg Confession , Rostock: Verlag der Rostocker Bibelgesellschaft, 2nd ed. 1898.
  • Mecklenburgische Bibelgesellschaft Schwerin (ed.): Dat Oll Testament, Plattdütsch. Dei Lihrbäuker . Altenburg: Evangelical Main Bible Society 1963.
  • Dat Ni Testament för plattdütsch Lüd in ehr Muddersprak oewerdragen , Lutherische Verlags – Gesellschaft, Kiel 2014, ISBN 978-3-87503-174-4 , (current edition of the Voss translation)

swell

  • Grand Ducal Mecklenburg-Schwerin Biblical Society (Ed.): Annual reports of the Mecklenburg-Schwerin Biblical Society , Mecklenburg 1818–1884.
  • Rostock Biblical Society (ed.): Annual reports of the Rostock Biblical Society , Rostock: Adlers Erben 1817–1841 (1st to 25th report).
  • Rostock Biblical Society (ed.): Fifteenth Annual Report of the Rostock Biblical Society , Rostock 1831.
  • Theodor Kliefoth : Sermon for the annual celebration of the Marihner Bible Society on October 7, 1853 in the St. Georgen Church in Waren , Rostock: Stiller 1854.

literature

  • M. Geisenhayner: About Bible Societies in Mecklenburg . In: Mecklenburgische Blätter. First year, second half (1818), eighth piece , Güstrow 1818, pp. 451-470.
  • Friedrich Wilhelm von Schubert : Contributions to the history of the Bible societies and Bible committees in Mecklenburg-Schwerin and New Western Pomerania, in particular the origin of the same . In: Latest news from the kingdom of God , vol. 1820, pp. 125–130.
  • Ernst Breest : Foundation and first decades of the Stettin Bible Society. Festschrift for its centenary , Stettin 1916.
  • Werner Rautenberg: The historical roots of the German Bible Societies. A contribution to its 150-year history. Lecture at the theol. Week on October 22, 1964 in Greifswald . In: Official Journal of the Evangelical Consistory in Greifswald , No. 2/1965, pp. 18–22 ( online version ).
  • Wilhelm Gundert: History of the German Bible Societies in the 19th Century (Texts and Works on the Bible 3) , Bielefeld 1987.
  • Gerhard Voss : The Bible work in Mecklenburg - its origin and its development , in: The Bible in the world. Yearbook of the Association of Evangelical Bible Societies in Germany , Volume 11, Witten and Berlin 1968, pp. 79–93 ( online at pkgodzik.de ).
  • Johann Peter Wurm: The foundation of the first Mecklenburg Bible Societies in Schwerin and Rostock in 1816 . In: Pietismus und Neuzeit , Vol. 30 (2004), pp. 99–115.
  • Johann Peter Wurm: The foundation of the Bible Society for Pomerania and Rügen in 1816 . In: Baltic Studies NF 103 (2017) 151–158.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ https://www.die-bibel.de/ueber-uns/regionale-bibelgesellschaft/
  2. ↑ Ostsee-Zeitung of September 30, 2013
  3. ↑ Gerhard Voss: The Bible work in Mecklenburg, its origin and its development , in: "The Bible in the World", Volume 11. Yearbook of the Association of Evangelical Biblical Societies in Germany , Witten and Berlin 1968, pp. 79–93, here p 82.
  4. ↑ He succeeded the founder Captain Gustav Carl von Mecklenburg, who died on March 3, 1816 due to suicide.
  5. ↑ Wurm 2004, p. 105 f.
  6. ↑ Wurm 2004, p. 108 ff.
  7. ↑ Johann Peter Wurm: The Foundation of the Bible Society ... , 2017, p. 155.
  8. ↑ Johann Peter Wurm: The Foundation of the Bible Society ... , 2017, p. 158.
  9. ↑ Gerhard Voss: The Bible work in Mecklenburg, its origin and its development , in: "The Bible in the World", Volume 11. Yearbook of the Association of Evangelical Biblical Societies in Germany , Witten and Berlin 1968, pp. 79–93, here p 88 f.
  10. ↑ Mecklenburgische und Pommersche Kirchenzeitung No. 07/2019: Report of February 17, 2019
  11. ↑ ELKM report of September 27, 2013
  12. ↑ idea report from March 24, 2016
  13. ↑ Mecklenburgische und Pommersche Kirchenzeitung No. 07/2019: Report of February 17, 2019