Position (magazine)
| Position. Evangelical monthly
|
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|---|---|
| Area of Expertise | Theology, church, society |
| language | German |
| publishing company | Union Verlag Berlin |
| First edition | 1st January 1973 |
| attitude | March 31, 1990 |
| Frequency of publication | per month |
| Editor-in-chief | Günter Wirth |
| editor | Karl-Heinz Bernhardt and others |
| ISSN |
0323-4304 |
The standpoint was a monthly magazine published by the GDR from 1973 to 1990 , which dealt with Christians and the church in the GDR . A total of seventeen years appeared. The circulation was between 2,500 and 3,000 copies. The magazine, which was close to the CDU of the GDR , was, like its predecessor Faith and Conscience , a party-affiliated leadership magazine ; the point was represented mainly the guidelines of the GDR church policy.
prehistory
In the GDR, two Protestant (monthly) magazines were founded in the 1950s, which appeared outside the church journalism and were regarded as "close to the state": 1955 (in VEB Verlag Max Niemeyer Halle, which in earlier times also published theological writings had been) " Faith and Conscience ", four years later the " Evangelische Pfarrerblatt " (self-published) as an organ of the Federation of Evangelical Pastors in the GDR .
While the first-mentioned magazine was aimed more at parishioners and therefore offered a more or less successful mélange of more edifying considerations and stories and articles related to current political and ecclesiastical issues, the "Evangelical Pastor's Gazette" focused on theological debates and intellectual-political arguments. The "Evangelische Pfarrerblatt" therefore found - in complete contrast to "Faith and Conscience" - in a quantitatively limited framework, quite a response in theology and the church.
Since both magazines, irrespective of the differentiation characterized, had aimed to ensure that the Protestant churches in the GDR should find and take their place in real socialist society, after the formation of the Federation of Evangelical Churches in the GDR (1969) and after the official acceptance of the federal government (1971), both magazines ultimately lost their ground.
Therefore, in 1971/72 in the circles of the so-called progressive pastors and theologians there were various discussions about what reaction should take place in journalism to this new situation. Finally (felt by their makers as a compromise) the plan to merge the two magazines into a completely new one emerged.
In view of this situation, the leadership of the GDR CDU saw the chance of being able to publish a paper in their publishing house with this magazine. So far, the CDU had tried in vain - beginning in the 1950s - to obtain the license for a theoretical and cultural-political oriented magazine.
The first issue of Standpunkt was published by Union Verlag in January 1973 , although - due to the technological problems common in the GDR - the planned layout could only take effect from issue 5/1973, making the first four issues a particularly simple one Outwardly offered.
Orientation of the point of view
The editorial team also had to find a line in terms of content . In the first year there were clear "lines of tradition" of the two earlier magazines, which had to lead nowhere, as long-time editor-in-chief and later publisher Günter Wirth emphasized, which is why he has been pushing for a new orientation since 1974. It was held until 1989/90. On the one hand, it was about treating the problems of the church in socialism theologically and in some respects very pragmatically, i.e. those of community practice, preaching, diakonia - ultimately this and other dimensions of the "community of witness and service" (that early synod formula , which actually makes up the content of the formula of church in socialism). Then it was about the relationship of the churches in the GDR to ecumenism , both in the form of the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the confessional world leagues, not least in an appropriate way with specific developments in Protestantism in the Federal Republic . Finally, the church and the public (the “church politics”) came into the journalistic “sights”, whereby from 1974 demands against the churches (as they were common in the earlier magazines) were receded.
Cultural Protestant approach
Actually, it was the areas of church cultural life or the creative work of Christian cultural workers in general as well as relevant and at the same time generally interesting problems of church history that were the focus of the journalistic work of Standpunkt, both quantitatively and in terms of the radius of those with such topics (in essays , Interviews , reviews and other genres ) dealt with by authors.
In merging the subject areas, the editorial team aimed to attract authors from the centers of church life and theological science for the church-theological area, for example. In fact, after an initial hesitation, almost all Protestant bishops and leading free church officials had their say in interviews, in their own essays or by printing lectures or sermons.
Completion of the formula "Church in Socialism"
Topics related to the formula “Church in Socialism”, theological and ethical debates, the relationship between Christianity and the natural sciences , between faith and reason, the philosophy of religion , etc. should be discussed. Church historical analyzes focused on so-called “irregular”, Currents of socially progressive theologians and pastors, Christian pacifist movements, anti-fascist actions and options by Christians in the context of the church struggle , the protagonists of the struggle against apartheid in South Africa and racial segregation in the USA. The editors sought to convey theological research results and specific ecclesiastical or confessional specifics and traditions in other socialist countries, not least from Orthodoxy in the USSR , Romania , Bulgaria and Poland .
Protestant-educated middle class
As far as the area of culture or: the Protestant educated middle class is concerned, a wide radius of the circle of authors was strived for and actually achieved. This applied to church music and literature , but also to the fine arts, especially since several art print supplements were added each year (these of course also had other topics, such as the reproduction of documents and photos of certain personalities, etc.). The reference to the Christian cultural heritage (especially with regard to the building of churches and monuments ) played a special role in the journalistic work of the Standpunkt . Incidentally, the ecumenical dimensions of creative activity of Protestant (or Catholic) Christians were taken into account. In circles of the Sorbian intelligentsia, a great deal of attention was paid to what this magazine had achieved with regard to the treatment of Sorbian cultural creation as well as church life. In the last years bibliographies of the personalities concerned were printed in connection with birthday celebrations or obituaries .
A specific feature of the standpoint - and insofar it was “close to the state” - was that representatives of the government or of social organizations, in deviation from the strict state-church separation of this magazine, were invited to interviews when it came to original church topics went (e.g. the minister of health on questions of state aid for the clarification of problems of diakonia, which also required official decisions).
The magazine was printed in the VOB Union printing house in Dresden.
Founder and Editor
The founders of the magazine were - in addition to Günter Wirth - pastor Götz Bickelhaupt ; Walter Bredendiek ; Pastor Walter Feurich ; Cathedral preacher Karl Kleinschmidt ; Gerhard Lotz , Carl Order and Pastor Georg Schäfer .
The group of editors consisted of Karl-Heinz Bernhardt , Berlin; Ilse Bertinetti , Potsdam; Anneliese Feurich , Dresden; Heinrich Fink , Berlin; Catechist Herbert Gerhardt , Nordhausen; Klaus-Peter Gerhardt , Berlin; Pastor Hans Gottschalk, Schönebeck (Elbe); Pastor H. Greulich , Berlin; Manfred Haustein , Leipzig; Karl Hennig , Berlin; Brigitte Kahl , Schöneiche; Oberkirchenrat Hartmut Mitzenheim , Eisenach; Hans Moritz , Markkleeberg; Carl Ordinance , Berlin; Pastor Bruno Schottstädt , Berlin; Pastor Bruno Theek , Ludwigslust; Herbert Trebs , Berlin; Günter Wirth , Berlin; Peter Zimmermann , Leipzig.
Awards
- Emil Fuchs plaque
- German Peace Medal of the Peace Council of the GDR
literature
- Michael Schibilsky , Roland Rosenstock: Art. Journals, theological. In: TRE . Volume 36, pp. 616-625.
- Jens Bulisch: Evangelical press in the GDR. »The signs of the times« (1947–1990). Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 2006 (work on contemporary church history. Series B: representations, volume 43) ISBN 978-3-525-55744-0 (p. 316 ff on the history and profile of the standpoint )
- Günter Wirth: Culture Protestant Public in the GDR. The Protestant magazine "Standpunkt" , in: hochschule ost, Leipzig, 1/1996 (= Günter Wirth: Kulturprotestantische Allgemeine ... , in: Peer Pasternack [Hg.]: Hochschule & Kirche. Theologie & Politik. Visiting a network of relationships in the GDR, Berlin 1996)
- Günter Wirth: Postscripts [to the above article], in: Ibid (= Günter Wirth: Postscripts , in: Peer Pasternack [ed.]: Hochschule & Kirche ... )
- Günter Wirth: Only in the “social mandate?” On the role of the “progressive” Christian magazines. In: Simone Barck , Martina Langermann, Siegfried Lokatis (eds.): Between “Mosaic” and “Unity”. Magazines in the GDR. Berlin 1999.
Individual evidence
- ↑ TRE (Lit.), p. 624