Study books on Mecklenburg church history
| Study books on Mecklenburg church history
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| Area of Expertise | Mecklenburg church history |
| language | German |
| publishing company | Self-published by Werner Schnoor, from 1991: Verlag Stock & Stein, Schwerin (GDR / Germany) |
| First edition | 1988 |
| attitude | 1995 |
| Frequency of publication | 1989: 6 issues per year; 1900: 6 issues + special issue; 1990 four issues; 1991 six issues (issue 5/6 as a double issue); 1992 two issues; 1993 two issues; 1994 four issues; 1995 three issues |
| editor | Werner Schnoor , from 1990: Jürgen Hebert |
| ZDB | 1080553-9 |
The study books on Mecklenburg church history appeared from 1988 to 1995 in Schwerin and dealt with the state of Mecklenburg and its church in the past and present. The booklets contained historical essays and published contemporary documents on the dialogue between Christians and Marxists in the GDR .
history
The first booklet of the study books with a modest volume of only 24 pages in octave format , but on the best glossy paper, appeared in January 1988 under unusual circumstances for GDR conditions. The publisher of the history magazine was neither the Kulturbund nor any other state organization or the church itself, but the retired churchman Werner Schnoor , who had received the state printing license as a private citizen. Six issues have been announced for the first year of publication. A subscription price for the single issue or a subscription was not mentioned. The magazine was also not available through the postal newspaper distributor, which was legally responsible for the transport and sale of continuously published press products . Instead, the imprint contained the note: “To cover our costs, we only rely on donations. We are thinking of a self-determined annual contribution from the recipients. ”The account payment at the Genossenschaftskasse Schwerin is sufficient as an order.
Werner Schnoor wrote about the program of the magazine in an editorial in issue 1: “History always wants to be explored sine ira et studio . What once was will only become clear to us when we try to examine it in its respective historical situation. We look at the past impartially and in all directions. In doing so, we do not close our eyes to historical facts that we do not like to remember. This is the only way we can cope with the task of coming to terms with our past. ”Schnoor also promised:“ Contemporary history will attract our special attention. ”In the imprint, Schnoor stated that the first issue“ addressed the recipient with the question of whether the project Attracts attention. "In the imprint he asked for" names and addresses of other interested parties "and encouraged the readers:" We would appreciate expressions of opinion. "
A total of 33 booklets of the study booklets were published between 1988 and 1995 in eight years: six books in 1988, six books in 1989 and one special, four books in 1990, six books in 1991 (5/6 as double booklet), two books in 1992, two books in 1993, 1994 four issues and 1995 three issues. The volume of the individual issues varied between 24 and 62 pages.
Editor and editor
The magazine presented itself from the beginning with a group of editors. “The STUDY BOOKS are edited by Werner Schnoor with the help of Hartmut Brun , Karola Delewski, Otto Heinrich Glüer, Jürgen Hebert , Rolf Seiffert, Hans-Dieter Ueltzen, Gerhard Voss,” it said in the imprint of issue 1 and the following issues. The group of editors consisted mainly of churchmen: Glüer was pastor in Kirchdorf auf Poel and Schnoor's son-in-law, Hebert pastor and pastor of the Anna Hospital in Schwerin, Ueltzen cantor in Ludwigslust and Voss pastor in Goldberg . Karola Delewski could be counted to the Schnoor family. According to the memories of those involved, she “ran the Schnoor couple's household, handled their correspondence and mail like a kind of secretary, typed texts, sent STUDIENHEFTE, and was the only one besides Schnoor to have direct access to the list of subscribers and took Schnoor's initiative participated in the meetings of the editorial board. "
Werner Schnoor withdrew from active editing with issue 6 at the end of 1989. Jürgen Hebert took over the management of the group of editors with issue 1990/1, who remained in this function until the last issue published in 1995/3. As of issue 1991/1, the study books were also published in conjunction with the Working Group for Mecklenburg Church History.
Werner Schnoor was responsible for editing the study books until the end of 1989. With the 1990/1 issue, the editorial team and management were transferred to Rolf Seiffert. He was followed with issue 1993/1 by Dieter W. Angrick .
subjects
In the church history section of the study booklet, the editor Schnoor, as an author, preferred to deal with his church in the time of National Socialism , with the church struggle and the role of the church leadership in Mecklenburg between 1933 and 1945. Schnoor portrayed in two booklets (1988/2 and 1988/4) the regional bishop Heinrich Rendtorff (1888–1960). Other historical topics were the building of churches and the formation of the community, church art and furnishings as well as the occupation with Mecklenburg theologians such as Michael Baumgarten (1812–1889) and Johann Riebling (1494–1554). Other essays had the Mecklenburg village schools and teacher training in the 18th and 19th centuries as well as the Mecklenburg farm workers and the church on the subject. A literary focus issue (1988/5) was dedicated to Johannes Gillhoff and his work. Again and again the study books dealt with the Jews in Mecklenburg. Beginning in 1990, the editorial team set about coming to terms with the GDR era and, for example, letting oppressed Christians have their say.
State – Church dialogue
In the first two years of publication up to the end of 1989, the study booklets printed a considerable amount of church-political contemporary documents as well as statements and discussions on the subject of the state and church in the GDR. The first issue (1988/1) already contained the working paper of the working group of the Mecklenburg regional synod Living as Christians in the Socialist Society of the GDR from autumn 1987 as an “invitation to talk” . In the issue 1988/6 the reactions to this were published in detail. In the 1988/3 issue, contemporary witnesses Siegfried Wahrmann, Friedrich-Karl S tops and Heinrich Rathke spoke about the conversation ten years ago between the GDR State Council Chairman Erich Honecker and the board of the Conference of Evangelical Churches in the GDR on March 6, 1978. The subject "Dialog" also ran through several 1989 issues.
In the fall of 1988, the reprint of the speech that former Federal Chancellor Helmut Schmidt gave at the “Kirchentag des Dialogs” in Rostock in June 1988 caused a stir (issue 1988/5). Schmidt's topic in Rostock: Building bridges in Europe - my expectations of the churches . Rolf Seiffert, who was involved in the study books at the time, looking back: “After Helmut Schmidt's visit in Rostock, more precisely in the Marienkirche there , Schnoor received texts from speeches held there for editing for the next issue of STUDIES. I had got the original copies of the Schmidt speech from Rostock in private and noticed that the one that Schnoor had given me contained many omissions. I then filled in the gaps with the original content without telling anyone about it. I expected trouble - but nothing happened. "
In the 1989/1 issue, the study books then printed a dispute between Jürgen Borchardt and Werner Schnoor about the published Schmidt speech. Borchardt, Dr. phil. and in the literature cabinet of the Scientific General Library in Schwerin, had expressed indignation in a letter to the editor about the "uncommented treatise of the Schmidt speech". He spoke of “reversals” in Schmidt's speech, “which should not be published without comment.” His letter ended with the sentence: “Well, please, cleanliness of the facts, opinions can be discussed.” In Schnoor's reply On Borchardt's remarks it was said: “If we affirm the dialogue and participate in it, we will first listen to the other. On the other hand, if you persist in the monologue and only bring your own point of view to speech with it, you will not build bridges. Addressed is the ability to make judgments of adults who form their own opinion without being instructed by the schoolmaster. "
Special issue
Companions and friends dedicated a special issue to Werner Schnoor in 1989 for his 80th birthday. The booklet was 20 pages long. Nine authors from East and West were represented with contributions, among them Hermann Beste (editor-in-chief of the Mecklenburgische Kirchenzeitung , Schwerin), Friedrich König (Lutherische Welt-Information, Geneva) and Carola Wolf (press officer of the German Evangelical Church Congress , Fulda). In the introduction it was said that the booklet was "above all a portrait in which a chapter of church history is revealed in a special way that many people have so far remained hidden or have hardly become aware of."
Title graphic
The cover graphics for the study books on Mecklenburg church history came from the commercial artist Max Grüber , who was born in Erfurt in 1930 and has been freelance in Schwerin since 1968 , and who also designed the cover lettering for the Mein Mecklenburg magazine . The word Studienhefte appeared in cursive and lowercase on the title .
Subscriber Advertising
The study booklets won their first readers and subscribers even before the first booklet was published. At the end of 1987 the founding of the magazine was announced in a note only a few lines long in the regional newspaper Norddeutsche Zeitung with a reference to the subscription option.
From the beginning, publisher Schnoor made great efforts to win subscribers for his paper outside of the GDR. So Schnoor invited with a personal appeal in the monthly magazine Mecklenburg, which is published in Hamburg and published by the Landsmannschaft Mecklenburg , to purchase the study books . “The“ STUDIENHEFTE zur Mecklenburgischen Kirchengeschichte ”want to inform about the state of Mecklenburg and its church in the past and present. If you are interested, please let us know at the above address ”, Schnoor wrote and asked to transfer“ a self-assessed annual fee ”, for example for the“ procurement of office technology and office supplies ”. For this Schnoor had under the name “Werner Schnoor / p. A. Hanna Wilde ”set up a DM account at the Dresdner Bank in Buxtehude in the Lower Saxony district of Stade .
What success Schnoor's advertising had in “non-socialist countries” cannot be determined. Seiffert remembers “that some members of the editorial team repeatedly asked to have a look at the subscriber list. But that never happened under Schnoor. "
publishing company
With the introduction of the DM in July 1990, the company Studienhefte, which was built on donations, got into economic difficulties mainly due to the sharp rise in printing costs. The number of readers decreased and the publication of the magazine was delayed several times. With the 1991/1 issue, the study books came under the umbrella of the Stock & Stein publishing house founded in 1990 by Claus-Dieter Wulf in Schwerin. Until 1989, the publisher's owner Wulf was head of department XX / 4 (security area church) in the Stasi district administration in Schwerin and Werner Schnoor's command officer (code name IM “Schütz”). From then on, the study books were sold at a single price of DM 5 and an advertisement section was added.
Secret co-editor
Today it is taken for granted that Schnoor had the Stasi at his side as obstetrician and secret co-editor. Corresponding suspicions had already existed when the study booklets were published in 1988. In her 500-page study on GDR church policy in Mecklenburg, Rahel Frank writes: “The background was the» Mecklenburg study books «, for whose publication Werner Schnoor had obtained the license without any obvious negotiation effort. The granting of a license in the highly sensitive area of press work aroused the mistrust of many colleagues - without it being possible to investigate further. "
The former study booklet editor Dieter W. Angrick comments on this: "From today's perspective, the State Security seems to have pursued the goal with the study booklets it initiated, via the list of subscribers (very many were 'Mecklenburg exiles' who had fled) to get to people in order to 'skim them off' or even win them over as IM. "
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Rolf Seiffert on August 5, 2014 to Hans-Joachim Griephan in Berlin.
- ↑ Rolf Seiffert on August 5, 2014 to Hans-Joachim Griephan in Berlin.
- ↑ Mecklenburg, Hamburg, year 30, August 1988, No. 8, p. 18.
- ↑ IM “Schütz” - Werner Schnoor between Church and State. In: Rahel Frank "More real - more exact - more precise"? The GDR church policy towards the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Mecklenburg from 1971 to 1989. Schwerin 2004, p. 140.
- ↑ Dieter W. Angrick on July 27, 2014 to Hans-Joachim Griephan in Berlin.