Classes in Biblical History

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The lessons in Biblical history or Biblical history lesson ( BGU ) was a non-denominational independent instruction in public schools in Bremen, the usual in other states denominational religious instruction should be replaced. After the Second World War , the BGU became the occasion for the so-called Bremen Clause in the Basic Law. In August 2014, lessons in biblical history at the public schools in the state of Bremen were replaced by the subject “Religion”.

History until 1945

"Bible History" at the Bremen Citizens' School

See also Bremen school dispute

The beginnings of this joint teaching go back to the " Citizens' School " founded in 1799 by the pastors Johann Ludwig Ewald and Johann Caspar Häfeli , who worked in Bremen and based on Pestalozzi's educational pedagogy . In this educational project, they taught Calvinist and Evangelical Lutheran students together in religion. The lessons were limited to "Bible history" and excluded denominational content such as the catechism .

This corresponded to the religious educational reform model that Ewald had previously developed as general superintendent in Lippe-Detmold . He had explained it in 1783 in his letters on the use of Bible history in religious instruction . Ewald turned against the traditional form of religious instruction, which had consisted primarily of memorizing prayers, Bible verses, stories and the catechism. This form of teaching was increasingly criticized as “grafting in” alienated content. Instead, Bible History was designed to provide students with "a living narrative encounter with sacred history." In telling selected passages from the Bible, children should be taught "the consequences of good and wrong mind, the way bad mind is nurtured or good mind nurtured." In doing so, the children should develop acumen and judgment. “Bible history” meant, on the one hand, child-friendly and vivid learning based on individual stories from the Bible; on the other hand, the content of the lessons should be placed in the context of the biblical history of salvation . In this respect, Ewald understood the history of the Bible as “the overall drama of human history open to the future”, which can be interpreted with the help of the Bible. This “pedagogically based and theologically reflected concept” corresponded to the pietistic and late Enlightenment spirit and found the interest and approval of many Bremen citizens, but also met with skepticism and rejection within the churches.

Takeover at state schools

In Bremen, specific church-political considerations also spoke in favor of the “Bible history” as an educational tool in religious instruction. Since the Reformation there have been denominational disputes with the Lutherans in Bremen , which is predominantly Calvinist , and since 1638 they have had their own congregation with the Bremen Cathedral . Efforts for church union by the Bremen Senate had failed in the late 18th century. The children of Calvinists and Lutherans were therefore taught separately, especially in schools in the respective parish, although education in Bremen was regarded as a church or private task until the early 19th century. Even in the “Bürgererschule”, lessons in Bible history offered the possibility of avoiding confessional issues by avoiding dogmatic stipulations. During the first half of the 19th century, education increasingly became a state responsibility. This development took place gradually from the establishment of the first so-called “free schools” for children of the poor, for whom no school fees had to be paid, to the introduction of compulsory schooling in 1844. The concept of non-denominational religious instruction was introduced in the 1820s at the instigation of Mayor Johann Smidt took over for the eight newly established free schools for the poor in Bremen. The instruction for teachers in these schools of 1823 prescribed biblical history without catechism instruction "so that no confession could be offended". Both the Lutheran and the Reformed hymnbooks could be used. Later on, the schools run by the parishes also adopted this form of religious instruction. As a practical union policy in the 19th century, teaching Biblical History was thus able to help overcome “crippling denominational differences” in the educational system. In 1873 the uniform "Evangelical Hymn Book of the Bremen Congregations" was finally introduced in Bremen and an administrative union between Reformed and Evangelical Lutheran congregations was established.

Bremen school dispute (1905–1907)

Although Bremen already had a comparatively liberal model with the history of the Bible without catechism instruction, protests by the Bremen teachers against state religious instruction occurred at the beginning of the 20th century. This is mainly attributed to the strict school supervision by the school inspector Köppe, who turned the teachers against himself through frequent observations and “official tests of faith”.

The protest was triggered by the interrogation of the teacher Wilhelm Scharrelmann . In a letter of complaint dated May 1905, the teaching staff were concerned about "the apparent disregard with which the school inspector disregarded the liberal traditions observed in religious instruction in the Bremen schools". In September 1905 a memorandum was published on Religious Education or Not? which was passed by a large majority of those present at a meeting of the teaching staff. This called for the abolition of state religious instruction. The main argument put forward was that religion was a private matter. In connection with the memorandum, numerous reports from renowned educators were obtained. In addition to the rather pietistic view that religion is an affair of the heart that should not be made compulsory, and a monistic and scientific rejection of religion with reference to Ernst Haeckel, there are  also anti-Semitic undertones - for example in Hermann Lietz - that suggest a use of the " reject the oriental “ Old Testament” in school lessons.

Three of the teachers who played a key role in the protests, Wilhelm Holzmeier , Fritz Gansberg and Wilhelm Scharrelmann, wanted the school authorities to remove them from school work after they had already deprived them of their right to teach religion. However, only a reprimand and a fine were imposed by the court in 1907. However, the Social Democrat Wilhelm Holzmeier was finally dismissed from school in 1910, which led to demonstrations and public expressions of solidarity in Bremen.

Between ideological neutrality and Christian heritage

State constitution and basic law

After the Second World War , the CDU wanted to introduce denominational religious instruction with the participation of the churches. The SPD in Bremen , however, wanted to continue offering Biblical History in state schools without the participation of the churches. After the compromise formulation of the liberal Theodor Spitta , Article 32 on religious instruction in community schools was included in the Bremen state constitution of 1947 in a formulation that expresses the Christian orientation of the teaching. Accordingly, the “general public schools ... Community schools with non-denominational teaching in Biblical history on a generally Christian basis.” The churches were also given the right to optional religious instruction in schools.

During the drafting of the Basic Law by the Parliamentary Council , the Bremen representative Senator Adolf Ehlers (SPD) advocated an exception for Bremen from the provision of Article 7, Paragraph 3, Clause 1 of the Basic Law , according to which religious instruction is a regular subject in public schools should be. This was to prevent the compromise that had just been reached from being undermined by the constitutionally anchored teaching of creed. Against some resistance from the center and the CDU, this led to the insertion of the so-called Bremen clause of Article 141 of the Basic Law, which declared Article 7, Paragraph 3, Sentence 1 of the Basic Law to be inapplicable in those countries in which a different regulation was in effect before the Basic Law was passed. In addition to Bremen, these were Hamburg, Berlin and the former Soviet occupation zone. This made it possible to maintain non-denominational classes in Biblical history in Bremen.

Constitutional decisions on religious independence

In the 1960s, the Bremen Evangelical Church wanted to make biblical history lessons - based on a constitutional commentary by Theodor Spitta - a Protestant issue. There was no resistance on the part of the Bremen Catholics, as they relied on Catholic religious instruction in denominational private schools. The attempt to enforce the right to participate in the previously purely state-organized teaching in Biblical history, however, led to a decision by the State Court of Justice , which ruled that Biblical history teaching was "not confessionally bound" and therefore covered all confessional differences. The “general Christian basis” is not synonymous with the “basis of Protestant Christianity”. The subsequent constitutional complaint before the Federal Constitutional Court did not lead to the hoped-for return to denominational religious instruction, although the Karlsruhe court limited itself to answering questions of admissibility and procedural issues.

Teaching by Muslim teachers

For teaching Biblical history, it is not a requirement that teachers belong to a Christian church. The triad of the same confession of teachers, students and teaching content, which is assumed in traditional religious instruction with a denomination, is not necessary. According to Art. 32, Paragraph 2, Clause 1 of the Bremische LV, teaching is only provided by teachers who have agreed to do so. Since 2004, Muslim trainee teachers and teachers have also applied . In 2005, the Bremen Administrative Court approved an applicant who did not want to do without wearing her headscarf during the Biblical History class. In the BGU, Christianity may "be made a subject of instruction as a formative cultural and educational factor, but not in relation to certain truths of faith and confessions". This decision was later overturned by the OVG Bremen with reference to the amendment to the Bremen School Act that has since taken place. The change in the law restricted the wearing of religious symbols by teachers and strengthened the ideological neutrality of schools.

In connection with this controversial issue, religious educational and legal reports were obtained, which, among other things, deal with the hybrid character of teaching in biblical history between religious instruction within the meaning of Article 7, Paragraph 3 of the Basic Law and religious studies with an objective claim.

Current meaning

Comparison with other concepts

The curricula in the 1970s and 1980s, religious instruction in federal states such as Hesse or Lower Saxony hardly differs from the Bremen model. In the opinion of the Bremen religious educator Manfred Spieß, denominational religious instruction is "much more ecumenical than some people want to admit". According to Jürgen Lott and Anita Schröder-Klein, one difference is that there are no school church services and that "teaching specific ... experiences of piety" is not part of the class. The Hamburg interreligious reform model, known as "religious instruction for everyone", is also comparable in terms of the basic idea . The Bielefeld professor of public law Martin Stock thinks that it takes into account the “highly multi-religious and multi-ethnic contemporary urban-state conditions” and is generally better positioned than the Bremen model. The Hamburg model is also controversial. Christoph Link believes that "religious instruction for all in evangelical responsibility" according to the Hamburg model is still compatible with the constitutional concept of religious instruction in Article 7, Paragraph 3 of the Basic Law ", but warns that the effort to establish an interreligious dialogue does not lead to" indifference [sic] is allowed to lead all possible religious and ideological offerings of meaning “, as he sees them realized in the concept of the Brandenburg LER lessons.

curriculum

From the 10th grade onwards, lessons are referred to as religious studies and are designed as a general school subject. The aim is to interpret and understand Christian influences and connections in our culture and society on the basis of comparative religious studies and at the same time to enable encounters with other faiths. According to the framework for Biblical History, primary schools deal with topics such as “Rules and commandments in life, fear and violence, happiness and meaning, preserving creation, getting to know the Bible, learning to live together, questions about God, questions about that Suffering and death, Muslims and Christians get to know one another, charity, encounter with lived religion ”.

Lessons canceled

At the BGU in Bremen in 2010 - for example in a request from the CDU in the citizenry - the high rate of lost hours was criticized, some of which were used for other purposes. Manfred Spieß and Hans F. Jaspers from the Aktiongemeinschaft Biblische Geschichte / Religionskunde Bremen eV sum up their work over the last 18 years, saying that teaching in Biblical History suffers from a lack of overall conception in addition to the inadequate or inadequate teaching.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Andreas Schulz: Guardianship and protection. Elites and citizens in Bremen. 1750-1880, Munich: Oldenbourg 2002, pp. 201 ff., 203.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Manfred Spieß: What is religious education in Bremen? The “Biblical History Lesson” between yesterday and tomorrow. (No longer available online.) User.uni-bremen.de, 1996, archived from the original on August 3, 2011 ; Retrieved May 29, 2011 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www-user.uni-bremen.de
  3. ↑ This content was later conveyed in Bremen in so-called preacher lessons outside of regular school lessons, cf. Spieß: What is religious education in Bremen? The “Biblical History Lesson” between yesterday and tomorrow. In: THE BRIDGE. Bremen, issue 1/1996.
  4. ↑ Hans-Martin Kirn: German Late Enlightenment and Pietism: their relationship in the context of church-bourgeois reform with Johann Ludwig Ewald (1748-1822). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1998, pp. 119-120.
  5. ↑ Hans-Martin Kirn: German Late Enlightenment and Pietism: their relationship in the context of church-bourgeois reform with Johann Ludwig Ewald (1748-1822). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1998, p. 120.
  6. ↑ Cf. also Johann Ludwig Ewald: Bible story, the only true means of education for Christian religiosity. Heidelberg 1819.
  7. ↑ Quoted from: Jürgen Lott, Anita Schröder-Klein: Teaching religion in Bremen. Theo-Web. In: Zeitschrift für Religionspädagogik 7, 2006, no. 1, pp. 68–79.
  8. ↑ a b c d Jürgen Lott, Anita Schröder-Klein: Teaching religion in Bremen. Theo-Web. In: Zeitschrift für Religionspädagogik 7, 2006, no. 1, pp. 68–79.
  9. ↑ Hans-Martin Kirn: German Late Enlightenment and Pietism: their relationship in the context of church-bourgeois reform with Johann Ludwig Ewald (1748-1822). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1998, p. 122.
  10. ^ Konrad Elmshäuser : History of Bremen. CH Beck, 2007, p. 73 f.
  11. ^ A b Peter Albrecht, Ernst Hinrichs: The lower school system in the transition from the 18th to the 19th century. Verlag M. Niemeyer, 1995, p. 154.
  12. ↑ a b Martin Rothgangel: Religious pedagogical report on the granting of “lessons in biblical history on a generally Christian basis” by members of non-Christian religious communities. (PDF; 232 kB) In: THEO WEB, magazine for religious education; 5th year 2006, issue 1, p. 39. Retrieved on May 29, 2011 .
  13. ↑ Meike Baader: Education as redemption. Transformations of the Religious in Reform Education. Contributions to basic educational research. Juventa, 2005, p. 132.
  14. ↑ Meike Baader: Education as redemption. Transformations of the Religious in Reform Education. Contributions to basic educational research. Juventa, 2005, p. 124.
  15. ↑ Meike Baader: Education as redemption. Transformations of the Religious in Reform Education. Contributions to basic educational research. Juventa, 2005, p. 126.
  16. ^ Christian Grethlein: Religious Education . Walter de Gruyter, 1998, p. 69.
  17. ^ Fritz Gansberg (ed.): Religious instruction? Eighty reports. Association for School Reform, R. Voigtänder, Bremen 1906.
  18. ↑ Meike Baader: Education as redemption. Transformations of the Religious in Reform Education. Contributions to basic educational research. Juventa, 2005, p. 125f.
  19. ^ Jürgen Lott, Anita Schröder-Klein: Teaching religion in Bremen. (PDF; 130 kB) Theo-Web. In: Zeitschrift für Religionspädagogik 7, 2006, no. 1, p. 68.
  20. ↑ BremStGH of October 23, 1965, 189, quoted from BVerfG, decision of January 13, 1971, Az. 1 BvR 671, 672/65, BVerfGE 30, 112 - teaching in biblical history.
  21. ↑ BVerfG, decision of January 13, 1971, Az. 1 BvR 671, 672/65, BVerfGE 30, 112 - Teaching in Biblical History.
  22. ↑ Nadine Emmerich: Dispute in Bremen: Are Muslims allowed to teach biblical history? spiegel.de, March 22, 2004, accessed May 29, 2011 .
  23. ↑ VG Bremen, judgment of May 19, 2005, Az. 6 V 760/05, full text ( Memento of March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 45 kB).
  24. ↑ OVG Bremen, decision of August 26, 2005, Az. 2 B 158/05, full text (PDF; 98 kB).
  25. ^ Andreas Quade: Biblical history lessons. rpi virtual .
  26. ^ Jürgen Lott, Anita Schröder-Klein: Teaching religion in Bremen. Theo-Web. In: Zeitschrift für Religionspädagogik 7, 2006, no. 1, p. 70.
  27. ^ Martin Stock: Religious Instruction in Bremen - Problems and Opportunities from an Educational Law Point of View. Presentation at the conference: Religious instruction in Bremen and its special opportunities for (inter) cultural education in the study program Religious Studies / Religious Education at the University of Bremen on July 1, 2005, full text .
  28. ↑ Christoph Link: Legal opinion - On the compatibility of the Hamburg model of "religious instruction for all in evangelical responsibility" with Article 7, Paragraph 3 of the Basic Law. Manuscript, Erlangen 2001.
  29. ^ A b Ursula Günther: Theology - Pedagogy - Context . Waxmann Verlag, ISBN 978-3-8309-6534-3 ( Google Books ).
  30. ↑ Jürgen Lott: Religious Education in the Context of Changes in Society, Culture and Religion. Biographically conveyed notes and conclusions. bildung.bremen.de, accessed on May 29, 2011 .
  31. ↑ Bremen Citizenship - State Parliament: Printed matter 17/1295, request from the CDU of May 18, 2010 (PDF; 12 kB)
  32. ↑ Action Group Biblical History / Religionskunde Bremen eV: Balance of 18 years of participation in the "Working Group for the Promotion of Biblical History Lessons"  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 89 kB), March 8, 2010.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / reli-bremen.de