Friedrich Bischoff publishing house

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Friedrich Bischoff publishing house
legal form GmbH
founding 1932 (1982)
Seat Neu-Isenburg
management Jürgen Kramer
Number of employees 47
sales 7.1 million euros
Branch Media , services , education
Website www.bischoff-verlag.de

The Friedrich Bischoff publishing house is a Neu-Isenburg- based company of the New Apostolic Church . The publishing house sees itself as an international Christian media company. In addition to the New Apostolic church members and administrations, customers also include bookshops, agencies and publishers.

history

The roots of the publishing house go back to 1932, when the company's founder , Friedrich Bischoff , took over the printing house of the New Apostolic Church and founded the Friedrich Bischoff publishing house in Frankfurt. In addition to various church-owned print products, the magazine "Our Family" aimed at members of the church has been published since 1933. During the Second World War, the publisher had to cease production between 1942 and 1949. A year later, the company was split into two independent companies, the Friedrich Bischoff publishing house and the Friedrich Bischoff printing company . The publishing house has had its own music department since 1951, initially based in Bielefeld.

In the 1960s, the product range of magazines, books and sound carriers was significantly expanded. After Friedrich Bischoff Verlag was initially only active in the German-speaking area, it turned to international activities in the 1970s. In 1980 the sound carrier production exceeded the million mark. In 1982 the publishing house and printing company moved into their new premises at Gutleutstraße 298 in Frankfurt. In 2008 the publishing house opened a visitor center with its own shop at the same location.

In 1989 the ownership changed from the family Bischoff, who had also been managing the company, to the New Apostolic Church. A year later, the company expanded the range of audio broadcasts for church services via post cable to video and audio broadcasts via satellite.

Significant sales declines in the late 1990s and 2000s forced the company management to sell the print shop as well as other significant restructuring measures in the area of ​​services, the product range and staffing. At the end of 2014 the publishing house changed its location and moved to the Triforum in Neu-Isenburg. At the current company headquarters there are now only the editorial staff, broadcasting services and management.

The guiding principle that is supposed to represent the direction of the company is currently:

"We help people to shape their lives according to the gospel of Jesus Christ."

Sociolity

Since the company provided almost all products and services for the New Apostolic Church for many decades, the publishing house became an essential part of the New Apostolic sociolicity and thus formed the opinion and development of several generations of believers. In the New Apostolic parlance it is still simply called "the publisher". It is similar with the magazine Our Family , which shaped the inward communication and the flow of information through style and content.

criticism

In the past, the company and its founder Friedrich Bischoff were criticized for having supported the Nazi regime disproportionately. Michael Koch, editor of the magazine Glaubenskultur, writes about the publishing house during the Nazi era:

“As already shown, Friedrich Bischoff is very likely to be very close to the NSDAP and acts as an interface between church and party. Again and again in his magazine Our Family there are articles that are clearly National Socialist. In addition to political topics, there are prominently placed quotations from Adolf Hitler, anti-Jewish articles and reports on new types of weapon technologies. "

In response to the above From 1939 onwards , the New Apostolic Church in Switzerland, under the direction of the District Apostle Ernst Güttinger , started publishing its own journals with a National Socialist theme :

“Yesterday the district assembly of the district of Switzerland met here. So the district elders and district evangelists. In this meeting it was unanimously decided not to receive your papers, Wächterstimmen, Jugendfreund and the gazette from January 1st, 1940. The current conditions require this implementation. We also deliver our papers abroad and here we have to strive to be extremely neutral. "

This fact of the double publication of church magazines in the German-speaking area lasted until the 1980s.

program

Print media

Since the first few years in the company's history, the publishing house has primarily been selling various internal church print products. One of the products with the highest circulation is the magazine Our Family , which has been published consistently since 1933, with a brief interruption during World War II. While there were various foreign-language editions, especially in the 1990s, the magazine now appears exclusively in German. The fortnightly publication has a circulation of 50,000 and is the official organ of the New Apostolic Church. Other important magazines are Spirit , UF spezial and the supplement Wir Kinder .

In addition, almost all sheet music, choir and teaching works of the New Apostolic Church are published by Verlag Friedrich Bischoff, especially for Europe and North America. The newly published hymnbook of the New Apostolic Church and the choir book, for example, generated a significant increase in sales in 2004 and 2013.

The range also includes products from the field of fiction, biographies and Bibles.

Sound and video productions

With the establishment of the in-house music department in 1951, the company also entered the field of sound recording production. Initially, the publisher sold records, tapes and music cassettes. In 1986 the company switched to the production of CDs, which are still produced and distributed in large numbers today. DVDs of concerts or church services and church events also count as niche products.

Image and sound transmission

When the company broadcast the first image and sound transmission of a church service via satellite in 1990, it was already able to look back on experience with sound and image transmission via postal cable. There are currently several satellite transmissions of church services produced by the publisher each year. Traditionally, a larger, sometimes worldwide broadcast of a festival service is carried out on Whitsun.

Services

The Friedrich Bischoff publishing house also acts as a service provider for the New Apostolic Church and, in this context, offers, for example, the administration and editorial management of the NAC.today Internet portal.

literature

  • Schabronat, Klaus: The New Apostolic Church in the Third Reich in Frankfurt in the mirror of the apostolic communities , Steinhagen 2014, Edition Punctum Saliens, ISBN 978-3-939291-07-7

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Glaubenskultur.de: Friedrich Bischoff Verlag publishes 2014 annual results , last accessed on June 1, 2016
  2. ↑ bischoff-verlag.de: Company history , last accessed on June 1, 2016
  3. ↑ bischoff-verlag.de portrait , last accessed on June 1, 2016
  4. ↑ a b Michael Koch in "The Origin of the Message" in "The New Apostolic Church in the Third Reich - An Interim Report, Part 1" in "Frankfurt in the Mirror of the History of the Apostolic Communities", Steinhagen 2014, Edition Punctum Saliens , ISBN 978-3 -939291-07-7
  5. ^ Bischoff-verlag.de: magazine Our Family , last accessed on June 1, 2016
  6. ↑ bischoff-verlag.de: Magazines , last accessed on June 1, 2016
  7. ↑ Glaubenskultur.de: Profit after the shrinking rate , last accessed on June 1, 2016
  8. ↑ bischoff-verlag.de: Internet shop , last accessed on June 1, 2016
  9. ↑ News magazine of the New Apostolic Church , last accessed on June 1, 2016

Coordinates: 50 ° 2 ′ 31.6 ″  N , 8 ° 41 ′ 38.9 ″  E