Wichern-Verlag

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The Wichern-Verlag is a Protestant publishing house in Berlin , whose name refers to the "Protestant church father " Johann Hinrich Wichern (1808–1881).

history

On October 1st, 1920 the Wichern-Verlag was founded by the Central Committee for Inner Mission as a "commission publisher" of the publishing house of the Rauhen Haus agency in Hamburg . Under the direction of Pastor Gerhard Füllkrug, the company initially sold missionary publications from other publishers. In 1929 the Evangelical Johannesstift took part(also a Wichern foundation) as a partner in the publishing company. Friedrich Wittig took over the management from 1930 to 1937. He made the company known in the following years through publications that were directed against the National Socialist worldview. Under the National Socialists, the publishing work was restricted, but not stopped. In 1938 Herbert Renner took over the management of the publishing house. In the same year, following a request from the political rulers at the time, the company was converted into a limited partnership. It was now called "Wichern-Verlag Herbert Renner KG". From 1941 to 1946 there was a lack of publications due to the war.

A new beginning after the war included a license from the British military government , which Wichern-Verlag received on February 23, 1946. The obstacles to the dissemination of Protestant literature in the East and the East-West conflict characterize the publishing industry in the post-war years. At the beginning of the 1950s, the major church administrations published basic writings from their houses in Wichern-Verlag. In 1953 the Evangelisches Johannesstift resigned as a partner. Herbert Renner, who had built up the Lutherische Verlagshaus (LVH) parallel to Wichern-Verlag since 1950 , left the Johannesstift with the two publishers in January 1954, with which the name Wichern-Verlag remained. Soon after, in 1955, the Johannesstift gave the Christian Zeitschriftenverein Berlin (CZV) approval to found a Wichern-Verlag GmbH. It was carried out on December 16. From a formal point of view, this Wichern-Verlag GmbH was a new company. But the claim and tradition of publishing books and magazines in the name of Wicherns remained a consistent effort.

From the beginning of the seventies until 1982 the publishing activities were suspended. The Christian Zeitschriften-Verlag remained active at first. When this got into an economic crisis, the church leadership laid down a framework on January 22, 1982 for the reorganization of Protestant journalism . Among other things, it provided for the reactivation of Wichern-Verlag under the direction of Wolfgang Fietkau . The West Berlin Church joined the CZV, and 19 other shareholders were won, including again the Evangelical Johannesstift, the Evangelical Youth and Welfare Work and a number of other, also private, shareholders from diaconia and church. On July 1, 1984, Wichern-Verlag acquired CZV-Verlag to continue its program, including the “Evangelical Church Calendar” and the ecumenical devotional calendar “Bread for the Day”. The Protestant church hymn book is also distributed in this program area. From 1983 to 1989 thematic accents were “contemporary witnesses”, “church on the way”, “tell the Bible on”. Until 1989, however, a special focus was on "Christians in the GDR".

Elke Rutzenhöfer has been the publisher's manager since 2001.

The Activities

The Wichern-Verlag is the most easterly located evangelical publishing house in Germany, which has a full range of publishing services. Thanks to the integrated agency, the publisher is able to take on design assignments for church and diaconal services. He carries out directorial orders for various clients and makes offers for advice and production of printed matter for municipalities, associations and organizations. In addition to the book program, a number of periodicals are published by Wichern-Verlag . The Protestant weekly newspaper " Die Kirche " (previously named: "Berliner Sonntagsblatt" or "Berlin-Brandenburgisches Sonntagsblatt") is distributed in Berlin , Brandenburg and part of Upper Lusatia with a circulation of around 12,500 copies . Since 1992 the monthly mission sheet “Happy Message” has been published by Wichern-Verlag with a circulation of 40,000. Since 1984 the publisher has published the Berlin Theological Journal (BThZ) of the Humboldt University in Berlin .

The book program

In the last decade and a half, books with a contemporary history have been published. Many of these books document what Protestant Christians have to contribute to solving political, social and ideological questions. This provides a forum for important social discussions with ecclesiastical and theological relevance. The titles of this subject area mainly deal with aspects of life, including upbringing , education , family , partnership , dying , but also with genetic research or media policy . A special focus is on several titles that deal with the role of the church in National Socialism as well as biographies of people who lived their faith during this time even against resistance. Reports on and diaries of survivors of persecution by National Socialism can also be found here. Authors include: Uwe Birnstein , Jürgen Fliege , Hans-Otto Furian , Wolfgang Huber , Elisabeth Moltmann-Wendel , Frank Pauli, Joachim Roering, Helmut Ruppel, Jizchak Schwersenz , Wolfgang See, Norbert Sommer, Angelika Thol-Hauke, Wolfgang Weiss , Friedrich Winter, Shlomo Wolkowicz, Wolf-Dieter Zimmermann. In anthologies of the publishing house to write numerous celebrities from politics and society.

See also

Web links