The Watchtower

The Watchtower ( full title: The Watchtower proclaims Jehovah's Kingdom, English: The Watchtower Announcing Jehovah's Kingdom) is a religious magazine, which is published by the religious community of Jehovah's Witnesses. The pressure and the distribution in Germany is done by the community of Jehovah 's profit publishing enterprise of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of witnesses eV, seltzer / Taunus. The Watchtower is published semi- monthly in 213 languages ​​in the world with an average circulation of over 45 million copies and is the largest circulation magazine world. The internal study edition of the Watchtower has a circulation of 14.5 million copies. The student edition is also part of the Watchtower study in the individual local congregations, a meeting at the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses, usually held on Saturday or Sunday.

Main topics of the magazine are the interpretation and dissemination of the Bible, Biblical prophecy, life coaching on biblical grounds, as well as reports on the activities of Jehovah's Witnesses around the world. Jehovah's Witnesses in their use of biblical exegesis publications such as the Watchtower, the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures, which has been translated, taking into account the original text of the Watchtower Society in more than 100 languages ​​and dialects.

The reference of the " Watchtower " and its companion magazine " Awake! " Is free of charge. The production and editorial is funded by voluntary donations. The distribution takes the form of direct sales by the publisher and the members of the religious community.

Availability

The Watchtower is published together with the known print edition in Braille, large print edition (selected articles in one color print without images ) on CD and in sign language on DVD. Also available online are all new spending since 2010 in the official online portal JW.org as e-books (PDF and EPUB) as well as an audio book in MP3 or AAC format in many languages ​​for free download. Similarly, one can the Watchtower on mobile media ( smartphones, tablets, etc.) read online, read aloud and subscribe as a podcast.

Since July 2012, the texts of all Watchtower issues from the Year 2000 in German and in other languages ​​part of the Watchtower ONLINE LIBRARY that contains all the publications of Jehovah's Witnesses for research and study purposes.

Name and purpose of the publication

The name " The Watchtower " indicates a literal Watchtower, which allowed guards in biblical times to recognize events in advance and arrange for appropriate action. So to show " the significance of world events in the light of Bible prophecy " and the magazine.

The editor explains in the introduction of the Watchtower the purpose of the journal as follows:

Content

The Watchtower is published twice a month ( 1st and 15th ) in two versions ( regular edition and student edition ) in the format 7 x 9 inches and has 16 or 32 pages.

Until the issue of January 2013, the Watchtower included 32 pages. To facilitate the global spread of free, biblical literature, the magazine is only published 16- sided. Headings that have been removed from the print edition (including " For Young Readers ", " My Bible Page " ), but are available online.

The output from the 1st of the month is specifically aimed at outsiders, which the teachings of the Jehovah's witnesses should be brought closer. The articles are written easy to understand, and the choice of topics is broad. The main theme of the magazine is developed by a series of articles (consisting of the first 2 to 3 articles).

In addition, the following sections are to be found ( sometimes alternating):

• Did you know? (Background information on selected Bible passages)
• How to draw closer to God ( lighting of individual Bible passages that are intended to promote the relationship with God )
• Questions from our readers
• Key to family happiness ( family difficulties using the Bible to solve )
• For interviews with the children ( Biblical Articles in child-friendly language )
• For our younger readers
• Imitate their faith ( people from the Bible are presented as role models )
• "A letter from ... " ( experience reports of Jehovah's Witnesses worldwide)
• What do we learn from Jesus ( basic doctrines are briefly outlined)

The output from the 15th of the month is specially designed for Jehovah's Witnesses and "Persons who indicate some progress in their study of the Bible ," thought (Study Edition). The "Study Edition " contains so-called study articles that are considered by Jehovah's Witnesses in their weekly meetings based on questions and answers.

The separation between the issue to the public and the student's edition was introduced in 2008 to make the magazine for irregular readers easier to understand.

History

Origin and precursor

In 1876, Charles Taze Russell got a copy of the magazine "The Herald of the Morning", which was published by the Adventist Nelson H. Barbour in Rochester. Russell supported the magazine, became her editorial editor and financier. Barbour and Russell worked together, until it came to a dispute over the meaning of the ransom sacrifice. Shortly thereafter, the two parted. Russell founded his own magazine, which was first published under the title Zion 's Watch Tower and Herald of Christ 's Presence on 1 July 1879 in the United States.

The Watchtower in Germany

The Watchtower is published in German since 1897. During the time of National Socialism, the dissemination of the Watchtower was forbidden. The magazines were illegal from Switzerland introduced after the seizure of the printing presses and the burning of all supported publications in Magdeburg by Germany, secretly copied and distributed. They were smuggled to various concentration camps, where many Bible Students, as Jehovah's Witnesses were then also called, were detained for illegal preaching.

In the GDR the spread of the Watchtower was already prohibited short time after the founding of the state and sentenced followers of the teachings because of their illegal activity to long prison terms. Readers in the GDR reached the magazine again through smuggling, mostly by visitors from the West and West Berlin.

Frequency of appearance, scope, format

As of July 1879, the magazine was published in black and white, monthly and eight -sided, the first edition was 6000 pieces. In 1891 she appeared 16 -sided, from 1892 semimonthly and from 1950/1953 32- sided and monochrome images. Since 1986, she appears in the four-color printing. The format of the Watchtower has been getting smaller over the decades: 1927-1932 he had a format of 298 × 240 mm, 1946 290 × 213 mm ( nearly A4 ), 1948 284 × 213 mm and since 1960 there are 178 × 223 mm.

English Title

The English title has changed several times over the years. The first editions were called Zion 's Watch Tower and Herald of Christ 's Presence, 1919 The Watch Tower and Herald of Christ 's Presence, 1931, The Watch Tower and Herald of Christ 's Presence. The first six issues of 1939 were called The Watch Tower and Herald of Christ 's Kingdom. All subsequent editions were called The Watchtower Announcing Jehovah 's Kingdom.

German title

The published from 1886 to 1889 German watchtowers bore the title Zion's Watch Tower and proclaimer of Christ's presence, after several years of publication pause she appeared from 1897 under this same title. In 1909 it was renamed The Watch Tower and proclaimer of Christ's presence. 1931, the hyphen was omitted. As of May 1, 1939 was the title of The Watchtower and proclaimer of Christ's Kingdom. In 1950 it was renamed The Watchtower, as a preacher of Jehovah's Kingdom, 1983, the still valid title was The Watchtower proclaims Jehovah's Kingdom introduced.

Simultaneous publication

Since 1 April 1984, more and more foreign-language editions may be issued simultaneously with the English language. 1985 editions have been published simultaneously in 23 languages, including the German -language edition. 1991 65 languages ​​were achieved, in 1994 there were 85, and thus 99.3 % of the circulation. Today there are a total of 213 languages ​​in which the Watchtower appears.

Special Contents

Starting with its issues of March and June 1880, the 1914 is marked as a significant year in which the " times of the Gentiles " should end. So you joined, among other worldwide unrest and anarchy as a sign of the then reach its climax War God, as it is indicated, for example, in Revelation 16:14. In the March 1885 issue of the Watchtower attacked in the article " The Evolution and the Brain Age" for the first time the theory of evolution to. 1919 expected the Watchtower, unlike many church representatives, the failure of the League of Nations. In the issue of August 1, 1970 the following was written: " But was created in the autumn of the year 4026 BCE, according to the biblical chronology, after Adam, would CE, 6,000 years of human history passed in 1975, and then stood us 1000 years before Christ's Kingdom rule. If we do not know the date for the end of this system of things, we know very well that the time left is reduced, and that there are until the end of 6,000 years of human history, only about six years. " 1976 rejected the Watchtower expectations regarding the conduct of 6000 years from Adam, because the creation of Adam could not be equated with the end of the sixth day of creation.

Price

By 1990, the publications of Jehovah's Witnesses were given shipping all over the world for a small fee to cover printing and, most recently since September 1991, I took a Watchtower in Germany 0,50 DM In German-speaking publications are all free of charge to interested readers Location. Gradual was changed to 2002 worldwide free distribution.