Inner mission

The Inner Mission is an initiative to Christian mission within the evangelical church. In Germany Johann Hinrich Wichern founded the Inner Mission; she went in 1848 to the Social Service Agency. The Inner Mission of Austria founded the Black Brothers.

History

In the period 1750-1820 there was for poor and abandoned people a commitment to charity, that was not Christian or church motivated. The need for increased care for the needy was German, collected by the revivalist circles a need: After the wars of liberation there were in major cities and industrial areas an impoverished churches alienated the population. As a model of charity efforts in England and Scotland were used; in Germany it came to local activities.

The reasons of rescue homes for neglected youth by Johannes Daniel Falk in 1813 in Weimar and 1816 by Adalbert von der Recke - Volmerstein in Bochum- Hamme (House Overdyck ), in the former Trappist monastery Düsselthal as well as the foundation of the educational institution for the poor school teacher in 1820 at Schloss Beuggen at Basel were the first steps on this path.

Stimulated Coming from the pietistic revival movement and Amalie Sieveking opened Johann Hinrich Wichern in 1833, the rough house in the former village of Horn, near Hamburg. It was a rescue home for vulnerable children and young people, and also a training center for deacons. From the napping house was 1842, the Inner Mission ago. It began in 1845 in the Evangelical Church in Wittenberg with public relations. The Inner Mission was an answer to the question raised by the Industrial Revolution Social Question in the 19th century. Wichern encouraged the church and state social work and thereby contributed simultaneously to a contemporary form of evangelism in that was geared towards the modern, the Christian faith alienated city dwellers.

1849 also saw the founding of the Association for Home Mission in Bremen.

As of 1849, the activities of private associations and institutions for social work were organized Protestant ( Christian love service) by Wichern in the " Central Committee of Internal Mission of the German Evangelical Church " agreed organizational and coordinated.

Wichern understood under the term Inner Mission Christian charity as a Christian renewal movement and diakonia care of the poor.

1874 was the first club in Austria for Inner Mission and 1877 as the first relief organization the Deaconess Motherhouse Bethany in the Upper Austrian Gallneukirchen. Other facilities followed in Waiern and meetings. Unlike Wichern founded in Germany were those first social aid organizations institutions of deaconesses. With the Diakonissenanstalt Kaiserwerth in Dusseldorf Georg Heinrich Theodor Fliedner 1836 created the first relief organization with deaconesses in Germany, the others followed. By Fliedner facilities arose in Germany a so-called female diakonia, Wichern by a male counterpart.

Name and organizations

The master brand name of the " Inner Mission ", set by the these efforts in parallel with the express mission ( mission to the Gentiles or Jews Mission ), gave the same first of Göttingen theologian Friedrich Lücke ( 1791-1855 ). A powerful patron was the " awakened " by circles initiated missionary movement since 1840 to King Frederick William IV of Prussia. In Austria could only with two Imperial patents, the Patent of Toleration in 1781 by Joseph II and the Protestants patent in 1861 by Franz Joseph I., develop evangelical life.

Central Committee for the Inner Mission

The time to the middle of the 19th century was marked by the onset of industrialization, which caused thereby rural exodus, poverty and social distress. As part of the social changes under the influence of developments in the Massenpauperismus in the Revolution of 1848 took place from 21 to 23 September 1848 in Martin Luther's Wittenberg effect a " meeting of Protestant men " instead, which is considered the first Protestant Church. The impromptu speech Johann Hinrich Wichern at the Church received much attention in Protestant circles. On Wichern initiative was the establishment of a decided " Central Committee for the Inner Mission of the German Evangelical Church " on the Wittenberg Church. The " Central Committee " was constituted then a few months later, on January 9, 1849; it consisted of ten members. His task was to coordinate the diaconal work in Germany. Also at the national and provincial aid societies were formed.

National Association for Home Mission

1912 was founded in Austria in order to improve the organization of the " National Association for Home Mission ". This resulted in 1969, the Diakonia Austria as a merger of Lutheran, Reformed, Methodist, Old Catholic, Baptist and diaconal auxiliary equipment.

Central Association of the Inner Mission

The " Central Committee " in Germany continued to evolve, so that the " Central Association of the Inner Mission " was established on January 1, 1921. After the Second World War, another Protestant organization, the Evangelical Relief and Works Agency, Eugen Gerstenmaier was established alongside the existing Inner Mission. From both opened in 1957, the association " Inner Mission and charity". However, the pan- German connection was ended by the Wall in 1961, by which the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD ) and thus also the evangelical relief agencies in two independent parts disintegrated. In the GDR in 1969, the Agency and the Inner Mission to organizations, the " Social Service Agency - Inner Mission and Relief - the Protestant churches in the GDR ," together. In Germany followed in 1975 the establishment of a central organization also, the " Social Service Agency of the EKD eV ", which replaced the West German welfare organization. From the separate welfare organizations in 1991 was ultimately today's " Social Service Agency of the Protestant Church in Germany ".

" City Mission "

Besides the already mentioned rescue homes for neglected children as the deaconess houses for the poor, nursing and infant schools comprised the Inner Mission clubs and institutions for individually standing young men and girls ( youth clubs, maids Hostels, Hostels for home, Martha pins ), prison clubs, especially for released prisoners, worker colonies for homeless and unemployed, Magdalene houses for " sunken women ", etc. in large cities such as Berlin, Hamburg, Stettin and Breslau, all such efforts were uniformly arranged in the form of so-called city missions. Significant, in some cases still existing examples are Berlin, founded by Adolf Stoecker and founded by Johann Hinrich Wichern Hamburg's mission and the mission of Szczecin. In addition, clubs for internal mission custom homes built in almost all major cities for their meetings; these evangelical club houses were often associated with " Hostels to home ."

Social Work and Policy

In many cases, touched the Inner Mission with general state interests, especially in the field of services for the poor ( workers' colonies and feeding stations for vagrants ) and the prison system, such as Wichern, the most energetic representative of the inner mission in northern Germany, since 1852 in an official relationship with the Prussian prison system occurred and was appointed in 1858 as a lecturer in the Council, the Ministry of the Interior as in the old Prussian Evangelical Supreme Ecclesiastical Council in Berlin. With the other, does not explain ecclesiastical association's activities as well as with the noble Order of St. John, among others joined the Inner Mission often in a relationship of peaceful co -operation and lost by these manifold contacts with the outside world gradually much of the pietistic painting, which had previously been often accused her.