Johann H. Wichern, the founder of the "Innere Mission", the organization of social and missionary services of the Protestant Churches, committed himself to both religious awakening and social reform of protestant Germany. From the beginnings of his career as founder of the "Rauhes Haus", the famous institution for children and young people in Hamburg-Horn, to his concept of "Innere Mission" and his efforts for a reform of prisons in Prussia he unfailingly sticked to this twofold issue. The article outlines his activities and his theological thinking focussing in particular on his aide memoire ("Denkschrift") about the "Innere Mission" of the Protestant Church in Germany, which can be characterized as a form of "conservative modernization". In spite of his political and theological conservativism Wichern inaugurated a successful program for coping with the religious and social crisis of early modernity.

Enthalten in:
Theologische Literaturzeitung; 2008/4 Monatsschrift für das gesamte Gebiet der Theologie und Religionswissenschaft (2008)

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Serie / Reihe: Theologische Literaturzeitung

Personen: Jähnichen, Traugott

Schlagwörter: Theologe Gesellschaftspolitik Sozialpädagoge Lebenslaufforschung Innere Mission Wichern, Johann Hinrich Sozialdiakonie