Summary: The Christian Herbert Wehner. Wehner was one of the leading German Social Democrats from the 1950s to the 1980s. The article analyses his relationship to Christendom and to the (Protestant) Church, the sources of his personal faith and its connection with his political actions.

Summary: Life Resumée in the Movies: The Question of the Meaning of Existence in the Light of the Finiteness of Human Life Span, as Presented in the Movies “Straight Story”, “About Schmidt”, “Mein Leben ohne mich” (My Life Without me), and “Lost in Translation”. Focussing on what appears to be unspectacular occasions, these movies deal with the topics of time, biographical paths, personal encounters, and traces of redemption.

Summary: Goal Orientation Without Goals: Annual Appraisals in the Church – a Critique with Suggestions from the Perspective of Organisation Development. The author gives an overview of various types of annual appraisal interviews which have recently been introduced in many of the German regional Protestant Churches. Using a tool for implementing “management by objectives”, however, presupposes that these objectives have been clarified beforehand.

Summary: Freedom of Faith and Church Organisation: Remarks on the Impulse Paper of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany, “Church of Freedom”. In practical-theological pespective, the author analyses the paper which is meant to initiate structural reform as well as a reform in mentality throughout German Protestantism. He looks at how church bonding and the pastoral task are viewed. In its efforts to strive for identification and bonding, an organisation of freedom should mark more clearly where its organisational limits are.

Summary: The (German) Protestant Major Church as a Hybrid Facing a Push Towards Organisation Structure: Remarks on the Impulse Paper “Church of Freedom” of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany and on the Future of the Protestant Church Between Congregationalism, Local Branch Standardisation and the Strengthening of the Lower Regional Level. The change in mentality advocated by the paper as well as its other proposals are to be understood as a push towards organisation logics. Its relation to the opposing institution logics and three future scenarios are discussed.