Visit to Bischoff Verlag in Germany in April 2010 (3) Dear friends May I please share with you my visit to Bischoff Verlag in Germany in April 2010, some memories and spiritual experiences and insights into this wonderful place. May I please share with you that in the last year or two of my schooling (1958), the great wish developed to see our New Apostolic Church origins in England, and our printing works of Our Family in Germany, and to meet Chief Apostle Bischoff. As I could not afford the fare to Europe, I managed to find work on a cargo boat which left Cape Town just one day after I finished writing Matric. Together with 35 extraordinary sailors I travelled around the West Coast of Africa to Venice. From there I journeyed up through Italy and Switzerland and eventually to Frankfurt in Germany. Thereafter I back-packed and youth-hostelled through Europe in fulfilling the threefold wish described above. The English editor of Our Family, Shepherd Kohler (at that time Deacon) took me to a profound interview with Chief Apostle Bischoff in his home in Frankfurt on 22.01.1959, and a Service by him in Frankfurt, 51 years ago now. I had also attended in Lugano (Switzerland) Chief Apostle Bischoff’s 1959 New Year Service broadcast by post-cable from Frankfurt. Somehow by good fortune and blessing I was thereafter in due course able to personally meet and have brief discussion with all subsequent Chief Apostles - Schmidt, Streckeisen, Urwyler, Fehr, Leber. Deacon Kohler took me also to an unforgettable interview with District Apostle Fritz Bischoff in the Verlag in Frankfurt, and a Service by him in Mainz, in January 1959, 51 years ago now. District Apostle Fritz Bischoff was born on 31.03.1909, thus 101 years ago, the son of Chief Apostle Bischoff. He was ordained Apostle on 5.08.1951 and served for 33 years until he was retired on 18.11.1984. He started the Unsere Familie (Our Family) in 1933, when he was only 24 years of age, first issue being on 17.12.1933, thus 77 years ago. Regarding this founder of the Verlag, legendary and astonishing District Apostle Fritz Bischoff, he was an aeroplane pilot, amongst many other activities, lived life to the full, was very innovative, and was a great entrepreneur for our Church. He was much loved by the Youth and inter-acted comfortably with them. New Apostolic children around the world knew him and loved him as “Uncle Fritz”. He had a leg amputated after much ill health but still insisted on travelling all the way to Australia to do a special festive ceremony for District Apostle Gerke of Australia. Chief Apostle Leber held Service for the Departed on Sunday 6 July 2008 in Pretoria Central church (see Our Family Sept 2008). His father-in-law, our dearly beloved District Apostle Fritz Bischoff held a service there for Ministers 40 years ago in 1968, which I attended and which left lasting impressions. One of these was : DAp Bischoff told us that whenever he received a letter and began to read what the writer wrote starting with “Dear District Apostle” he would ask himself “Am I really ‘dear’ to the writer, have I endeared myself to him/her, or do they address me as ‘dear’ as a writing formality, because that is how a letter ‘must’ start ?” Then he advised us to endear ourselves to the members in genuine Christ-like love in order best to then be a help for them… There was a sequel to this. Many years later I attended a service in Stockholm (Sweden), and four young members came in a VW Beetle all the way from Flensburg in Germany to Stockholm to support the service and ministering there, leaving Friday and returning Monday. I chatted with them and they told me they came originally from the area of DAp Bischoff. Then they said “What a dear man !” and they praised his loving caring supportive manner and life. Early in February 1938 29-year-old Evangelist Fritz Bischoff had set off by boat from Hamburg to visit the congregations in South Africa, by invitation of Chief Apostle Helper Schlaphoff, and by agreement of Chief Apostle Bischoff. He arrived in Cape Town on 25 February, and a few days later attended services on his first Sunday, in Claremont and in Virginia Street, by Chief Apostle Helper Schlaphoff. Evg Fritz Bischoff was called up to serve in English, and he battled considerably with the pitfalls of the English language. Thirty years later I was in the service in which he served again in Claremont this time as visiting District Apostle, and there were still members attending who remembered his battle with English in 1938. To them he now said at the end of the service that he wanted to thank them after all these years, for not laughing at him in that 1938 service when he spoke about God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spook ! Evg Fritz Bischoff travelled in South Africa with Chief Apostle Helper Schlaphoff for 80 days, took part in more than 40 services, and they drove a distance of more than 8000 miles by car, mostly along very poor gravel roads and having to open farm gates on the way. One and a half years later the Second World War broke out, on 3 September 1939. Evg Fritz Bischoffs visit to South Africa was reported in serial form under the title “What I saw in Africa” in our Southern Hemisphere New Apostolic Review fortnightly publication of the New Apostolic Church in South Africa, South America, Australasia, and the Far East. The first episode appeared in the Review of 16 April 1939, and then regularly until December 1939. Directly after the episode in Review of 3 December 1939 Chief Apostle Helper Schlaphoff wrote : “NOTICE - Owing to the International Situation, it is impossible to obtain the continuation of Evg. F. Bischoff’s Report “What I saw in Africa” from Overseas, and we are therefore compelled to discontinue the reprinting of this report for the duration of the war.” The last issue of the Southern Hemisphere ‘New Apostolic Review’ was on 24 March 1940, in which Chief Apostle Helper Schlaphoff told the readers that unfortunately due to matters relating to the war, “we are compelled to cease the publication of our ‘Review’…” and that “When the war is over and materials will have reverted to their former prices again, the Church intends to publish a family paper, English and Afrikaans combined, once a month, in which will be included then the history of the Church from its commencement, and many other interesting articles…” The roots of the publishing house (Verlag) date back to the year 1932 when the company founder, Friedrich (Fritz) Bischoff, took over the internal printing house of the New Apostolic Church. He was then only 23 years of age. DAp Bischoff started in the Verlag with a little box-camera and ended with the International TV Transmission Truck. The former in-house print shop has in the meantime developed into two successful companies (2008), namely a publishing house and print shop, with a total of over 100 employees between them. The Verlag Friedrich Bischoff GmbH and the Friedrich Bischoff Druckerei GmbH are now both enterprises of the New Apostolic Church. The Publishers consider themselves an international Christian media house. In addition to Church members and regional Church administrations, its clients also include bookstores, agencies, and other publishers. See also: bischoff-verlag.de May I please share with you some thoughts and impressions about the Our Family. Like you, as a child and then teenager I enjoyed reading Our Family (English translation), at that time with series such as “The Great Master” telling the life of Jesus, “Letter from the Chief Apostle” with heartfelt thoughts from Chief Apostle Bischoff, “The Commencement of the New Apostolic Church in Our Time” being the history of the re-establishment of the Apostle Ministry from the 1830’s, “Science and Our Faith” with ‘wonder-full’ insights written by a New Apostolic scientist, etc. On my visit to Europe aged 17 years I reached Germany in January 1959 and met Deacon Köhler and his wife in Frankfurt (English editor of Our Family). I had brief contact with him earlier in Cape Town, singing in Choirs conducted by him, before he was asked by Chief Apostle Bischoff to return to Germany to work for the Verlag. Deacon Köhler introduced me to the then German Editor of the Verlag, dear Shepherd Fenkl, Doctor of Philology (languages). Also to a Priest who typed transcriptions straight off tape-recordings of Chief Apostle services, and had been ‘German Typing Speed Champion’ some years before. Then to meet legendary Hermann Ober - after producing Church music records, 78’s and then 33’s, in the 1960’s he provided reel-to-reel tapes which he made to order i.e. members could send him a list of the hymns they wanted and he put these onto reel-to-reel tapes in alphabetic sequence, thereby I have four large reels of our Church choirs made by Hermann Ober with his own reverent voice announcing each hymn by name and choir; later he made the small tape cassettes which went on to become CD’s and now DVD’s. A few weeks later I met Sister Margarethe White in London, who started the New Apostolic Church in the United Kingdom after the Second World War, and contributed much to Our Family with articles and translations and especially the Childrens Section with poems under the pen-name MAJU. Deacon Köhler took me to an unforgettable interview with District Apostle Fritz Bischoff who then arranged for us to visit Chief Apostle Bischoff. May I please mention four subsequent extraordinary experiences with Our Family and its publisher Verlag Friedrich Bischoff : At the time when I turned 21, there was a meeting for ministers on the Saturday (I was a Deacon) and when I sat down in the church bench a few minutes before that meeting started I asked the Lord for a word on my 21st birthday which would apply for the rest of my life, without my mentioning to the district leader holding the meeting that I was turning 21. He began his meeting by saying with his very first words : A Brother turned 21 and he asked his Rector for a word on his 21st birthday for the rest of his life, and the Rector told him to read his New Apostolic magazines every day of his life! I have endeavoured to do so ever since, with blessed benefits. While being Rector of a particular congregation a very active and dedicated Deacon told me that he does not read the experiences in the Our Family because he has difficulty believing them because “those miraculous things don’t happen to me!” A while later his brother lay in a coma and I came to the hospital to visit him. The Deacon happened to meet me at the lift and said that the doctors think his brother will never wake up. We stood at his bedside for a while and I commented “When he wakes up, I wonder what he will tell us about the time he was in this coma.” The Deacon informed me a few days later that his brother had now just suddenly begun to stir, opened his eyes, sat up, looked around, and began to speak ! The Deacon said that upon my saying “WHEN he wakes up...” he had remembered the experiences in Our Family and bound himself to that word which was WHEN and not IF, and lo and behold his brother woke up soon thereafter and since then is now healthy and working. The Deacon later told me that he now FIRST reads the experiences in Our Family before reading the rest of the magazine. A few months before the above coma happening, I was reading the experiences in Our Family and about a Sister who was walking home at night when she suddenly had the thought “I wonder if there is a God ?” even though she had felt His love and grace often. She was immediately saddened by her doubt, but she still could not help herself say “If there is a God, please send me a shooting star !” And lo and behold as she said that, a shooting star came overhead. She gasped in shame, but then could not help herself say “Maybe a co-incidence ? If there is a God, please send me ANOTHER shooting star!” And lo and behold as she said that, ANOTHER shooting star came overhead. She was overwhelmed and hurried thankfully home. A few days later I was walking home at night up our long driveway, and that Deacon’s statement came back to me that he does not read the experiences in the Our Family because he has difficulty believing them because “those miraculous things don’t happen to me!” And that “shooting star” experience came back to me, and that I had probably never ever seen a shooting star. And so I wondered if that could have been true what I had read or if the Deacon was right. While thinking all that, suddenly a shooting star flew overhead ! I thought “Wow !” But then I thought : “But two shooting stars ?” And lo and behold as I thought that, ANOTHER shooting star came overhead. I was overwhelmed and hurried thankfully home. While being Rector of Hillbrow congregation in Johannesburg, the annual time came up to encourage our members to subscribe for Our Family for the new year, especially new readers. The system was that each Priest obtained orders from the members in his Section, including payment and receipt, and then all the Priests gave their combined orders to the Magazine Agent. On a Tuesday evening we all met in the vestry and focused on the Our Family subscriptions, possible new readers, financial constraints, etc. As part of my encouragement to the Priests as Rector I told them about the dedicated AND capable well-qualified staff of the Verlag who provide this high standard Our Family magazine with invaluable content. I then told briefly about Editor years ago Dr Fenkl (Doctor of Philology) and the ‘German Typing Champion’ Priest, and then at some length about present Managing Director Hans-Jürgen Hendriock and where he had come from in the business world, and also about Vertriebsleiter Fritz Nicholaus. Lo and behold, NEXT evening, Wednesday, who should arrive in Hillbrow congregation to hold service was District Elder Hendriock and District Evangelist Nicholaus accompanying our Bishop Hector as they had come from Frankfurt to Johannesburg on Verlag business ! And strangely, a German-speaking Sister in our congregation now gave us this week specifically an Unsere Familie she found with the inauguration by Chief Apostle Fehr of our Hillbrow church congregation in it - U F of 5 December 1993 ! Apart from the above four experiences, there were of course many related to reading “the right article at the right time”, where the article one picked up to read exactly fitted or helped in need or decisions or guidance… Along with providing Our Family and other of our Church magazines, the Verlag published invaluable hard-cover books over the years e.g. ‘Der Grosse Meister’ which in 1960 was already on 5th Edition; ‘Apostel Paulus’ combination of three books ‘Saulus in Tarsus’, ‘Saulus in Jerusalem’, ‘Paulus der Apostel’; ‘Bible History for Sunday School and Family’ in German 1953 and in English 1968 of which Jesus’ life combined in the four gospels is a masterpiece; ‘History of the New Apostolic Church’ in German 1968 and English 1970; ‘Die Bibel in Bildern’; ‘Einsichtung und Erfahrungen’ three volumes Eine Auswahl aus den Leitartikeln der Zeitschrift Unsere Familie around 1985 (selection of some of the 23 Editorials written per year by DAp F Bischoff); ‘New Acts of the Apostles – Neue Apostelgeschichte’ in 1985 - book based on the commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the re-establishment of the Apostle Ministry with report ending at November 1982; ‘History of the Kingdom of God’; ‘Lieder, Dichter, Komponisten - Handbuch zur neuapostolischen Musikliteratur’ in 1999; Hymnals, ‘Questions and Answers’ books, Religious Instruction Manuals, etc. All of the above were written by New Apostolic authors such as District Apostles Weinmann and Rockenfelder and Bischoff, Dr Wölk, Erich Meyer-Geweke, Hermann Ober, etc, and published by the Verlag. Around 1980 DAp Bischoff sold for probably the first time a book which was not printed by his Verlag : ‘Lexicon zur Bibel’ by the renowned publishers ‘R. Brockhaus Verlag Wuppertal’. In the front of the book DAp Bischoff pasted a personal letter to our members saying that “Dear Reader, with this ‘Lexicon zur Bibel’ you have purchased a work which does not appear in my Verlag” and that it contains “Ein Fulle von Wissen uber die Bibel und die biblischen Zusammenhange…” which he would like to make available to us but here or there we might come across something not in agreement with our faith, etc. According to my (Alan) modest opinion and having read much therein, explanations in this book regarding Holy Baptism and Holy Sealing and other New Apostolic teachings are remarkably fully and deeply New Apostolic. After this, the Verlag has since then offered many Historical religious books for sale which in a similar way enhance our New Apostolic religious awareness. COMPANY The Friedrich Bischoff Publishers Ltd. (Verlag Friedrich Bischoff GmbH) is an enterprise of the New Apostolic Church. The Publishers also understand themselves as an international Christian media house. In addition to Church members and regional Church administrations, our clients also include bookstores, agencies and other publishers. The roots of the Publishers date back to the year 1932 when the company’s founder, Friedrich Bischoff, took over the in-house print shop of the New Apostolic Church. The former in-house print shop has since developed into a successful enterprise, namely a publishing house with a total of more than 60 employees between it. Bischoff Verlag offers regular tours of its printing facility, concluding with a light ‘local’ lunch. Tens of thousands of New Apostolics from all over the world have been on these interesting tours - Appointments for tours Phone +49 69 2696-0 HISTORY More than seven decades of good ideas! “From a small private print shop to an international media house”—that is a good way to describe the 80-year development of the Friedrich Bischoff company. Both the publishers and printers are still named after the company’s founder. Photo: Friedrich Bischoff (1909 – 1987) Chronology 1932 Friedrich Bischoff takes over the print shop of the New Apostolic Church in Frankfurt. 1933 The magazine “Unsere Familie” (Our Family) is launched. 1941 Production is halted on account of the war. 1949 Production resumes. 1950 Division of the publishers and printers into two distinct companies. 1951 Founding of the Music department by Hermann Ober in Bielefeld. 1954 The music department moves to Frankfurt am Main. 1954 The title “Wachet auf! ruft uns die Stimme” (“Wake, arise for night is flying”) is recorded for the first vinyl audio release. 60s Selection of magazines, books, and audio recordings is expanded. 70s The Publishers become increasingly active in an international capacity. 1971 Production of music cassettes begins. 1980 Sales of the Publishers’ recordings cross the one-million-copy threshold. 1982 Publishers and printers move to 298 Gutleutstraße. 1986 Production of the first CD entitled “Nun singet und seid froh” (In dulci jubilo). 1987 Company founder Friedrich Bischoff dies. 1989 Publishers and printers become the property of the New Apostolic Church. 1990 First European satellite transmission of a divine service. 1996 Dr. Hans-Jürgen Hendriock becomes managing director of both companies. 1998 Start of the children’s books series; book sales begin to grow. 1998 Publication of the “Wir Kinder” children’s magazine. 2000 The first DVD appears with the “Ghana Report”. 2002 Launch of “spirit” – the young magazine for New Apostolic Christians (German magazine). 2004 Publication of the new German hymnal of the New Apostolic Church. 2007 Start of “Bischoff Reisen” (Bischoff Travel). 2007 First satellite transmission of a divine service by Chief Apostle Wilhelm Leber. Nearly 1.4 million believers in 7,500 receiving stations in over 60 countries on all five continents participate in the divine service. 2008 Redesign of the visitor and conference rooms, opening of a retail store. 2010 Bischoff Printers sold to Majid Davoodabadi. 2010 Jürgen Kramer becomes managing director of Bischoff Publishers. Love and best wishes, Alan Woodman
Posted on: Sat, 24 Jan 2015 10:25:11 +0000
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