About Stimmen der Zeit

Stimmen der Zeit

Stimmen der Zeit (StZ) is one of Germany's oldest cultural magazines, published monthly by the Verlag Herder and edited by the German Province of the Jesuits. Its origins reach back to 1865, when it was founded at Maria Laach as the Stimmen aus Maria Laach. The magazine describes itself as a journal for Christian culture, addressing theology, the Church, politics, society, science, literature, film, and art. The editorial office sits in Berlin, in the Haus der Bundespressekonferenz; the editor-in-chief is Stefan Kiechle SJ, in office since January 1, 2018, succeeding Andreas R. Batlogg.

Overview

Stimmen der Zeit appears monthly in the Freiburg publisher Herder, with ISSN 0039-1492. The sold circulation is reported at around 5,000 copies, a modest but stable figure for a magazine of intellectual reflection whose influence exceeds its numbers. The magazine's subtitle is "Zeitschrift für christliche Kultur" (journal for Christian culture), and its remit is the intellectual engagement with the problems of the present in society, politics, natural science, literature, cinema, and art, from the standpoint of the Christian faith and in the service of the Church. The guiding orientations of the Jesuit order, as set by the recent General Congregations, shape its line: the insight that faith proclamation in today's world is impossible without a decided commitment to justice, the challenges of interreligious dialogue, and the inculturation of the Christian message. The magazine's programmatic self-description invites readers to engage with the whole problematic of the age and to find, in the plurality of opinions and worldviews, their own differentiated standpoint.

The magazine seeks to help readers find their own differentiated standpoint amid the plurality of opinions and worldviews, offering orientation rather than instruction. It understands itself as committed to the Christian faith and the service of the Church, but this does not exclude critical statements toward positions of the official Church, a balance that has defined its editorial character for generations. The readership is the theologically and culturally interested public: clergy, theologians, academics, religious educators, and educated laypeople across the German-speaking world, including readers in Switzerland and Austria who follow the German Jesuit province's intellectual life and the magazine's engagement with contemporary culture. The article archive from 1915 to 2009 is available online at stz.digitheo.de, and recent articles appear on the Herder site, including 2026 contributions by the editor-in-chief on topics from Boccaccio to the synodal papacy, from the death of Pope Francis to the question of a Christian responsibility for politics.

History

On September 27/28, 1864, the journal was founded at Maria Laach, the former Benedictine abbey in the Eifel that had served since 1863 as the house of studies of the German Jesuits, and in March 1865 the first issues appeared as the Stimmen aus Maria Laach in the Verlag Herder of Freiburg im Breisgau. Until 1871, 24 issues appeared, engaging with the Syllabus, Pius IX's 1864 encyclical Quanta cura, and the First Vatican Council, defending them vigorously. From July 1871 the journal appeared monthly, and the Jesuitengesetz (Jesuit Law) of July 4, 1872 forced the editorial office into exile abroad: an odyssey through Tervueren near Brussels (1874-1879), Blyenbeck (1880-1885) and Exaten (1885-1899) in the Netherlands, Luxembourg (1899-1911), and finally Valkenburg (1911-1914), the college of the German Jesuits between Maastricht and Aachen. The title changed over time to the Stimmen der Zeit, reflecting the journal's ambition to address the whole of contemporary intellectual life.

The line of editors-in-chief reads as a who's who of German Jesuit intellectual life: Georg Michael Pachtler, Rudolf Cornely, Gerhard Schneemann, Jakob Fäh, August Langhorst, Josef Blötzer, Karl Frick, Hermann Krose, Friedrich Muckermann, the later Cardinal Franz Ehrle (1916-1917), Heinrich Sierp, Josef Kreitmaier, Theo Hoffmann, Anton Koch, Oskar Simmel, Wolfgang Seibel (1966-1998), Martin Maier (1998-2009), Andreas R. Batlogg (2009-2017), and since January 1, 2018, Stefan Kiechle SJ. Kiechle, born 1960 in Freiburg, a Jesuit since 1982 with studies in Freiburg, Jerusalem, Munich, Frankfurt, and Paris and a doctorate in spiritual theology, worked as a university chaplain, retreat companion, novice master, lecturer, and city pastor, publishing widely on Ignatian spirituality, before serving as provincial of the German Province from 2010 to 2017; he is also the delegate for Ignatian spirituality. The editorial team includes Klaus Mertes SJ, the former rector of the Canisius-Kolleg in Berlin and Kolleg St. Blasien, who also served as superior of the Jesuit community in Berlin-Charlottenburg.

Coverage and Content

Stimmen der Zeit publishes essays, interviews, and reviews across its fields: theology and the Church, politics and society, science, literature, film, and art. Recent articles by Stefan Kiechle illustrate the range: on Giovanni Boccaccio and the Renaissance, on greed as the deadly sin of our time, on loneliness as a social, psychological, and spiritual phenomenon, on the loss of religious culture, on the synodal papacy, on the uncertainty of life, on the faith places of young people, and on socio-ecological and religious developments in Zambia. The magazine does not shy from controversial questions: the synodal path, the dominance of canon lawyers, clericalism, the "woke" debate, and the Church's relationship to modernity are recurring themes, treated with the reflective distance the monthly format allows.

The journal's method is the reflective essay rather than the news item: long-form contributions that place current developments in theological, philosophical, and historical perspective, often written by Jesuits and by external academics, theologians, and cultural figures. Its critical independence within the Church gives it a distinctive voice: committed to the faith, but willing to question official positions, as the historical lexicon's account emphasizes. The magazine thus serves both as a forum for Jesuit intellectual life and as a bridge between the Church and the wider culture, and its 160-year archive offers an unparalleled record of Catholic intellectual history in Germany.

Organization and Ownership

Stimmen der Zeit is published by the Verlag Herder GmbH and edited by the Deutsche Provinz der Jesuiten (German Province of the Jesuits). The editorial office is at Schiffbauerdamm 40, 10117 Berlin, in the Haus der Bundespressekonferenz, reachable at stimmen@herder.de and by telephone during weekday office hours. The editor-in-chief is Stefan Kiechle SJ, reachable at his Jesuit email; the editorial team includes Klaus Mertes SJ. The Herder "Über uns" page presents the editorial team with portraits and biographies. Financial details of the magazine are not publicly confirmed.

Digital Presence

The magazine's digital home is the Herder site's Stimmen der Zeit section, which presents the current issue, the issues archive, author pages with article lists, and the "Über uns" editorial portrait page. The digitized article archive from 1915 to 2009 is available online, making a century of Jesuit cultural journalism searchable. The editorial office maintains an email contact and telephone line. Social media and newsletter activity are not publicly confirmed in detail.

Germany's Oldest Cultural Journal

For 160 years, Stimmen der Zeit has chronicled the encounter between the Christian faith and contemporary culture: from the Kulturkampf exile of the 1870s through the First Vatican Council's aftermath, two world wars, the Second Vatican Council, and the synodal debates of the present. It remains the Jesuits' German-language forum for theology, culture, and the questions of the age, and one of the longest continuously published cultural magazines in Germany, a record of Catholic intellectual life without parallel.