The first preparatory correspondence from the years 1876ff. for the initiation of a dogma-free mission and the first discussions of the association in the religious-church newspapers and magazines has been handed down (from the preface by Wolfgang Eger, 1981). Extensive material is also devoted to the founding conference in Frankfurt/M. on 11 April 1883, the constituent assembly in Weimar on 4 and 5 June 1884, the first period of the association from Weimar to Mannheim (1884-1885) and from Gotha to Braunschweig (1886-1887) as well as the winning of the Grand Duke of Weimar as protector of the association.The first president of the East Asia Mission, the Swiss priest Ernst Buß from Glarus, stated on the occasion of the foundation of the Mission in his welcoming speech in Weimar in June 1884: "...But now also in the soul of the heathen, although often very atrophied, lie germs and remnants of eternal truth and healthy religious life, which are intimately related to the spirit of the Gospel. If these are lovingly chosen, this is taken up and the Gospel is brought close to the Gentile in such a way that he feels: that is my own better self, that is only the full height and beauty of what I myself suspected and sought for, but was not able to find! Then the Gospel will find receptive ground, then it can take root in the people's minds, then it will bring forth the blessed fruits of the Spirit in Asia and Africa as well as in us. But once the spirit of Jesus Christ has penetrated the heart of a people, this spirit will already create for itself the worship and ecclesiastical forms that are appropriate to it on that ground, perhaps quite different from what we are accustomed to, perhaps more exuberant, perhaps more poorer - God does not demand that all his children stammer the father's name with the same sounds - but at any rate folksy ones that correspond to the national character. But if they are popular forms, they will also exert a popular attraction and facilitate the connection. Christianity, far from being denationalized, becomes itself a national element, a leaven that gradually permeates an entire people, can educate entire peoples from within to Christian morality..." The draft statutes of the Association (1883-1884) and the statutes adopted in 1886, the minutes of meetings of the Central Committee, the Business Committee, the General Assembly, staff meetings and house conferences, as well as the first statutes of branch associations, are available.The General Evangelical-Protestant Missionary Association regards mission in the non-Christian world as an undeniable duty of the whole Christianity, founded in the command and promise of Jesus as well as in the divine destiny of Christianity, and therefore has the task of contributing to its part so that the redemption through Jesus Christ, the blessings of Christian knowledge of God, Christian life and Christian culture more and more become the common property of all peoples.He recognizes in the non-Christian religions with Paul and the most outstanding church teachers of the first centuries of the Christian calendar germs of divine truth and sets himself the goal of their development and completion in the Christian religion. He wants to solve his tasks in the sense of the Evangelical-Protestant faith and in doing so gives room to every conviction that has grown on the basis of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. On this basis it seeks the union and collaboration of all those who are permeated by the need for mission in the spirit of the Gospel and the Reformation, whatever their theological direction or confessional and ecclesial denomination.He complements the already existing Protestant mission associations by considering the mission areas which have not yet been tackled by them, or have been tackled only with little success, and by seeking primarily also to involve those circles of Protestant Christianity in the mission work which have so far kept themselves away from it, so that the mission ceases to be only the work of a small fraction of the church".Also available are the documents for the foundation of a missionary library (1887), the establishment of a scholarship (1887), the "third" association period from Braunschweig to Zurich (1887-1888) and the following annual meetings.The first annual report by Ernst Faber from Shanghai (1887) and the reports on the Faberhospital, on building and property issues, school facilities, on the occupation of the parish office of the German Protestant congregation in Shanghai, Tsientsin, Beijing and Tokyo, on the time of the First World War and National Socialism and on the time after 1945 are particularly interesting material. Finally, there are the minutes of the Tsingtau College of Missionaries, the negotiations on the construction of a student residence in Tokyo (1965), extensive documents on the connections to the Swiss East Asia Mission, to the national associations - with the conference reports of the national associations - and to the national churches.The medical mission in China, which began in 1902, is documented with remarkable hospital reports from Kaumi, the Faber Hospital, Tsining and Tsingtau (wish hospital), as well as more recent material on contacts with Japanese in Germany. Again and again financial, asset and property issues in Germany and in Mission, including German-Japanese study projects, are on record, as is the connection to Kyodan, to the Working Communities for World Mission and Ecumenical Mission (e.g. to the Japan Committee of German Missions).Classification Group 3 contains the correspondence with the mission inspectors and missionaries, doctors, nurses and other DOAM staff, arranged in alphabetical order. Of particular interest are the letters of Ernst Faber from Shanghai and Hong Kong from 1884ff. Often the application, employment and mission documents of the mission staff are also available. The numerous activity and situation reports, which were regularly sent to the Heimatleitung, provide interesting insights into the often renouncing and endangered missionary work. In this department the various advertisements, newsletters, pamphlets, travel activities, construction and financial planning, conferences represent a focal point. Some unpublished manuscripts and sermons deserve special attention in addition to the printed material in the archive.in classification group 2 materials on the mission locations and stations have been handed down. Documents about the German Protestant congregation in Shanghai (1886ff.) together with its statutes, about the German Protestant congregation in Tokyo (1884ff.) together with statutes, church building, German and theological school (also in Yokohama), about the Tokyo station, the new building of a student dormitory in Tokyo are available as well as materials about Tsingtau with the Faberhospital, the school and the reports about the political unrest there (1927ff.).), the Kyoto station with the preaching stations Osaka and Suzuki, the prisoner of war chaplaincy during and after the First World War, the fire of the German Protestant Church in connection with the great earthquake of 1923, as well as the Kiautschoumission, the Fukuoka House and the Tomizaka Seminar House. Often the personnel documents of the missionaries are also available again or supplement the corresponding documents of Group 2, so that the files of Divisions 2 and 3 are to be consulted for all personnel questions.The extensive Group 4 comprises all accounting, cash and property documents of the East Asia Mission. The first account books date from the years 1889ff. Invoicing documents, e.g. of the station cash registers, can also be found in group 3. the group V mentioned by Wolfang Eger at this point (photos, clichés, glass slides) has meanwhile been divided and assigned to other stocks (180.06., 180.07.). Group VI (books, periodicals, printed publications), which was created in the first indexing phase, was formed to 180.08..
