"Nearest Help" at the Trainstation: A practical-theological Study on the "Bahnhofsmission".

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Isolde Karle
• Subject Area: Protestant Theology
• Term: from 2019 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 423629649

For over 125 years, railway missions have been providing low-threshold help at a central hub of urban mobility on behalf of the Diakonie and Caritas social welfare organizations. Yet, until now, there has hardly been any practical-theology research done into their work. The intention of the planned research project is to close this gap. The aim is to gather ethnographic data on the wide spectrum of work done by the railway missions as "Next Aid at the Station" and to reflect from a practical theology perspective on their self-image as a "lived church".The DFG has provided funding since October 1, 2019 for the project "Next Aid at the train station: A practical-theology investigation of the railway mission" with the project number 423629649. The three-year period of funding is insufficient for the completion of the project since, on account of the Covid-19 pandemic, the data collection in the field planned for 2020 was for months not at all possible and later only to a very limited extent. For this reason, a follow-up application for a further year is being submitted.The data from five locations collected by means of participatory observation have now been evaluated. They are supplemented by 26 formalized interviews with employees and volunteers and ten video conferences amongst leaders, as well as comprehensive document collection from the field. Data from the Facebook/Instagram pages of six railway missions were also included. The theory of social practices was chosen as the research strategy, by means of which “doing railway mission” can be understood as a chain of individual practices. The elaboration on the practices of space (re)production, cooperation and the central practice of railway missionary help has already been done. "Doing railway mission" turns out to be a comprehensive "go-between" of diaconal action that mediates between different groups of people, concerns and attitudes, always moving in the in-between of closeness and distance.The findings on explicitly religious practices and adaptation practices have yet to be written down. “Doing church” in the railway mission can be understood as an epithet for general humane help and as a declaration of one's own Christian values and image of humanity. Finally, a theological classification of the ethnographic findings has to be made. The practice of the railway mission is interpreted as diaconal action in which general human help becomes transparent in terms of its "religious rationalities" (Moos). The railway mission appears as a church institution that translates its basic Christian values into understandable language, putting them into practice and lending them credibility.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Co-Investigators: Professor Dr. Traugott Jähnichen; Professor Dr. Werner Vogd