«STIMMEN DER ZEIT». - A critical review journal of intellectual, scientific, social, and religious life in Germany, aimed at providing valid testimony to Catholic truth.
Supported by a group of writers from the Society of Jesus, since 1930 (cf. vol. 119 [1930], p. 401) it has also opened its pages to outsiders, provided they share the same Catholic ideal, and is directed at the broad public of scholars, typically taking its starting point from current issues.
It began its life in 1864 Maria Laach (v.), in the Eifel, then a Jesuit school, under the title «Stimmen aus Maria Laach», a title retained even during its exile. The first two series appeared with irregular periodicity until 1869; these were booklets aimed at defending the Syllabus of Pius IX and the project of the Vatican Council. After the war of 1870, it became a monthly, but in 1872, following the ratification of the famous "Jesuitengesetz" in both the upper and lower houses of the German parliament, the editorial board was forced into exile. A law passed in 1874 further reduced its frequency (until 1914) to ten issues per year, stipulating that no German could direct a monthly while residing abroad. The editorial board first took refuge at Robani Castle near Tervueren (Brussels) from 1872 to 1879; then in Blynebeck (Netherlands) from 1880 to 1884; in Exaeten from 1885 to 1886; in Luxembourg from 1899 to 1908; and in Valkenburg (Netherlands) from 1909 to 1914.
With the outbreak of World War I, hopes rose that not only the lower house (which had already repealed the unjust law of 1872 several times) but also the upper house, where opposition to repatriation was led by the imperial House of Hohenzollern itself, would repeal the law. Indeed, in 1914 the editorial board moved to Munich. However, since Maria Laach had been sold to the Benedictines twenty years earlier, the title was changed to S. d. Z. (Stimmen der Zeit, Voices of the Times), maintaining the same program and illuminating German Catholics on all the problems and struggles of that period. Greater difficulties and harassment occurred during the Third Reich. An article by Fr. Lippert (Mit Gewalt - Mit Geduld) earned it its first ban from December 1935 to March 1936. Then, on April 18, 1941, the Gestapo raided the editorial office along with its valuable library; a month later, the journal was suspended. It resumed after the war with volume 138 (1946–47), with fewer Jesuit contributors but aided by excellent non-Jesuit writers. The library suffered no serious damage.
The collection, in addition to the two series of booklets from 1864–1869, contains 150 volumes, to which are added 119 supplementary booklets, especially on historical questions, 9 issues on cultural topics, 4 on other research, and 3 volumes of indexes: 1886, 1889, and 1913.