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The beginnings of organised welfare work in Germany reached back to the first half of the nineteenth century.
A large part of it is documented in the Fliegende Blätter.

In the revolutionary year of 1848 the Hamburg theologian Johann Hinrich Wichern, who had been the head of the Rauhe Haus, a refuge for orphaned and abandoned children since 1833, managed to unite the, up till then, separate organisations for «protestant works of love» into one large movement headed by the newly founded Central-Ausschuß für Innere Mission (Central-Committee for Inner Mission). Wichern had already begun in the thirties efforts to establish, under the name «Innere Mission», a united programme for the social and missionary initiatives of the protestant bourgeoisie that were springing up in many different places. But it was the establishment of his own printing press out of which the publishers Agentur des Rauhen Hauses developed, which first gave him the necessary means to achieve his aim.

From the very beginning of their publication in 1845 the Fliegende Blätter were intended to be more than just the information journal for a single institution. It considered itself to be, as was written in the title for the first three years, «an open letter from the Rauhen Haus» that wanted to support the internal union and the co-operation of the participants in the whole German speaking protestant area through «reports about all areas of effort which are part of the inner mission … for the removal of the states of distress within Christianity». This aim of consciousness building served also for the inclusion of fundamental articles on the social questions of the age. The Fliegende Blätter very quickly achieved the character of a general journal for the inner mission and so it was only consequent that it served as the organ of the Central-Ausschuß für Innere Mission from 1849.

The aims of the journal also determined its contents. As opposed to the practice of the political press, the distress and poverty of those in need within society should be clearly described. This distress was understood by the protagonists of the Inner Mission as both material and spiritual distress so that reports about slums, the spread of disease, and economic exploitation stand with equal emphasis next to articles about moral degeneration and failing spiritual support. Thereby the deficits of the educated were explicitly included. Because the Inner Mission considered itself to be a Christian act in a Christian state within the Christian church the articles also reflect the political meaning of social work. Thus the Fliegende Blätter became the forum for the confrontation with the anti-clerical social forces, which were however not blindly fought, but also described within their social context. Another area of consideration within the first decades in the position of the Inner Mission to the established church, which often regarded the Christian engagement of non theologian with suspicion.

The quality of the journal is stamped by Wichern’s journalistic abilities: not for nothing is he considered to be the pioneer of protestant journalism. His special ability consisted as he put it «of talking with facts». As with his lectures and writings, the Fliegende Blätter are full of a multiplicity of facts, names and places, that provide a valuable source of information and together form a mosaic of protestant missionary and charitable work. It is this overpowering collection of material, that gives the journal a incredible meaning for the knowledge and understanding of the social work of the protestant church. This makes the Fliegenden Blätter to a definitive source for the social history of Germany in the 19th Century.

The factually oriented character of the journal should in no case, according to Wichern, be diluted by pious observations and he therefore already stated in his foreword from 1844: «The purpose of edification in the conventional sense is totally excluded». A supplement titled Volksblatt der inneren Mission was added to the Fliegende Blätter in 1850 in order to fulfil such religious needs of its readers. It contained additional information as well as edifying texts. This supplement is also included in this edition.

The first break in the development of the journal was in 1877 as Wichern’s closest colleague Friedrich Oldenberg, who had been involved in the editing since the 50s, took over as editor; Wichern continued being named in the top position as co-publisher until his death in 1881. In this period the inner mission entered a phase of expansion and consolidation that is also reflected in the journal. With the establishment of regional journals and the national Monatsschrift für Innere Mission (also available in this series), the Fliegende Blätter lost its unique status. The editions, that appeared in the era of Wichern/Oldenberg 1844–1890 possess a superb general index. From 1891 onwards Paul Lindner, the head of the Diakonissenhaus in Fankfurt/Oder, took over the post of chief editor.

In the meantime the area of inner mission was so wide and diversified that news about individual institutions and initiatives made less and less sense. Also the title of the journal was no longer understood by the general public so that by the turn of the century a general overhaul was necessary. As the manager of the Central-Ausschuß, Wilhelm Scheffen, took over the editorship in 1906, the journal appeared, with new numbering, under the title Die Innere Mission im evangelischen Deutschland. Articles about principles and general reports on protestant social work now dominated. Up to the First World War a confusingly large number of special regional issues appeared, that differed in their back pages from the main edition. This aimed to prevent the establishment of further independent regional journals for the inner mission. The success of this strategy is shown by the high sales figures. Before the beginning of the War the Innere Mission had over 4000 subscribers.

The period of the Weimar Republic was characterised by a rapid and fundamental change in the politics of welfare work in Germany; this is reflected in the journal. The Central-Ausschuß became a leading association for independent charitable care, which retained the Innere Mission as its journal. The publisher is no longer the Argentur des Rauen Hauses but rather Wichernverlag in Berlin, that was owned by the Central-Ausschuß. Material shortages during the great inflation and the dynamic development amongst the leading personnel led to an irregular appearance under changing editorship. The contents bear witness to a new leading role of the confessional organisations in the dual system of welfare work. The consciousness of the constructive function of the Innere Mission was retained – with a different political emphasis – even after 1933. The necessity of authoritarian care structures and the positive aspects of eugenic measures were emphasised in articles on principles. As in the middle of the thirties the National Socialist politics for the «deconfessionalisation of public life» took hold, is the control of the printed word so advanced that the Innere Mission can no longer be used to publicise its own confessional position. As with almost all church periodicals the journal was discontinued in summer 1941. It reappeared first in 1947 and was replaced by the journal Diakonie in 1975.