"Organization and financing", "Church labor law", "Diaconal education" and "Diaconal attitude" - these are the four analysis categories where Maike Mittelsteiner asks about diaconal identities in the history of the Oldenburg State Association for Inner Mission. The focus of the investigation is on the nearly three decades of the Weimar Republic and the Nazi dictatorship. However, the beginnings of the Inner Mission in Oldenburg Land since 1882 are also taken into account. The focus of the detailed investigations is both the state association as a whole and the individual institutions in its sponsorship - including a welfare home. The title "Porcelain of the Church", a quote from 1934, testifies to a self-interpretation of the Inner Mission as both fragile and precious at the same time.