International relations

The Francke Foundations are a lively centre of scholarly research, a place of education and culture. Today, the Foundations are again taking up contact with diverse institutions all over the world, orientated towards the worldwide connections of the Franck Foundations in the 18th century. The extensive correspondence between August Hermann Francke and theologians, diplomats, rulers and fellow believers all over the world emphasise his interest which went far beyond borders. He thought in terms of the universe, sending his pupils as messengers into the world to spread his reform work. The network of correspondents who considered Halle to be the spiritual central point of their lives stretched from Copenhagen to Jerusalem, from Boston, USA to Archangelsk, from London to Madras.
Today, the modern Francke Foundations seek to maintain, revive and tend these connections. Comprehensive source collections pertaining to these early European and intercontinental cultural links can be found today in the Library and Archive as well as the Cabinet of Artefacts and Curiosities. Research on them offers manifold starting points for international projects, studies and cooperation. The cultural programme of the Foundations repeatedly takes up this international dimension of their own history in exhibitions, events and lectures.