Die Franckeschen Stiftungen im 20. Jahrhundert bis 1946

During the Weimar Republic, the foundations managed to be preserved despite financial problems caused by the economic crisis. The institution was reduced to four schools, the orphanage, the boarding school and the commercial enterprises. In terms of education, the foundation sought to join the reform pedagogy of the time and to adapt to modern conditions without giving up its prominent position as a venerable and traditional educational institution.

After the National Socialists came to power, the external structure of the institutions remained in place. Since the director and many teachers joined the organisations of the NSDAP and the students were asked to join the party’s youth organisations, the foundations were able to continue their work by and large unmolested. Economic problems led to the Canstein Bible Institute being ceded to the Lutheran Main Bible Society of Berlin (Evangelische Berlinische Hauptbibelgesellschaft) and to the surrender of the foundation’s printing shop and the orphanage’s bookshop.

After the end of the Second World War, which in its final weeks brought heavy bomb damage to the historic buildings, 1,500 children went to school in the foundations and 400 orphans lived here. In 1946, the provincial government of Saxony-Anhalt, established by the Soviet military administration, abolished the legal status of the Francke Foundations and incorporated them into Martin Luther University as an educational institution.

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