With energy and faith in God

On a busy trade route to the south of Halle, August Hermann Francke built the Halle orphanage in 1698. The three-storey building, which is visible from afar, has a base storey, an open staircase and a spacious two-storey mansard roof with a tympanum. It adapted the architectural language of city palace and is the nucleus of Francke's reforms. The basic structure of the future school city is inscribed here: On the ground floor were the printing works, laboratories and storerooms, on the reception floor the bookshop and pharmacy opened their doors, on the upper floors were the students' residential and classrooms.

The building, which towers two storeys above the surrounding buildings, has been fitted with a mansard roof for the first time in the region. This roof construction creates an additional storey and thus allows an optimal use of space. The restrained façade decoration had a style-forming effect for a current in the Baroque, which is characterised by a sober and grand style as an expression of Pietist Protestantism. High double-wing windows illuminated the interior and decorated the clearly structured façade. The mansard roof provided space for the orphan boys as a dormitory in the lower roof, and later the Cabinet of Artefacts and Natural Curiosities, the famous »Wunderkammer«, was established here. Already in the 18th century there were public guided tours through the chamber. The biblical verse and pictorial programme in the tympanum of the orphanage's façade formulate Francke's motivation and his self-image as an instrument of God: »Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.They will soar on wings like eagles«, Is 40:31.

In 1995 the Historic Orphanage was reopened as the cultural centre of the Francke Foundations. Since then, exhibitions have been regularly shown here, conferences organised or events held in the impressive Freylinghausen Hall as a part of the annual cultural programmes, which attract audiences far beyond the borders of the city of Halle.

The rescue of the orphanage shows how shared efforts led to the goal. The European Union, the Federal Republic of Germany, the City of Halle, the German Foundation for Monument Protection, Lotto-Toto Saxony-Anhalt and the Association of Friends of Francke Foundations contributed to the financing. The incredible construction work began to gain momentum with the inauguration of the building in autumn 1995.

Francke's Home

In 1702 August Hermann Francke moved to the former Guesthouse of the Golden Rose to lead the development of his social and educational reform work in close spatial connection to the orphanage. In the immediate vicinity of the manorial-looking orphanage, August Hermann Francke's residence looks comparatively modest. This can also be seen as Francke's programme announcement, which has always put his private life in the background compared to his great reform work. Nevertheless, it is an outstanding place because he is so closely connected with the founder's personality.

The residential house of August Hermann Francke is part of the historic development of the southern Franckeplatz, the oldest preserved building substance of the Glaucha district. In the 18th century, the trade route to southern Germany shaped the suburb of Halle of the same name. A situation which in the late 17th century prompted August Hermann Francke to establish his educational and social work in Glaucha, which radiated worldwide. The Francke residential house is the first building of this architectural ensemble, which was made available to the public in 2008 following its renovation. Today, it houses the information centre, the central reception area for visitors and an exhibition on the life and work of Francke. On the top floor, the foundation's pastor invites visitors to the biblical attic.

Starting from the orphanage, the impressive half-timbered and stone buildings of Francke's Baroque school town grew up in an easterly direction between 1701 and 1748 on a longitudinal rectangular ground plan. Between the orphanage in the west and the Royal College of Education in the east, the buildings, which are now completely preserved, set standards in the history of educational architecture, including the Long House as the largest half-timbered residential building in Europe, the oldest preserved secular library building in Germany and the first Bible institute in the world. Representation and functionality were so skilfully combined that school rooms could be converted into living quarters and laboratories into business or archive rooms without major conversion work. The representative claim is particularly evident in the Long House, which was built in three short construction phases. Thanks to the uniformly constructed grid façade, the individual parts of the building merge into an imposing structure that was built along the city wall and attracted great attention from residents, university members and guests.

In 1990, families with their children lived in the buildings despite the disastrous condition of the buildings.

»In 1982, my son started school in the foundations at House 21. There the children sat in their class on the first floor in rainy weather with buckets! And: "I discovered the love of my life here, in house 8.« Christel Riemann-Hanewinckel

For the adolescents, the neglected foundation site was an exciting playground.

»The floors of the run-down half-timbered longhouses were pure adventure. A ride on the back of the crocodile of the natural history collection made us run away in fear after a crack.« Hans-Dieter Wöllenweber

The Long House

The Long House is the most unusual building in terms of its half-timbered architecture. It was built in three construction phases, which cannot be seen in the overall corpus. This gives the impression of standing in front of a large building, which is approx. 115m long and whose gable is almost 26m high. This convincing illusion is created by the evenly distributed stands, the continuous bands of windows and the uniformly unadorned beam heads.

In the school cosmos of Franckes, students of theology found accommodation here in the building parts 8-9 (built 1714-1715) in the sub-collegium. Many of them accompanied their studies with a teaching position as informators at Francke's schools. In return they received free board and lodging. In the building parts 10-11, teaching and living rooms for the middle-class pupils of the Latin secondary school were built in 1713-1714. Children from Halle and foreign pupils lived here under the supervision of their student informers.  In the building parts 12-13, built in 1715-1716, the upper college for students in teacher training was accommodated. August Hermann Francke founded the first teacher training seminar in Germany here.

Then as now, entire educational and working biographies were linked to the foundations.

»My life has been connected with the Francke Foundations in many ways since 1961 until today - as a student teacher I lived in the attic of the Pedagogical Institute in 1962 and as an assistant in House 22 in 1966/67, I received my pedagogical-psychological training in Houses 1, 5, 22 and 23, I played football in today's Freylinghausen Hall, my work rooms were in House 22 and in House 3, and I spent endless hours in the library of the Institute of Pedagogy in House 1. The main library with Fräulein Mühl as an indispensable help in searching the handwritten catalogue and the archive were important working places. Thus an intimate relationship with the Francke Foundations has developed, which has become even closer since the reconstruction after the end of the GDR.« Berthold Ebert

Who would expect to find a large field barn in the middle of a large city, and from the early 18th century at that? This double cross barn from 1724 is of half-timbered construction and part of the former agricultural farm of the Francke Foundations. It is one of the best-preserved buildings in the historic school town. The two passageways with their four large gates, two each on the east and west side, are characteristic. There, the farm wagons loaded with hay, straw or grain could drive in at the front, were unloaded and drove out again at the back, two at a time. This was highly efficient and quite typical of the practically gifted Pietists of Halle.
Even though we have adapted the building for cultural and educational purposes, the barn character has been preserved inside. The ever-popular Spielehaus has moved back into the ground floor, a meeting place for young people, but also for families, who can try out international games together here.

Known as the »Druckereigebäude« (Printing House), the magazine building of the world's first Bible institute in the Francke Foundations, the Cansteinsche Bibelanstalt (founded in 1710), reflects in its today's use the core of the tasks of the Francke Foundations. Modern rolling shelving systems as additional magazines for the cultural memory of the foundations, the cultural-historical archive and library holdings, are found here together with the LeoLab, a new space for cultural education and outreach, under one roof.